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Party Like It’s 1824
There were four candidates for president in 1824: Secretary of Treasury William H. Crawford, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, Tennessee Senator Andrew Jackson, and House Speaker Henry Clay (L-R, above). Since none of them received a majority of votes in the Electoral College, the decision fell to the House of Representatives. According to the 12th Amendment, the House elects the president “… by states, the representation from each state having one vote.” Even though Jackson had won twelve states in the College as well as a plurality of the popular vote, thirteen states in the House — the slimmest possible majority at the time — selected Adams, who subsequently became our sixth president.
Flash forward to the present day and the near future. Say one of the Republican dropouts (or perhaps more than one) runs as a third-party candidate. Senator Bernie Sanders can run, too, to cannibalize the Hillary vote. None receives a majority when the Electoral College meets in December, so the House elects the president. According to the blessed 12th, the House must choose from among the top three Electoral College vote-getters, one of which could be a third-party ex-Republican.
Republican-controlled state delegations are a clear majority in the House now, and this would likely remain true even if the Republicans lost the House majority and the House vote didn’t occur until after the 115th Congress is sworn-in on January 3rd. Most Republican House members prefer someone other than Trump — and won’t even consider Hillary Clinton — so they would elect the other guy.
And, as if by magic, the Trump/Hillary choice is longer inevitable and we can all move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. Otherwise, we will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age.
Either that or the SMOD.
Published in Politics
If you create a problem, the accountable thing to do is fix it even if it is to your destruction. If the Republican Party is to end, let it be a fitting one that continues the American experiment rather than resigns itself to the lesser of two authoritarians.
Then the question becomes the validity of Trump’s crossover appeal because then he’s stealing from both. And you want him to steal uncontested where it matters in the battleground states. You then steal from him in red states where he is weak.
Rick Perry open to be VP pick.
I think that this scenario depends entirely on Sanders also making a third- or fourth-party run, which I don’t think he would do.
I don’t think that Sanders is in it just to move Clinton and the Dems generally to the left. I think that he still sees a possibility of victory, and I think that he is right. An indictment could destroy the Clinton campaign. I consider this very unlikely, but possible.
I’m just gonna post this here. Note the date.
Good work. Guess I shoulda been following you on Facebook :)
Except that I don’t do Facebook.
To all of you who participated in this thread, my thanks for the spirited discussion. For those among you who feel the scenario I proposed is too weird/unlikely/bizarre, I share with you some lyrics from Cole Porter’s Anything Goes:
The other lyrics are applicable too, including the parts about the Pilgrims and the gigolos. Sing it, Ella!
What no one’s seemed to mention is the fact that a president with only say, 25-35% of the vote, picked by congressman of one party, wouldn’t be seen as having any mandate to deal with our problems.
This could happen.
The new “Conservative Constitution Party” is created, with the ticket of Ben Sasse and George Will.
At the debates, Trump and Hillary savage each other and ignore Ben Sasse. The public is disgusted by both Trump and Hillary, but think that former University President Sasse is a thoughtful and energetic young man.
The ticket of Sasse-Will wins 23% of the national vote after they qualify for the ballot in 45 states, while Hillary edges Trump 39-38%. Tactically, Sasse and Will focus on and win the swing states of Florida, Ohio, Virginia and Colorado, as well as Ben Sass’s home Nebraska, winning 38-45% in those states for 75 electoral votes. Hillary wins 242 electoral votes in the 18 states that have voted Democatic six times in a row. Trump wins the remaining 221 states, sending this election to the House of Representatives.
The Democrats loathe Trump and the Republicans despise Hillary. But Sasse is acceptable to both. The House elects Sasse. But the Senate had been won by the Democrats, so Tim Kaine becomes the new Vice President.
After the election, Trump is found accountable for fraud associated with Trump University, and is ordered to pay $850 million. Trump declares bankruptcy for the fifth time, and is disgraced.
Finally, President Sasse nominates Ted Cruz to replace Justice Antonin Scalia. The Senate confirms Cruz to get him out of the Senate.
America takes a deep breath and feels saved from the Trump-Clinton nightmare.
I liked the Indiana Jones version better:
He would owe his seat to the Congress. Paul Ryan would be the most powerful man in America. It could be worse.
I’ve been thinking about this, not with the specific people identified, but a new party with emphasis on the Constitution. I would call it the Fourth Party (trademark Mark Wilson 2016). It’s not some kooky, irrelevant “third party” with a narrow platform and no national interest. It’s the Fourth Party, firmly committed to the universal principles written down by Thomas Jefferson and agreed upon by the Continental Congress on the Fourth of July, 1776.