Trump’s latest indictment makes No Labels even more outlandish

The preposterous No Labels scheme to run a third-party candidate has gotten even more outlandish. In the wake of the devastating indictment of defeated former president Donald Trump for the phony elector plot, we can see more clearly than ever that the No Labels gambit amounts to a do-over for the likes of Trump and unindicted co-conspirator John Eastman.

As it has done so frequently, No Labels gives itself away. In statements on Tuesday, the group’s pollster postulated that a third-party candidate could get 37% of the vote – an assertion so outrageous as to make all but the most cynical in the group cringe. George Wallace got 13.5% of the vote in 1968. Even former president Theodore Roosevelt only got about 27% of the vote in 1912. Ross Perot got 19% of the popular vote in 1992 but no electoral college votes. Yet more proof that No Labels cannot win but can only spoil an election.

But that patently absurd declaration is not the worst of it.

First, the group promises to give voters a “choice,” but it’s not the voters who will make a choice. No Labels intends to hold a convention next spring. However, unlike the two major parties, there will be no state caucuses or primaries to pick the delegates. These will be No Labels insiders or donors or whomever the clique handpicks. This is the proverbial smoke-filled room, a closed-door process that gives wealthy donors and their consorts, not the “people,” a choice.

The irony – or outrage – is that this would reverse decades of progress by both major parties in making the presidential selection process more transparent and democratic. “Their ticket will be selected not by voters in an open primary but in a secret, backroom deal brokered by No Labels insiders and donors, defying 75 years of progress in making party nominations more democratic,” said Matt Bennett, executive vice president for public affairs of Third Way, which has been debunking the claims coming from No Labels.

Second, and far worse, the group’s plan is to throw the election to the House of Representatives by denying either major party a majority of electoral college votes. That in and of itself makes selection of the No Label candidate virtually impossible. This will be a partisan free-for-all.

Because the vote for president would be by unit vote, (i.e., each state gets one vote) the party with the majority in the most state delegations would get the presidency. And wouldn’t you know? Before the 2020 election, Republicans held 26 of the states; they presently hold 26. If the plan is to throw it to the House, then the likelihood of a Trump victory is certainly high.

In the wake of an indictment that alleges Trump lied, threatened and instigated violence to win states he knew he lost, No Labels is proposing a “solution” for our ailing democracy that would mean more chaos, turmoil and possible violence. This is madness, and as far from democracy as one could imagine.

Two points deserve emphasis. First, the events leading up to Jan. 6, 2021, detailed in the federal indictment were possible because we have an intensely undemocratic, convoluted electoral college system to elect the president. The framers were no fans of popular democracy, and the device they constructed to choose the head of the executive branch intentionally minimizes and distorts popular will. If we had a popular vote, none of the Trumpian stunts would be feasible, and No Labels’s scheme wouldn’t get off the ground.

This is not an excuse for either Trump or No Labels, but a warning that a significant portion of our democracy depends on the good will and honesty of each component. If we have individuals or groups ready to exploit the system, disaster can result. Reforms to bring us closer to a simpler, fairer presidential election process (i.e., the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact) should be explored while we expose and prevent anti-democratic actors from making our system even less democratic.

Second, if nothing else, the newest indictment should remind us that the stakes in 2024 could not be higher. If there’s any chance a third-party effort could help Trump – who stands accused of deliberately seeking to tear apart our democracy – it should be stopped in its tracks. That No Labels has no chance for victory and no real purpose despite its professed moderation (especially weird given President Biden’s own bipartisan and moderate approach, with many accomplishments) makes the threat it poses to democracy all the more galling.

Now is no time to play dice with the fate of democracy.