The Real Crisis in Our Democracy

Before last week’s presidential debate, many Americans clung to hope that our choices for president weren’t as bad as they appeared. No longer.

In democracy, voting options matter

Now, most Americans are asking the same question: How did we, in a country of 330 million people, end up with Donald Trump and Joe Biden as our two choices? How is that possible when most voters did not want either?

Here is the answer: In a democracy, your vote is only as good as your options – and our options are not of our making. A small group of partisan elites controls them. This may sound conspiratorial, but it’s the truth.

Why else would Democrats nominate Joe Biden when a stunning seven in 10 voters don’t believe he’s fit to continue serving as president?

It’s because those voters had no other option. The party elite and powerful interest groups pressured and coerced potential primary challengers out of running and stacked the process against those who did.

When Rep. Dean Phillips became the only elected Democrat to challenge Biden last year, his party smeared him viciously and relentlessly. They accused him of betrayal. They wouldn’t speak to him on Capitol Hill. He was deemed “disrespectful of the president and the party.” Worse, they blocked him from the ballot in critical states.

Similar tactics were unleashed against Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in the Democratic primary. The DNC refused to host debates, challenged his ballot access, and set the primary calendar so that states friendly to Biden voted first, giving him no chance at momentum.

Criticizes Republicans also

We know where this led: Phillips gave up in March. Kennedy left the Democratic primary to run as an independent, ironically giving Democrats a far bigger headache than he would have been in the primary. Of course, it’s possible President Biden would have won the nomination anyway even if the DNC had run a fully open process, but we’ll never know.

The Republican National Committee also took steps to aid Trump, including rewriting the rules to ensure that those who finished behind him in state primaries had a harder time gaining delegates.

Outside the party primaries, Democratic and “anti-Trump” Republican operatives came together to block No Labels – where I serve as chief strategist – from offering voters a third choice in the form of a Unity Ticket. The opposition effort was led by the Democratic dark money group Third Way (in ironic contradiction to its own name) and included others such as the Lincoln Project.

They smeared No Labels and our leaders, with one group hijacking our website to falsely portray us as white nationalist Trump supporters. They filed endless lawsuits to tie us up in court and block our ability to access the ballot. They publicly bullied and intimidated prospective candidates, and their behavior was so egregious that we asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate it.

Limiting alternatives

This was all done to ensure that Joe Biden was the only alternative to Trump, all while they claimed to be defenders of democracy. (These were also among the same Democrats who gaslit Americans into thinking that any concern over Biden’s age was right-wing disinformation.) They were sure that they knew what was best for voters.

Now, we’re left to reap what they sowed. Not only did these operatives conspire to limit the choices of American voters in 2024; they helped make the one thing they claim to be fighting against – a second Trump term – more likely. According to public betting markets – which were more accurate than many polls in the 2020 election – President Biden now has just a 20% chance of winning the 2024 election.

Two recommendations in the name of democracy

It may be too late to change the course of the 2024 race, but Americans need to unite to ensure this sordid anti-democratic behavior isn’t repeated.

I’ll offer two ideas of how to do so.

First, no one should have any right, legally or ethically, to interfere with a candidate’s ability to gain ballot access. Ballot suppression should be treated with the same outrage and disgust as voter suppression.

Second, every state should allow independents or unaffiliated voters to vote in Democratic and Republican primaries. This would create a moderating force against the extremes, yielding stronger major party candidates.

Those changes would be an excellent start toward giving a voice to America’s commonsense majority and rebuilding the trust in American democracy that partisan and party elites have done so much to undermine.

Until then, we’re left to contend with the mess they left for us.

The views herein are those of the auithor and the organization he represents and do not represent those of CNAV. This op-ed gives a key leader in a political organization an opportunity to explain himself, as is his right.

This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.