Now that the Trump indictments are all in place, it’s probably best to not pay too much attention to the day-to-day developments. There will be a lot of maneuvering, filings, bad faith arguments and menacing from the Trump camp, and the press will try to keep people engaged.
We’ve been seeing a lot of promo from No Labels lately. They claim to be offering the political alternative Americans have been yearning for. I think it’s important to understand who these folks are and what they are up to.
The first thing to understand about No Labels is that what they are up to is not what they say they are up to. Exactly what they are up to is not totally clear, but I have some informed thoughts.
I am very familiar with No Labels. They were founded in 2010 by fundraising powerhouse/prodigy Nancy Jacobson, ostensibly to “support centrism and bipartisanship.” Noble intentions to be sure.
I attended their breakout convention in 2013 in New York, along with about 2,000 or so good government hopefuls from around the country, and I am sad to report that they have been a big disappointment. Even the Problem Solvers caucus – a No Labels offshoot – has rejected their current campaign, calling it “dangerous” and “misguided.”
If No Labels were serious about their stated intent to foster a balanced centrist government, they would be working to implement Alaska-style ranked choice voting, which has already demonstrated its moderating effect on campaign rhetoric and electoral outcomes.
The No Labels Pitch
No Labels has been campaigning on the idea that the American people want an alternative to the major parties, so they are going to run an Independent national unity ticket in the ’24 election. Their promotions draw a profoundly dishonest equivalence between Donald Trump and Joe Biden as equally extreme candidates, and they intend to provide a centrist alternative.
No Labels founder resigned from the group over their fraudulent campaign.
One of No Labels’ founders, Bill Galston, felt compelled to resign from the group over their “irresponsible” campaign, and their false equivalence between Biden and Trump.
“There is no equivalence between President Biden and a former president who threatens the survival of our constitutional order…The risks of a second Trump presidency are simply too high to take chances.”
The Reality
The folks behind No Labels are sophisticated political operatives. They know what they are doing, and they know that the odds of electing a national unity ticket in America today are exactly zero. Sure, there are lots of people who say they would like an alternative, but when the rubber hits the road, the vast majority of voters will vote R or D. There are structural reasons for this. It’s a given.
What a 3rd party unity ticket will do is draw mostly naïve liberals and never-Trump conservatives who would otherwise vote for Biden. This will dramatically improve the likelihood of a second Trump presidency, an event which will usher in end of the first American republic. That’s the game, people. Don’t buy it. There’s too much at stake to waste your vote on a quixotic and ill-conceived experiment.
No Labels’ own polling shows they will help Trump beat Biden.
The truth of the matter is that Biden is the centrist candidate. Sure, he has to deal with a left flank in his party, but they aren’t in charge of policy. Joe Biden is in charge of policy, and he has governed as a mainstream moderate, passing more bipartisan legislation than anyone dreamed possible, while Trump’s extremism is too extensive to be enumerated here.
Also, once on the ballot, No Labels can’t say, “Oh, never mind.” They will stay on the ballot. So their often repeated pitch that they will stand down if they see that they are going to be a spoiler, is more than a little disingenuous, as they say in Washington.
So what is No Labels really up to?
It’s a bit of a mystery, given their pitch, which vacillates between delusionary kumbaya and outright dishonesty. This OnPoint interview with Jay Nixon, former Missouri Governor and No Labels ballot access director is instructive, and left the interviewers scratching their heads.
It could be that No Labels is the pet project of a self-absorbed zealot with prodigious fundraising capabilities, or perhaps it has always been a 5th column designed to draw good government types into futile activities.
Either way, you only need to see who is funding the operation to see to whom their efforts appeal – to the extent you can get through the deliberate smokescreen. They refuse to disclose their donors.
No Labels Using Right-Wing Fundraiser
Donations to No Labels are handled by an online fundraising platform called Anedot. According to its website, Anedot’s mission is to raise funds for the right and the GOP.
“Anedot currently serves more than 1,500 Republican candidates and elected officials, and is the only privacy-focused payment processor built and owned by conservatives.” Paul Dietzel, Anedot Founder
Just so you know. These political fundraising operations are very compartmentalized/siloed. I don’t necessarily agree with the practice, but the reality is that there is a firewall between right-wing fundraisers, and left-wing fundraisers. No Labels use of a right-wing fundraising outfit is all the proof needed of where their appeal lies and who will benefit from their actions.
An objective look at the numbers from 538.
So useful to have this laid out clearly. Thank you.
Important. Thank you.