The one real takeaway from Super Tuesday
The word of the week is “takeaway.” After Super Tuesday whimpered to a close, news outlets rushed to provide takeaways of all kinds.
The BBC, the Guardian and U.S. News & World Report found unspecified numbers of “key takeaways.” NBC, the New York Times and Al Jazeera trumpeted five takeaways each, while NPR rustled up just four.
All these takeaways make me want to drill down, do a deep dive and circle back with something new to bring to the table and run up the flagpole so we can all break down our silos.
An unwanted re-run
If, like me, you were hoping for anything but a re-run of 2020, it might be easy to slide from bewilderment into despair, because everyone’s main “Super Tuesday takeaway” is that we’re stuck with another battle between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
Or, “Joe Versus the Volcano 2.0: The Golden-Agers.”
So far, the 2024 election feels kinda like rival companies tinkering with old products and rereleasing them, still full of bugs, just because go-time arrived. Consumers get to choose between the brand with the screen that tends to go blank or the one that’s highly combustible.
Once again, Democrats have opted for the product that breaks down and Republicans for the one that explodes. But if we look elsewhere, there’s good news to savor and interesting factoids that point to more excitement (without mayhem, hopefully) down the road.
Unalloyed good news came Monday, when our philosophically divided Supreme Court managed to reach unanimity in a very fraught political case. The justices agreed that states cannot bar Mr. Trump, nor any other federal candidate, from their ballots using the 14th amendment’s prohibition against those who “engaged in insurrection.”
In typical fashion, Mr. Trump hailed the decision, on his “Truth Social” platform, as a “BIG WIN FOR AMERICA!!!” He’s not wrong, even though he might have meant something quite different, since he seems chronically unable to differentiate between himself and the nation.
Since the court’s decision keeps Donald Trump on the 2024 ballot in Colorado and other states where challenges were brewing, his foes and critics may be tempted to see this as a loss for America. But it is not.
First, it is good news that these nine justices agreed on such a toxic conflict. Second, it’s good that they held onto agreement on the main issue despite differences of opinion on exactly how Congress should handle this type of challenge.
Important unanimity
Both these points set a strong example for the nation, but Justice Amy Coney Barrett carried it one step further by declining to sign on with either the five conservatives’ or three liberals’ opinions. She disagreed with the conservatives on Congressional process and with the liberals on the tone of their decision.
“This is not the time to amplify disagreement with stridency,” she wrote. “Our differences are far less important than our unanimity.”
Amplifying disagreement with stridency while failing to focus on areas of agreement — this is exactly what ails us.
Other myriad blows against toxicity are popping up all over, promising some excitement beyond Mr. Trump’s myriad criminal trials. Independent and dissident voters have been making themselves heard — civilly — in both primaries and polls from Minnesota to North Carolina to Vermont.
Vermont is the lone state won Tuesday by Republican Nikki Haley, who ended her presidential campaign Wednesday. In North Carolina, where she won 23% of Republican primary voters, CNN reported that 81% of Haley voters said they would not switch to Trump in the general election.
Similarly independent but Democratic Party voters in Michigan — 100,000 of them, or 13% — voted “uncommitted” last week in a grassroots protest of Pres. Biden’s Middle East policies. On Super Tuesday, it was Minnesota’s turn: 45,000 Democrats — about 20% — were “uncommitted.”
In big news for official independents, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’ s campaign announced Tuesday night that he’d collected enough signatures to get on the ballot in Nevada. The campaign already qualifies in New Hampshire and Hawaii and is gaining ground in other states, but New Hampshire and Nevada are swing states that experts say Pres. Biden must win if he’s going to be reelected.
Politics in upheaval
More independent-minded opinions to ponder: Last week the New York Times/Siena College poll released results that show support for Donald Trump growing where traditional thinking would least expect it — among nonwhite voters.
Mr. Trump’s support among Black voters has risen to 23%, and he leads Mr. Biden 46% to 40% among Hispanics. In both those voting “blocs,” more than half of respondents consider the economy “poor,” and substantial percentages say former President Trump’s policies were better for them than Mr. Biden’s.
With so many former “blocs” and alliances in something close to upheaval, the election cycle could be far more interesting than Super Tuesday was. But once we cast our ballots, I’m hoping we achieve the Supreme Court’s unity despite differences. That’s my takeaway.