The case for a national unity ticket

The Democratic candidate should choose a Republican running mate

Note: this essay presumes Joe Biden will not be the Democratic presidential candidate and Michelle Obama is not available to replace him. Either could prove wrong.

I’m going to start with four postulations. You may disagree with some or all, but best to lay one’s cards on the table. Then I will elaborate each.

1). Donald Trump must not return to the White House. Whatever you think of his political positions, his lack of character makes him the wrong person to lead the nation.

2). Joe Biden must step aside from the election. Whatever you think of his political positions, his aging makes him the wrong person to lead the nation.

3). If Biden steps away from the election, Kamala Harris is likely to be the Democratic candidate. She has faults but is qualified for the office, and holds the inside track in several ways.

4). Harris should pick a Republican as her running mate.

It’s been 160 years since there was a national unity ticket – 1864, Republican Abe Lincoln running with Democrat Andrew Johnson. This ticket was a success and essential to holding a torn nation together.

Right now our union is frayed. A unity ticket might be the solution.

The elaborations:

1). Trump must not be reelected. The Democratic Party and the mainstream media exaggerate about Trump. He will “inevitably” create a “dictatorship,”  the Washington Post announced. Trump will end women’s rights, build concentration camps, crown himself king!

Pundits, Ivy League types and others who say such things do not have much faith in the United States Constitution. On January 6, 2021, Trump and the United States Constitution went to war. It took six hours for the Constitution to win unconditional victory.

The main reason Trump must not return to the Oval Office is that he lacks integrity and self-control. A president must have integrity, and Trump does not. A person with great power must have self-control, and Trump does not.

The secondary reason is that Trump betrayed his oath to uphold the Constitution.

No one who does not revere the Constitution – who does not believe the Constitution is 10,000 times more important than any person – should hold the highest office of the land.

You can accept the bill of attainder against Trump and simultaneously think Trump is right about some things.

His 2018 First Step Act, which reduced federal incarceration while releasing several thousand prisoners whose sentences were too harsh, would have been widely praised if the action of a Democrat. Instead the MSM pretended it did not happen.

Trump supported the businesses that made the United States the world’s top producer of oil and gas, which will improve standards of living for decades. (Fossil fuel use with declining greenhouse gases is practical and already happening, as a coming All Predictions Wrong will show.) Years before the invasion of Ukraine, Trump was saying NATO needed to get stronger to deter Russia. Trump advocated federal regulation of auto and homeowners’ insurance, rather than the states-run system designed to prevent comparison shopping.

And Trump was right about the southern border.

As recently as the Obama presidency, the Democratic Party wanted a secure border. (Remember Barbara Jordan?) All nations need secure borders. (Generous rules for lawful immigration are another matter.) If I walked across the border into France and declared, “I live here now and your laws do not apply to me,” the Gendarmerie would not be amused.

Why the Democratic Party threw open the border to people who violate our law perhaps only a psychiatrist could say. Trump is right that this must change.

But Trump does not belong in the White House. He is not a man of integrity.

And while the focus is on Biden’s decline, Trump is age 78 and starting to fade as well.

During the 2016 campaign Trump may have been insufferable but was logical and coherent. Now he goes off about secret agents stealing water from washing machines: “They don't want to give you any water for the washing machine. Even though you have so much water, you don't know what the hell to do with it up here. It flows out into the ocean."

Uncle Donnie, you’re rambling again. Go watch Wheel of Fortune.

Relentless Democratic lying about Mitt Romney in 2012 set the stage for Trump to normalize relentless political lying in 2016.

Harry Reid, the Senate Majority leader in 2012, claimed Romney paid no income taxes: boasted that he simply lied about this and the MSM did nothing. If you have a lot of time on your hands, count the New York Times 2012 ad hominem attacks on Romney.

Now there is relentless political lying on both sides and yes I used the forbidden words both sides. Perhaps a national unity ticket can break this cycle.

By depicting Trump as a boogeyman, the Democratic Party and MSM have diverted attention from the poor performance of left-backed immigration policy, DEI mandates and borrow-and-spend.

This means a bonus of defeating Trump in November is that the left won’t have him to kick around anymore, and can be held accountable for its failings. 

2) Biden must step down from the election. He could do so and still serve out the remainder of his term. (This was LBJ’s choice in 1968.)

Aging impacts different people different ways: some are sharp and productive into the 90s. The most memorable interview of my life was with the philosopher Charles Hartshorne, who spoke brilliantly, extemporaneously, when he was 101 years old.

But in the last six months, Biden’s decline has been precipitous. Once an aging person starts downward, rarely does the direction reverse. It is impossible to believe Biden will be able to fulfill the duties of his office another four years.

Footnote: we don’t hear much about this from the Senate, which is full of aging members who cling to power, their own vanity more important to them than the public good.

“Five of the Senate’s primary committee chairs are at least 75 years of age. That’s 29 percent of committee chairs – compared to 6 percent of Americans being at least 75 years of age. The Senate is really old in a way that should discomfit.”

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

If the president insists on staying in the race, he will likely reelect Trump. This would be an irresponsible act for which history would denounce Biden and his courtiers and enablers.

That Biden insists he is the only Democrat who can defeat Trump shows an unfathomable level of vainglory – or that Biden is so detached from reality, he has no business in public office.

Kamala Harris. Photo courtesy White House.

3). Harris is likely to be the Democratic candidate.

Here is my dream ticket: Gina Raimondo for president, Josh Shapiro for vice president.

Your writer has been touting Raimondo for president for years. She was a governor, and governors do well in the White House. She is a liberal who slew a public-debt monster – pretty much the only liberal who has done this. She was a successful business founder who knows what it means to meet a payroll. Shapiro, also a governor, is super-competent, and we could use a little of that.

But where is the path for this ticket to be nominated next month in Chicago? There isn’t a path. Maybe in 2028.

Harris has negatives, including well-established discord with her staff. But everyone in public life has negatives. (Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota is terrific, and has a bad reputation with staffers.)

Harris also has positives. Her resume is strong – two-term attorney general of California, member of the Senate, a term as vice president.

It will be critical that she win the nomination under her own steam, not be handed the role, and that she campaign not on racial and gender grievances but as the best person for the job.

In the 19^th century, sitting veeps did well when running for the big job. In the postwar era only the elder George Bush won the presidency as the incumbent vice president (1988) while Richard Nixon (1960), Hubert Humphrey (1968) and Al Gore (2000) lost under these circumstances. But Harris at the top of the ticket stands as good a chance as any Biden replacement. 

Here's the thing. Because of the internal mechanics of the Democratic Party, there would be a nuclear meltdown if Harris wasn’t at the least afforded a floor vote at the convention to see if she could win the top position.

It would backfire if party bosses simply handed Harris the nomination. Bosses handing the nomination to Humphrey backfired in 1968. If Harris is the new candidate, she must win that distinction on her own.

Harris has a substantial money edge. Probably the $264 million donated in the second quarter of 2024 to “Biden Harris” would devolve to her. Money isn’t everything (Hillary Clinton lost to Trump in 2016 despite a two-to-one cash margin) but sure helps. Harris is starting in the pole position.

4). Harris should pick a Republican as her running mate.