Back in 2016, the only reservation I had about voting for the pragmatic Gary Johnson in the Presidential Election was his running mate Bill Weld. Weld smelled a bit too much like an establishment Politician, but it was a moot point. I wasn't voting for "Crooked" Hilary and I wasn't voting for "Cake Eater" Donald either.
Let me tell you a little bit about Bill Weld. Weld became the Governor of Massachusetts in the year 1991. A Republican getting elected in a heavily Democrat Stronghold was quite an accomplishment, but his politics were not that of the average Republican. Fiscally conservative yet socially liberal. Then, after leaving office, he went into the Private Sector. He actually worked for a living, so despite a long career in and out of politics, his Libertarian credentials were under scrutiny, but again, the Libertarian Ticket clearly made in-roads in 2016.
Now instead of running third-party again, Weld has returned to the Republican Fold to challenge Donald Trump from the inside. Which was part of the whispers I had heard in 2016: Was Weld really a Libertarian or was he simply a RINO?
Despite being in an 80 point hole in Iowa this past Spring, Weld has soldiered on, hoping against hope that maybe his moderate leanings would gain a foothold, or maybe Donald Trump would die, and he'd be the only one in the race. Whatever reasoning drove Weld, it is irrelevant today.
Why? Because after talk radio host Joe Walsh jumped into the Republican Primary race, Mark Sanford followed and John Kasich hinted that he might want to turn the race into a scrum. Instead of letting the primary season play out, the weasels in the Republican Party leadership starting cancelling primaries and declaring Donald Trump the winner in said states.
Donald Trump is the same man that bemoaned Hillary Clinton stacking the deck with Superdelegates, effectively shutting Bernie Sanders out of any chance of winning the primaries. What people easily forget is that Bernie was an independent that tried to steal the Democratic nomination. Not a blood-bleeds-blue Democrat like Hillary, after the primaries, Sanders returned to his independent status.
Which had to be Weld's angle, he basically tried the Sanders Approach. Weld saw no path to victory running as a Libertarian, and only a slim path to victory running as a Republican. But, technically, a slim chance is better than no chance, right?
What is going on during the Republican Primaries is simple voter suppression. When real voter suppression happens, people yawn, because it is Big Party Politics squeezing out the little guy. "Oh, that little guy wasn't going to win anyhow" empty suits would argue.
When Democrats and Republicans accuse each other of voter suppression, it is with a wink and a nudge. It is simply political theatre. Making people present an ID to vote isn't voter suppression, you have to present an ID to register your vehicle in America. No, voter suppression is usually an issue to trick the poorly informed public into thinking how the government SHOULD work, instead of how the government ACTUALLY works.
Which is not exactly what is happening today on the Republican side. All Weld can do is hurt Trump and the party has no loyalty to a man who jumped to a third party 3 short years ago. By circling the wagons now and cancelling Primary Votes, the Republican side has guaranteed a smooth ride to nomination for Donald Trump. A smart play for the Republicans, a bad play for Democracy. Again, a political party doing what's best for themselves, not what's best for the country.
What's ironic is that in order for Donald Trump to win, he needs to split the Democratic Party and cause historical discord to be re-elected. What do I mean? Donald Trump is polling at around 40% on the positive side and about 55% on the negative side, which means he's not winning any one-on-one battles with anyone.
There's still a year to go but Donald Trump wants to run against, say, Joe Biden AND Bernie Sanders. Bernie Sanders is 78 years old and this is his last real chance to become this country's first Socialist President. So if Biden takes the nomination, I believe Sanders will be desperate. If Biden wins the Democrat Nomination and then Trump can goad Sanders into running third party, Trump will split his opposition's votes and cruise to re-election.
What Democrat Party Leadership should do, today, is lock all candidates in a room and give this speech: "Donald Trump is the worst President in a 100 years and we cannot allow him to be re-elected. Bickering and in-fighting will only make our position weaker. We are going to shut down all the primaries and all opponents to Joe Biden are going to withdraw. Biden's ahead in every state (Sept. 9, 2019), we are just going to go all in with a Biden Ticket."
But that ain't going to happen. Why? Because Sanders would sue. Warren would sue. Probably Mayor Pete would sue. And probably about a half dozen others who aren't going to win anyhow would sue. If Democrats really believed the worst thing for this country is Donald Trump, they would attempt to circumvent the Democratic Process and chip away at their opponent across the aisle instead of each other.
You're yelling at the computer that isn't fair? You really want the chance to vote for Elizabeth Warren? Now you see the screw job that Bill Weld is getting. Even Donald Trump wants the process to play out, just not on his side.
So in 2016 Republicans screamed you were wasting your vote if you voted for Weld.
And in 2019 Republicans are preventing you (and, more specifically, ME) for voting for Weld despite only polling in the single digits.
You see the problem here?