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After weeks of campaign ads, political speeches and voting in more than 20 primaries, Americans are coming to terms with the reality many have been trying to avoid: a rematch.
In recent months, large swathes of Democratic, independent and moderate Republican voters have gone through familiar emotional stages as they grapple with the prospect of another months-long battle between President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump. They have refused, believing other candidates will emerge, and have dealt with last-minute entrants, nationally viable third-party candidates, and gamesmanship and happy fantasies about swift legal prosecution. They have battled depression as their options have not materialized.
And now, slowly but surely, it is starting to gain acceptance.
“Have you ever heard people say, ‘You’re making a choice, but it’s not the choice you want?'” Sharonda Horton, 50, went to Texas on Tuesday to vote for Biden. He said this as he entered a polling place in Austin, state. She said, “If you go in there, you’ll say, ‘Lord, help me.'”
In Los Angeles, Jason Kohler, who describes himself as a progressive Democrat, said he would vote for Biden only if he resigned. But he made peace.
“Right now, it’s the lesser of two evils, right?” said Kohler, 47. “Voting is a duty for all citizens, so I think we have to do it.”
Complaints about politicians are as old as American politics itself. But pollsters and strategists believe something different will happen this year. Rarely have so many Americans been so dissatisfied with the direction of the country for so long. Rarely have so many voters insisted for so long that they want a different leader. Voters who dislike both Biden and Trump are talked about so often that they now have their own political nickname: “double haters.”
But as the primary calendar progresses, it’s becoming increasingly clear that these voters can have single, double, or even triple hatreds and still make their choices. A rematch is here after Trump’s last remaining rival for the nomination, Nikki Haley, withdrew from the race after delegates were gathered Tuesday night.
Of course, many Republicans cheered. Mr. Trump maintains enthusiastic support among the party’s core voters, with polls showing nearly half of the party feeling enthusiastic about his nomination. In the latest poll by The New York Times and Siena College, only about a quarter of Democratic primary voters said the same about Mr. Biden.
But Democrats appear to have a soft spot for Biden, if not a lot of enthusiasm. According to polls, 45% of Democratic primary voters said he should not be the party’s nominee, compared to 50% who said so in July.
Signs that resistance is dissolving are coming from across the political spectrum.
A series of prominent Democrats and Republicans declined to join No Labels, a group trying to organize a third-party ticket. “Saturday Night Live” went from skits parodying Democrats’ desire to find a replacement for Biden to skewering the party’s response to concerns about Biden’s age.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, who once said Trump provoked the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, endorsed Trump on Wednesday.
Even Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minnesota, appeared to ridicule his own failed attempt to be an alternative to Mr. Biden.
“I congratulate Joe Biden, Uncommitted, Marianne Williamson, and Nikki Haley for appealing to Democrats more than I did,” he said. I wrote to X As vote counting continued Tuesday night, he sent out a second post mentioning Jason Palmer, a Baltimore entrepreneur who defeated Biden by 11 votes in the Democratic caucus in American Samoa. Phillips officially closed the bid the next day.
There are far more worrying grievances for both candidates. In North Carolina, a key battleground state, Haley won nearly a quarter of Republican primary voters, and 13% of Democrats said they had no preference. An effort to encourage Democratic voters to withhold their support for Biden by voting “no-strings-attached” attracted nearly one in five Minnesota primary voters.
Joaquin Villanueva, 43, was among them. The Minneapolis professor was concerned that Biden wasn’t doing enough to counter Trump’s possible re-election, and wanted to send a message. He describes his current mood regarding the election as “feeling a little bit trapped” by his options.
And there’s also the familiar sinking feeling that Democrats are hurtling toward yet another defeat. “In some ways, it feels like we’re reliving 2016 all over again.”
Villanueva is not alone. In a New York Times/Siena College poll, 19% of registered voters said they had a negative view of both candidates. This number is higher than in 2020, but on par with the 18% who expressed negative opinions of both Trump and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Historians are looking further back for examples of such widespread indifference to party strongmen. Lindsay M. Cherbinski, a presidential historian and senior fellow at Southern Methodist University’s Center for Presidential History, points to the 1888 and 1892 elections in which Indiana Sen. Benjamin Harrison ran against President Grover Cleveland. did. Mr. Harrison won in 1888. Four years later, former President Cleveland defeated President Harrison.
“The candidates were very unmotivated. They were compromised people and didn’t offend anyone,” she said. “It’s not very similar to not offending anyone. But in terms of lack of enthusiasm, it’s as close to it as we can get.”
Psychologists say the impending rematch is creating a strong sense of helplessness and anxiety among Americans. Couples therapist Stephen Stosny, who coined the term “election stress disorder” to describe the feelings of anxiety and fear felt by many voters during the past two presidential elections, said the Biden-Trump campaign He said he would suffer from “election stress disorder.” “Steroids” — a race that carries all the baggage of 2020, along with new stressors around issues such as the economy, immigration, the future of democracy and abortion rights.
“The human brain tries to avoid thinking about unpleasant things from the past,” he says. “Now that we can no longer deny or hope, the anxiety and resentment will return.”
Even without flashbacks, there may be reasons for voters to emphasize it. Recent presidential elections have been decided by close margins in just a few states, and there’s no reason to think this time will be different. Democrats are particularly concerned about third-party and independent candidates who could gain a few percentage points from Trump in a close race.
Then there are the bitter political divisions, misinformation, and family feuds that surface in the run-up to the presidential election. Not to mention the threat of violence that has crept into American politics since Trump’s supporters rioted at the Capitol.
“That would be strange,” said Whit Ayers, a Republican pollster who does not work for any presidential candidates. “It’s unusual and not particularly uplifting or enlightening.”
Sarah Longwell, a Republican political consultant who has fought Trump for years, said she has seen voters in her focus groups express sadness over the election.
“We are not fully accepted yet. We have fallen into depression. Perhaps the time we will be fully accepted will be when we accept the nomination this summer,” she said.
Mr. Longwell plans to focus on supporting Mr. Biden. I’ve been accepted for much longer. ”
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