by Quinn Thurman

July 30, 2024

The world has experienced significant upheaval over the past year, marked by the ongoing war in Ukraine, renewed conflict in the Middle East, growing tensions regarding the future of the European Union, and China’s aggressiveness towards Taiwan. But this summer, all eyes have been on the United States, particularly on the presidential election coming up in November. Ever since his announcement to run for re-election, former president Donald Trump has constantly been the topic of breaking news. There was the FBI raid at Mar-a-Lago, various lawsuits, and accusations, and, of course, the 34 felony convictions. To Democrats, his biggest sin was dominating the debate with Joe Biden. As if that was not enough, on July 13th the former president was shot and almost killed in an assassination attempt just a week before accepting the nomination as the Republican candidate for president.

While the media seemed like they could not stop talking about Trump, they also seemed more than okay to avoid talking about Biden. For years people have claimed that he was not fit to lead the country, citing public signs of mental health problems like the numerous Biden gaff videos. These real clips (not “cheap fakes” as Karine Jean-Pierre claimed) showed examples of Biden seeming to forget his own name and slurring his words beyond understanding. Most mouthpieces in the Democrat Party and the media brushed these claims off as politically motivated. But after Biden’s debate with Trump on June 27th even the Democrats had to admit that he needed to be replaced. And that is exactly what they did.

On July 21st President Biden announced that he is no longer seeking re-election and endorsed Kamala Harris as the Democratic candidate in November. This shows that everyone was right. You do not just suddenly become old overnight. They knew Joe Biden had problems and tried to hide them. But after the debate, and the overwhelming unity within the Republican party following Trump’s rebound, they had to face the truth.

Now the Democratic nominee is Kamala, or at least that is what is probably going to happen. It is not official until the delegates commit to her, either at the Democratic National Convention or some pre-arranged conference before the others get to speak at the Chicago event. Most of the influential figures in the Democrat party have come out in support for Harris, but what do the voters think? It seems like most Democrat voters are going along with it, and supporting Kamala Harris, saying that she supports the same policies as Biden.

Let us imagine, for a second, a world where something major or tragic happened in the Republican party. If the shooter had not missed a millimeter to the left, who would have replaced him as the Republican nominee? At the time he had no running mate, so we can look at the Republican primaries from last year. The 2023 Republican primary elections were famous for being a campaign, not about who got the most votes, but rather who got the second most votes. This was because Trump won over 50 percent or more of the vote in basically every state without even engaging in any of the debates. If we look at the numbers for second place, it was a toss-up between Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. Nikki got 15-20 percent of the votes, but her numbers are deceiving due to her staying in longer than anyone else. Ron was beating Nikki by a slim margin before he dropped out, about 20 percent to Haley’s 18 percent.

In a world where Trump could not who would have been the nominee? I think most Republicans would have preferred Desantis, especially over candidates like Mike Pence. Why do I mention the former Governor of Indiana? Because he had just about as many votes as Kamala got back in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries.

Unlike the Republican party, no one of any real significance stepped up to challenge Biden for his second term. But we can look back at the 2020 election that got him into office. The clear frontrunner was Joe Biden with over 50 percent of the votes. In second by a wide margin, was Vermont senator Bernie Sanders with about 25 percent of the votes. The other major candidates like Elizabeth Warren, Michael Bloomberg, and Pete Buttigieg, all had less than 10 percent of the votes. Why isn’t Bernie Sanders being considered to replace Biden and go against Trump in November? Isn’t that who the people voted for second to the eventual nominee?

While acknowledging that the political landscape has shifted considerably since 2020, it is worth noting that Harris’s selection as the nominee does not reflect a grassroots endorsement from the party’s base. Biden, who garnered substantial support in 2020, is now being succeeded by a candidate who received less than 0.1 percent of the vote in the same primary cycle. Why aren’t Democrat voters furious about this? They have been given a very unpopular, unimportant, and unloved person from their party as the candidate for President of the United States of America.

Our potential for empathy is a valuable asset for humans. It helps us connect with others to see things from their side. Talk to any Democrat friend. Ask them what their thoughts are on all this. Most responses will probably be along the lines of “anyone but Trump.” What should be discussed, however, is how can the Democrats be so un-Democratic? They accuse Trump as being a threat to Democracy as they install a candidate that got ZERO VOTES from their electorate! With how eventful these past few months have been, it is possible that Kamala may not the one running in November, but having these conversations is still important to ensuring representation of the people.