What if we held a campaign and no one came?  The 2024 Presidential contest seems to be shaping up to be one that turns this from a hypothetical question into one that seeks to make a mockery of democratically elected government. 

The incumbent, President Joe Biden, has barely phoned in a few scripted campaign appearances.  He’s refused debates, and the Democratic Party apparatus has basically refused to acknowledge the primary process to select their nominee. 

His “press conferences” are few and far between, and most major media outlets appear fine with it.  They have also been happy to comply with feeding the White House their questions in advance so that President Biden can reply with scripted answers.  

The Fourth Estate has been devoid of skepticism from a President with a long history of plagiarism.  They have, instead, been fierce defenders of the narrative bubble which they wish us to believe the Biden family lives and operates within. 

They have reserved their skepticism for the Republican front runner and former President, Donald Trump. Much like 2016, the vast majority of earned media – free airtime dedicated to a candidate to get exposure outside of paid advertising – has gone to President Trump, creating an aura of inevitability to his nomination process.

He, too, has been unwilling to debate his fellow primary challengers.  He’s reserved his debates for judges who preside over trials that could make him a felon as well as strip him and his family of many of their business enterprises.

He prefers his “rallies”, where dwindling numbers of hardcore faithful have been willing to show up to hear rambling monologues about what he would do in a second term that he somehow forgot to do when he had control of the Executive Branch, while his own party maintained majorities in both the House and the Senate. 

Those trials, clearly political in design, motivation, and intensity, have served as a galvanizing point for the Republican base voter.  Add in the fact that some states have decided to remove President Trump from the ballot over additional charges that have not been filed, much less adjudicated by the courts, and you now have a contest of rabid partisans so entrenched in defending “their side” that each group is willing to ignore the fitness, age, mental acuity, and dubious records of the candidate they are demanding be placed in charge of defending our country and its constitution for four more years.

The Republicans, at least, have feigned a primary selection process.  Polls indicated the party was willing to look beyond former President Trump until Manhattan District Attorney decided to indict him on what is likely the most legally dubious charges he faces.  Trump has chosen to largely try the case in the media, as his attorney couldn’t be bothered to check a box asking for a jury trial on her filings. 

In the GOP primary, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie – who managed President Trump’s transition team – made the most direct and specific case against the former President.  He was willing to take the heat and possibly give the other candidates the lane they needed to make the case they were the credible alternative. 

Countering, Vivek Ramaswamy decided to use the debates for Trump imitations, full of Trump’s asinine braggadocio but lacking his (at least former) gravitas.  He ensured that the coverage would be about Trump and an intra-party fight, and not on post-pandemic policies that would appeal to independent voters. 

Governor Ron DeSantis – once the front runner and clear alternative to a post-Trump GOP – took nine figures of cash resources and the record of actual successful governance during both a Trump and Biden Presidency and lit them on fire in a grand act of self-immolation.  His refusal to entertain media requests for most of his campaign – even from conservative National Review, among others – robbed not only his campaign of needed earned media, but the opportunity for voters to hear a clear and documented contrast of what successful conservative governance looks like.  

Instead, he chose to beclown himself and the Republican base by entering into a media war with one of his state’s largest employers and economic drivers, without a clear exit strategy nor path to victory.  He managed to lose Iowa badly enough that the race was called before most votes were cast – again reinforcing the narrative that this entire campaign was predetermined before it started.

As this column is filed at a deadline just before New Hampshire voters have their turn, Nikki Haley remains the last major challenger to Donald Trump in the GOP primary.  Her hurdle in galvanizing the voters willing to look at alternatives was raised first by the Senator she originally appointed to the Senate, Tim Scott, as well as Governor DeSantis.  Both have decided they would prefer a comfortable home in Donald Trump’s GOP than continue with uncomfortable truths the party needs to hear.

Then there’s Congressman Dean Phillips of Minnesota. His performance on Democratic ballots where Democrats are actually allowed to have a contest will be somewhat of a litmus test for a stalking horse.  Given President Biden’s horrendous poll numbers against an equally unpopular Donald Trump, Phillip’s performance will likely be used to determine if Democratic Convention delegates need to select another nominee this summer.

It’s unseemly, but so much of politics is these days.  Voters still have opportunities to go to the ballot box and at least vote against both of the presumed nominees.  It just remains a question as to whether enough remain invested in the process to vote against what will likely be the two most unpopular candidates for President in U.S. history.