There is a popular 'ice-breaker' game, which you can also use to better get to know someone, which rose to popularity among Generation X, and has continued sufficiently to now have its own App on Android phones called, "Would you rather?"
I have also noted, in the play of younger Generation Z participants, and related Tik Tok videos that the choices often take a darker and more dystopian path, with very little optimism about our future, such as "Would you rather have to live without electricity and your mobile phone, or lose a limb?"
However as we look ahead in this increasingly anti-climactic election year and Presidential Election cycle, neither primary 'Would you rather?' candidate option is apparently palatable to millions of American voters. Yes, there are millions who strongly support President Joe Biden as well as former President Donald Trump, and they believe that each deserves a second term. Yet, there are almost as many independents, non-aligned, Libertarian and other potential third party voters second-guessing IF this is the election which might allow a path for a party or candidate who does not lead with an R or a D.
For some Democrats, there is unease with Joe Biden's foreign policy with Israel and related civilian casualties in Gaza, as well as promises made, yet not kept, to various constituencies during the 2020 campaign. And given additional concerns about Biden's age and health, cognition and apparent frailties in public, his base also seems a bit more wobbly. Trump has also had his own series of misstatements or apparent short-circuits on the campaign trail, as well as his growing legal challenges, fines, fees and pending property liens. These challenges may help Trump go down in history as our most prosecuted President. Admittedly, Trump much prefers the term persecuted.
Despite these facts, post-Super Tuesday and the Georgia Presidential Preference Primary, each likely nominee has won sufficient delegates to claim their respective party nomination. And yet, the enthusiasm in each camp is more than a bit underwhelming. For Trump, there are suburbanites, large blocks of women voters and a large number of more centrist GOP voters who will not support Trump as nominee. Judging by not only votes received by former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, but by declarative statements made by GOP primary voters during Exit Polling in nearly 20 states, roughly 20 percent of the GOP voting base is not with Trump, and claim they will not support his re-election.
Additionally under the promises not kept banner, Biden's support is much softer among black voters, a demographic he needs to win by more than commanding percentages to retain the White House. Black men in particular, again in Exit Polls, have shared that the incumbent President is not who they consider their party’s best hope. And many younger Democratic voters simply are wary of having an ailing octogenarian carrying their banner.
Georgia's Presidential Primary followed Super Tuesday, with both party nomination outcomes becoming more clear, yet nearly 500,000 Georgia voting early or via absentee. That said, Georgia has more than 7.5 million registered voters, and the combined GOP and Democratic Preference Primary vote was roughly 862,000 ballots...a turnout, SPLIT between the two parties of just over 11 percent.
Yes, Biden and Trump won each contest by vast majorities, but there were multiple other candidates on each ballot in the event voters choose to express or ACT ON their discontent with their upcoming weak, 'Would you rather?' options. This of course means that nearly 90 percent of Georgia voters expressed no preference for either party, or candidate.
I have previously voted Libertarian and other third party choices, and at this point it appears I will be doing so again this fall. To be successful, a third party should NOW be securing ballot access, as the Libertarians have in most states, and grooming a magnetic, knowledgeable candidate with the comparative stamina and youth to handle the rigors and stress of one of the most demanding jobs on the planet.
In November, I suggest that EACH voter actually participate, vote their conscience, and not feel bound solely to select from the lesser of two 'evils,' if nothing else sending a message to both major parties that there still is a political center in this nation, and that voters deserve candidates with common sense, focused on the common good and on solving the nation's problems, more than getting their way, blocking the other party or settling political scores. At least, that is what I would rather...
