No one should be surprised by the results of our recent national election.
Since WWII, former vice presidents usually lose presidential elections, or lose more often than they win, particularly when they run right after serving as vice president. The elder George Bush is the only former vice president to win his first presidential election immediately after completing service as vp.
Most recently, Kamala Harris lost.
Before her, Joe Biden did win, but only after he had been out of office for four years.
Al Gore lost.
Walter Mondale lost even after four years out of office.
Gerald Ford lost despite two years of incumbency granted him by Nixon’s resignation.
Hubert Humphrey lost.
And Californian Richard Nixon lost in his first attempt in 1960 and then won eight years later in 68. (Fellow Californian Kamala Harris would do well to follow Nixon’s example and run for governor of California as a precursor to re-entering the presidential race. This worked for Nixon even though he lost the 1962 gubernatorial race to Pat Brown.)
Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson were both vice presidents who ascended to the presidency upon the deaths of their charismatic predecessors. Thus they served for a time as presidents before seeking re-election. This allowed them to run as incumbents. They were both elected only once. Both campaigned briefly a second time and both dropped out after losses in the New Hampshire primary. This was true of Truman in 1952 and Johnson in 1968.
Even George Bush Sr, victorious in his first presidential run, served only one term as commander-in-chief before losing to Clinton in 1992.
As I said, no one should be surprised by recent events. The historical pattern of vice presidents with diminished electoral potential remained true once more.
Still, I’m definitely disappointed and am trying to contain a simmering dread of our darkening politics and social direction. But, I do feel like “my” candidate, Kamala Harris, was a competent, near-perfect and best choice representative of the beliefs and approach I agree with, and she ran a near perfect, 100% all-in campaign. But she/we just couldn’t overcome the overwhelming (if misplaced) mantle of the cost of eggs and gas, and the allure of a magic salve of solving all our problems through a brutal racist, xenophobic (& grossly shortsighted) blame game, that will inevitably tear us all apart more. And oh yeah, toss in some sexism, anti-intellectualism and fascism too.
But how “American”, right???
Good news though, is that while it didn’t go the way I wanted, the election appears to have been fair, clean and peaceful, with minimal outside interference, so Democracy won.
We the people and this nation have muddled through worse things before– repeatedly– and have eventually come out the other end with better policies, people, leaders and attitudes. Let us audaciously HOPE that this historical pattern also holds true.
