- By: Zarar Sheikh
To describe it in one simple sentence: There is complete confusion.
There are many unanswered questions and no satisfactory answer, as yet.
First, President Biden has among the lowest favorable ratings of any incumbent president, according to all credible polls conducted in the recent past. His popularity has been steadily going down.
Some people are even challenging his mental capacity to continue to govern any longer. So it has become a challenge for the Democratic Party big-wigs to decide if he needs to be replaced as their presidential candidate for 2024 elections. And who are the possible choices the Democratic Party has, should such a situation arise? This remains a question as well.
Another unknown card, is the entry of Dr. Cornel West, a well known black professor and intellectual, (who calls himself a “revolutionaty christian”), into the presidential race. He is very well respected in progressive circles among all ethnic groups. How would he impact the black and proogressive vote?
Donald Trump is clearly the most popular and favored candidate of the Republican Party. This is clearly evident, and has only been confirmed by the latest result of South Carolina Primary, where Nikki Haley lost miserably to him, in her own State. But there is a problem. Donald Trump is facing so many serious legal issues and it is not clear at this point if he would be allowed to run for this election. This question remains unanswered.
If Donald Trump is convicted on some serious charge and not allowed to run for the presidency, how would his base of supporters react to that decision? That is a very pertinent question. Also, in that case if Nikki Haley comes out as the winner to be the Republican choice for president, would the Republicans at large, especially white evangelicals and white nationalists, accept a woman, and that too of South Asian origin, to be their president? A difficult question to answer.
As the elections process gets closer to the elections, which are scheduled to be held in November 2024, the situation will continue to become clearer.
Let’s see how the situation unfolds.