HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_026502.jpg

narrow special interests inherent to winning re-election. This “fix-it” ticket would promise to force decisions on all the underlying structural policy matters damaging America’s long-term prospects and distorting our democracy. No more kicking the can down the road.

• This candidate should also pledge to push for laws passed that reflect the will of simple majorities in Congress. Congress now only allows bills to move forward when a “majority of a majority” supports the policy and on many levels seems fundamentally broken. This third-party president could force votes based on a transparent reading of where the votes lie via coalition building. The Senate filibuster power will present a high hurdle, but a third-party candidate would be a de facto disruptor of the two-party system. Party discipline could well break down, and moderates in both parties could form a powerful, decisive block willing to work with the new President. The policies passed into law may not be ideal for either Democrats or Republicans, but for the major agenda items that must be addressed for America’s long-term health, an imperfect fix that corrects course is better than those that now have us hurtling toward national bankruptcy.

And if no candidate secures 270 electoral votes in 2020? The House of Representatives would choose the next president. In 2016, reports suggested Michael Bloomberg declined to run on a third-party ticket for fear of splitting support from Hillary Clinton and throwing the election to a GOP-controlled House of Representatives who would then vote to select the president. The fear was the GOP controlled House would have just elected Trump.

Would Democratic control of the House mean that the House would pick an alternative to Trump as president? Each state delegation has a single vote in selecting a president and it is the incoming Congress - the class elected in 2020 that would decide the election. But no matter which party has the speaker’s chair, the GOP would almost certainly have the upper hand in the majority of state delegations controlled. Would the state delegations pick a president based on party majority control of the delegation, the winner of the popular vote in each state or their own calculations as to who is best for America? Precedent suggests that delegations use secret ballots, which means individual lawmakers may vote their consciences.

HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_026502