Senator Joe Manchin, Democrat of West Virginia, is weighing a third-party presidential bid. His eventual choice could prove decisive
Yet, because nothing is more quixotic than a third-party campaign, might it not actually be the most idealistic expression of American politics? Americans may have elected only one candidate to the presidency from a third party, but he was Abraham Lincoln. And good third-party politicians always seem so pure. They know the odds are stacked against them, but they also know Americans yearn for something different, for big ideas and hard truths.
Craggy and folksy, Mr Manchin has won in a state Donald Trump carried twice by about 40 points, but by casting votes that made progressives despise him. What Mr Manchin has seen as wise positions for an old-school blue-collar Democrat from coal country, they have seen as evidence of racism, truckling to special interests and egomania. As the spotlight of presidential speculation shines upon him, Mr Manchin is doing nothing to dispel that last suspicion.
“I truly believe that all 435 people elected to Washington want to do good,” Mr Manchin said when asked about a radical House member. But the “business model” of both parties leads politicians to motivate supporters by creating or exaggerating division rather than compromising. Through No Labels, he said, “We can talk about the real problems. We don’t have to villainise the other side just because they might think different than I do.
No Labels insists its polling shows it would hurt Mr Trump at least as much. It says it will field a candidate only if, after the Super Tuesday primaries next spring, the choice does come down to Mr Trump and Mr Biden, and only if the No Labels candidate has a clear shot at winning. “Those are deeply subjective judgments,” warns Matt Bennett of Third Way, a centrist Democratic group organising against No Labels, “and so far at least we have no faith they are making those judgments correctly.
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