The best that we can do?

It's not just our political system here in the U.S. that has failed to produce qualified leadership, it's political systems around the world. But here is where it matters most to us.

How is it that the most populous and/or powerful countries on Earth are stuck with Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and Narendra Modi as their leaders? Though Donald Trump is no longer the President of the United States, I included him on this list as he’s currently leading the Republican field to be their 2024 presidential nominee. If he succeeds in this endeavor, I think that there’s a fair chance that he gets re-elected. And even before this, his brand of populism currently dominates conservative politics in this country.

The above question is actually rhetorical. Putin and Jinping are leaders of communist countries where average citizens collectively have little control over political processes. Modi is the Prime Minister of India, where religious divisions and a caste system make politics work for the winners but not for anyone else.

That leaves the United States, the most powerful nation in the world, where even though we have free and fair presidential elections, our choices in the last few cycles have been Trump/Clinton and Biden/Trump, with a redux of Biden/Trump looking likely. This just won’t do. We’d almost certainly be far better off just chucking a rock off the top of a skyscraper and picking whoever it landed on.

There are many reasons that we are stuck in a political doom loop in the United States: closed primaries; the winner takes all configurations of the House of Representatives and executive branch; a two-party system dominated by extremists, among others. There are some ways out of this. But it remains to be seen if we can muster the wherewithal to do what needs to be done before it’s too late. I’m less confident in a good outcome in my lifetime than I used to be.

I’ve written about attempts to create viable third parties in this country before. Over the past few years, the No Labels Party has emerged as a relatively well-funded and well-organized potential alternative to the Democratic and Republican parties. No Labels has done some impressive organizing in anticipation of running a third-party candidate in the 2024 presidential election, should it come down to, once again, Biden or Trump.

Right now, I’m not completely convinced that Trump is the 2024 Republican nominee, despite his considerable lead in early polling. At some point, his serious legal issues, which are mounting, are bound to catch up with him. Though legal problems may not be enough to lose a single vote among his base, who believe that his legal issues are the result of malicious, partisan prosecutions (and in some cases aren’t all wrong), it’s difficult to wage a successful campaign for our nation’s highest office when you are in court every day or jail.

But if it does come down to Biden vs. Trump once again, No Labels has committed to running a third-party ticket, with all signs pointing to a unity pairing of Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) and former Utah Governor and ambassador, Republican Jon Huntsman.'

If it comes down to it, they have my vote.

Poll after poll shows that hardly anyone in this country is more excited than they have to be about a Biden-Trump redux. Biden is astonishingly unpopular among even Democrats. Though Trump has a loyal base, he’s almost completely toxic beyond that. Hardly anyone is clamoring for either of these two to be our next president. Yet, on the eve of campaign season, that’s exactly the race that’s shaping up to be.

It’s beyond time for a viable third party to emerge in this country. No third party is very likely to be successful right out of the gate, and they’ll have to have the funding and resolve to endure some early defeats. But if No Labels or some other centrist third party can start winning elections sometime in the next decade, we might be on the way to fixing a lot of what’s broken in American politics while people like me are still around to see it.

A centrist third party with some political clout would force Congress and the executive branch to relearn the skill of compromise. Congress would be forced to form coalitions beyond the existing two. The President would have to deal seriously, all the time, with politicians beyond their own party. All of this as our framers intended.

The principal reason that politics is in a doom spiral in this country is that compromise is now considered a dirty word in most political circles. Our founders envisioned debate, discussion, and compromise in crafting our laws. That mostly worked for over 200 years, until just a few decades ago, when partisan TV, talk radio, and newspapers began stoking moral disdain for anyone who wasn’t on board with whatever they were schilling in order to glue eyes and/or ears and sell ads—a problem that social media has exacerbated. There just can’t be any compromise when the other side is composed of either conservative MAGA bigots or progressives who support child molesters from end zone to end zone.

So yeah, bring on that third party. I’d like to be able to retire to the great wheel in the sky before I’m 150.

Associated Press and Idaho Press Club-winning columnist Martin Hackworth of Pocatello is a physicist, writer, and retired Idaho State University faculty member who now spends his time with family, riding bicycles and motorcycles, and arranging and playing music. Follow him on Twitter @MartinHackworth