No Labels Loonies

No Way, No How, Not Now, Not Anytime

Just like there are four seasons, every four years individuals, groups, PACs and often politicos of various stripes declare the need for a third party. Usually the gambits are garbed in the ever-attractive robes of "common sense," "moderate middle," "solutions seeking" or some other seemingly benign yet ever patriotic pandering to Americans allegedly fed up, turned off, disgusted by and downright done with the two major parties of American politics.

This year, some nebulous nuclei of current and former political activists, camped under the bizarre moniker of No Labels, is currently leading the way in a kamikaze campaign to get on all 50 state ballots and, thus, allegedly be competitive in the Big Leagues with permanent players, the Democrats and Republicans.

As of this writing the two front men for No Labels appear to be publicity hound and U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-WV, and former governor and ambassador to China John Huntsman, R-UT. At a presser in New Hampshire last month, they both denied, at this time, any interest in being a candidate for president or vice-president but left the door open enough for an 18-wheeler to roll through untouched.

Both offered up the heartfelt plea of Rodney King when he urged "Can't we all just get along here," but their cries for civility have even less a chance today in our hyper-ventilated divisions than King's did decades ago.

Hell, Manchin and Huntsman couldn't even agree on a single action that might make living in America safer and more secure where guns outnumber people. To their credit, the organization has published a 60-page document full of highfalutin-sounding solutions to such intractable problems as the pending bankruptcies of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. However, based on the current make-up of Congress, there is not the political backbone to pass any of their tough-to-swallow, bitter medicine.

For example, how about raising the age for eligibility before one can receive Social Security? Been there, not done that, which is why it is called the third rail of politics. Or how about not sending a government retirement check to millionaires and billionaires? Nope, too tough for our politicians because those folks also fund their campaigns – 400 of the richest families in America gave more money, mostly dark, to our lawmakers in DC than did all the rest of us.

And speaking of money, this do-gooder crowd can't resist the lure of large lumps of legal largesse from the same money men who keep the Congress bought and paid for – to which Manchin explained, basically, that everybody does it, only we don't do it as much, but would be glad to take more if offered.

A shift in fewer than 100,000 votes in five states would have tipped the 2020 presidential race in favor of Trump who would therefore now be completing his second, dreadful term in office rather than plotting his return to the location of his first ... The White House. That scenario would be like the Five Civilized Tribes putting their resources together to re-elect former President Andy Jackson to anything since he was the mastermind behind the taking of their ancestral lands in southeastern United States and moving them on foot for months during the re-settlement to current day eastern Oklahoma.

In summary I recognize there's a lot of angst in both major parties about the possibility of a Trump/Biden rematch in November 2024. I also believe that Biden would win that heads up match again, even more easily than his victory in 2020.

However, I also believe that a third party that pulls votes from the incumbent president cannot, in itself, garner enough to win, but surely could be enticing enough to give the MAGA monster a second term where his first order of business would be to have his vice-president, whoever that might be, pardon him for any previous felony convictions and there will likely be several.

It's because of that doomsday possibility that I urge all thinking voters to not play with political fire, even though others appear willing to do so. Manchin can't win re-election in his home state of West Virginia and he knows it. Huntsman is a pleasant, but bland wealthy Republican former officeholder who earned his money the old-fashioned way ... he inherited it. Other pols of both parties, former governors or senators such as Lieberman, McCrory or Hogan, pretty much can see their careers in the rearview mirror and are hardly the kind of characters that would generate much grass roots people support or real money, which would be sopped up by, again, the Democrat and Republican parties.

The big givers on both sides of the ideological chasm that is so pronounced and deep in America today don't throw their millions around on marginal and longshot candidates. Yes, some will play the game right now of funding the No Labels Line, for whatever reasons, but when it comes to writing the big multi-million-dollar check for the likes of those mentioned above, the money class of this nation has better things to do with their loose change, primarily keeping their minions in Congress well fed, compliant to their needs and, of course, re-elected.

After all, why search in the bush for one more politician beholden to you when you already have 535 in hand?