By William Lewis
Having a presidential election every four years has led to longer and longer presidential campaigns.
One of the best examples of early presidential campaigns was Jimmy Carter, who after being governor of Georgia until 1974 spent the next two years campaigning for the presidency. He was elected president in 1976. He had set up campaign organizations all over the country and visited these places, giving speeches. He was projected as coming from nowhere to win the presidency.
As we look at the political situation this year going into the presidential race two years from now, the Democratic Party’s situation is somewhat similar to the Republican Party’s of two years ago. A number of Democratic candidates may emerge from the Democratic primaries. In 2016, the Republican Party had 17 candidates running in the primaries throughout the nation.
An open primary in many states encourages a large number of candidates. The Democratic Party will no longer be held by one person, as happened with Hillary Clinton two years ago. We will see who emerges as the strongest candidate after the Democratic primaries.
This process can go on for the next two years, with candidates in the Democratic Party unofficially running for office, and by 2020 we may have a considerable number of candidates in the Democratic primaries that year, especially in the battleground states. This is going to be a hard-fought campaign in both political parties and may turn out to be one of the more bitter campaigns in American history.
The issue of importance will be immigration, which up until 2016 was not a major issue. In 2020 it will be a major issue, accompanied by both political parties giving their definitions of American values. The candidates will have their own views on how immigration should be handled.
There may be candidates running against President Donald Trump in the Republican primaries. They, too, will have views on these all important matters. But the American political system is becoming longer and longer, with more campaigns everywhere to elect our president. This is not good for our form of government. It seems that we need to tone down the American political system, which, as I indicated, is becoming increasingly bitter.
We could also have a third-party candidate emerge to run in the national election in 2020. At any rate, by voting for president in 2020, the American people will be voting on what they believe to be the proper American values. The 2020 election process will possibly be the most important presidential election that we have had in many years. One good thing about this is that more and more people are becoming active in politics, attending rallies, going to fundraising activities, and getting involved campaigning for a candidate. This is happening in both political parties.
Let us hope that the election process during the next two years can be held in a peaceful manner.
