I think I have said this before, but it bears repeating: Each presidential election in our lifetime will be the most important ever.
The stakes are too high. The consequences are too significant. Each election builds upon itself.
Being human and living a life means that everything moves in one direction—forward.
This seems to be a perfect time to bring Jesus into the equation. Jesus pointed out the idea of moving forward when a guy came up to him and told Jesus he wanted to follow him. Jesus responded, “Cool, let’s get going.” However, the man said he needed to take care of a few things first. Jesus then explained to let the dead bury the dead.
Which is just another way of saying to keep moving forward.
We can’t go back and change things, let alone the election's outcome. We must bury the dead and move forward.
That doesn’t mean we can’t let the past help shape our future.
The consequences of elections aren’t always immediate. As I wrote about the 2000 election, it was decided in previous elections, where presidents Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush put people on the Supreme Court who would give the election to George W. Bush, something that has never happened before and since.
While the Court played an instrumental part in 2000 in telling everyone who would be president, this week, the Court decided that states couldn’t remove candidates from the ballot, no matter the reason.
I wrote about how I thought this would be the pragmatic outcome. I’m not an expert at anything, but I think I’m pragmatic. I’m not even sure that is something to aspire to.
Despite the unanimous decision, the Court still managed to screw things up when the conservatives went further and said that Congress needed to pass a law to prevent Trump from becoming president, and the liberals flipped out at this reasoning, which makes you wonder why they agreed in the first place. Justice Amy Barrett played the part of that annoying “common sense” wannabe that we all loathe because she couldn’t take a side in the entire extracurricular activity that went into the ruling of Trump vs. Anderson. It was another bad look for the Court.
Elections have consequences, and after they are done, we must bury the dead. Hopefully, that is not a literal interpretation, but instead, we can view new opportunities that come every four years. We don’t always get it right, even when we ask Jesus for help.
Today, we rank two elections that failed to meet that opportunity,
Let's dive in.
49: The Presidential Election of 2004
Election Date: November 2, 2004
The Candidates:
Despite not winning the popular vote four years earlier, George Bush was looking to become the first incumbent president to win reelection. He didn’t face any challenges because no one is stupid enough to challenge a guy whose dad got him the job.
Since we were a country at war, the Democrats went looking for someone who had served in the military to be the nominee, and they ended up with Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, who won a Silver Star, 18 Purple Hearts, Solider of the Year, and other stuff while fighting in the Vietnam War.
This election would be about who could manage a 21st-century war better. Fun!
Major Issue of the Day:
About eight months into Bush’s administration, a terrorist organization called Al-Qaeda attacked the United States on a date you better not have forgotten.
So, fighting terrorism was a major issue. In fact, in 2003, The United States, Poland, Her Majesty’s United Kingdom, and the Continent of Australia invaded Iraq because we thought they had weapons of mass destruction. I don’t know about you, but I only care about destructive weapons when someone says they are massive.
Other crazy stuff was going on then. Chandra Levy was murdered in Washington, DC, and I used to walk by her apartment daily on my to work. It wasn’t a significant issue of the day, but my Mom wasn’t thrilled about it.
Speaking of walking around Washington, DC, the DC Sniper attacks took place in 2002, where domestic terrorists killed 17 people over a ten-month period that included Virginia, Maryland, Washington State, Arizona, and Louisiana. We call them the DC Sniper Attacks, even though one person was killed in DC.
My 20s were great.
The country also had issues with the economy, and same-sex marriage and abortion played their usual wedge issues as defense contractors got rich.
The Winner:
The Federalist Society.
The conservative think tank got two people onto the court after Bush was reelected.
John Roberts became Chief Justice, and after the Senate rejected Harriet Miers's nomination, Bush gave us Samuel Alito. What a trade that was.
The 2021 OKH Presidential Ranking:
Bush is 33rd. What’s amazing to me is how far he has fallen in his position in the GOP. He is 77 years old, younger than both nominees, and no one hears from him.
Do you find that strange? What is he working on besides painting portraits while the nation tries to chop its ears off?
What does he think about the court he helped shape? And why is his daughter a host on the Today Show? That’s the most aggravating thing.
His Dad got him the White House, and he turned around and got his daughter a job on the Today Show. Ugh.
The States in the Electoral College:
50. The District of Columbia returned after sitting out the 2000 election and voted for Kerry.
The Electoral College had 538 members, and the winner needed 270 votes. Bush won 31 states, flipping Iowa and New Mexico into his column. Bush also won the VP states sweepstakes by winning Wyoming (GOP VP Dick Cheney) and North Carolina (Democratic VP John Edwards).
Bush won 286 to 251, locking up the victory due to the 20 votes supplied by Ohio. There were some irregularities in removing thousands of people off the voting rolls and limiting the number of voting machines in more urban dwellings, where minorities spent more time in line than their white counterparts.
But those irregularities never amounted to being massive, so we didn’t push the issue.
Why Did I Rank it Here:
I hated this election. I didn’t participate. It’s the only presidential election that I sat out. I was living in Baltimore then, experiencing the worst job anyone could imagine. I was against the Iraq War. I wasn’t too keen on John Kerry, but mostly, I felt I didn’t move the needle since Maryland would vote for Kerry anyway. There was also a lot of stuff going on with me then. Jesus was there. He can fill you in.
Also, a few years later, a friend of mine from college was killed in action in Iraq when a missile hit his helicopter. A few years after that, I ended up working with Paul Bremer, who Bush would put in charge of Iraq after we invaded, and despite the fact the Ambassador was a nice guy, I couldn’t help but think he was partially responsible for my friend's death.
It looked like Kerry could have kept the streak of unpopular presidents from getting reelected, but Bush did the impossible and snatched victory from the mouth of defeat.
Next, we examine what it means when the People want to stand up and demand economic equality, only to see them fall short.
Let’s dive in.
48: The Presidential Election of 1896
Election Date: November 3, 1896
The Candidates:
The Republicans lost the White House in 1892 when Grover Cleveland defeated Benjamin Harrison in a rematch of the 1888 presidential election. (Spoiler alert: we have had quite a few rematches in presidential elections)
Harrison’s political career was cooked because he had promised so much to many in the Republican Party. To counter that, the GOP nominated another Ohioan, former Congressman and Governor William McKinley, who wouldn’t promise anything.
McKinley was nominated on the first ballot in their convention in St. Louis and immediately began amassing an enormous campaign war chest.
The Democrats looked to former failed Nebraska Senator candidate William Jennings Bryan, who at thirty-six would be the youngest nominee of a major party. He was a skilled orator, but just because you spoke well doesn’t mean you can get elected.
Also, the People were broke, so Bryan campaigned with little money.
Major Issue of the Day:
The Panic of 1893, a marketing term for a depression that lasted until 1897, shuttered many businesses and cost millions of people their jobs. With no safety net, the United States had a considerable homelessness problem that we would experience again during the Great Depression.
There was an ongoing debate between gold and silver standards backing the US dollar. I have no idea what any of this means. I just know we didn’t get off gold until 1933.
The Winner:
Big Business.
Standard Oil spent $250,000 to get McKinley elected, showing how corporations could tilt presidential campaigns in their favor, especially in a depression.
As I mentioned last week, the Populist Party lived a short life, effectively killed off as an upstart party after this election. However, many of its agenda items were merged into the Democratic Party. However, none of these populist themes benefit minorities.
But Big Business felt pretty good.
The 2021 OKH Presidential Ranking:
McKinley was ranked 24th. I’m not a McKinley expert, as you can tell by what I wrote back in 2021. Let’s just agree that I’ve gotten better at this writing stuff. Bury the dead on this one.
The States in the Electoral College:
45. The District of Columbia did not have a vote because we still hated the people who lived there.
We welcomed Utah to the Electoral College. Since it was their first time participating, they did it wrong and voted for the Democrats. They immediately corrected themselves, and for the most part, minus a Woodrow Wilson vote here and an FDR vote there, Utah has been a solidly Republican state.
There were 447 members of the Electoral College, and the winner needed to secure 224 votes.
McKinley took 23 states, and Bryan secured 22. Despite the 51%-46% margin of victory, Bryan was about 18,000 from winning.
What could have been.
Why Did I Rank it Here:
Well, I just wrote about Populism, so this election is on my mind. I appreciate that the country is in this depression, and our decision to move forward is to throw in with the businesses and the money people who put us in that position. It’s something we continue to repeat. So, this election needs to be in the lower tier.
What do you think? Am I being fair with my rankings?
The State of the Union Address was last night up the street from the house. Anonymous stayed up to watch it while I took in a few more episodes of Law & Order. I’m shocked to learn that Democrats thought the address was tremendous while Republicans thought it was terrible. Also, Katie Britt will be a household name this weekend when Saturday Night Live does another terrible cold opening and makes her look normal.
Speaking of normal, Blue is feeling better, so thanks to those who emailed to check in on him. I, on the other hand, have spent the week feeling awful. I’m sorry this is coming out so late. I haven’t been able to work consistently all week. I'm looking forward to the weekend recovering, and I’ll be back on Monday.
I hope your weekend is recharging and relaxing.
Okay,
Chris