Will a Republican run against President Trump in 2020?

The United States is arguably the most divided it has ever been since

Graphic by Savannah Pinnock

the end of the Civil War in 1865. Politics have become so polarized, separating each other to names like snowflake liberals or backwoods conservatives.

There are families around the country can’t even speak to each other normally at a holiday Thanksgiving dinner if they know they support different candidates.

Despite knowing how divided we are between parties, I will argue that we are even more divided inside our own political parties.

Some may not realize it, but when you think of a Democrat you think of a liberal, and when you think of a Republican you think of a conservative, right? Well in today’s climate, we are seeing a lot more differences.

On the left, you can have your normal average liberals like Hillary Clinton or you can even have your democratic-socialists like Bernie Sanders or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

But did you know you can even have Democratic conservatives like those in the Blue Dog Coalition? Well, New York Representative Anthony Brindisi and Californian Representative Lou Correa prove that very existence.

If that’s not a lot of diversity from good ol’ D.C., look at the individuals that are putting in their bid to become the next president. Corey Booker, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and more are just examples of individual diversity in the Democratic Party.

There is so much more diversity being outwardly shown in politics from the left for 2020.

Now there aren’t really any forms of complaining on the left, or at least none in the news. Things seem for the most part unified, right? No shame or harm done in being a different Democrat.

Well, what if I were to say that individuals on the left have the opportunity to be more free to choose how they identify and how they act in politics compared to the right?

Hear me out, I am not trying to imply that the right silences liberal Republicans or even Libertarian politicians, because clearly they are not. Just look at Senator Rand Paul and the other 56 partisan Libertarians in office.

However, with 2020 rolling around, we are hearing only candidates from the Democratic Party taking a slice of the pie and not Republicans.

For crying out loud we heard about the CEO of Starbucks making a claim before anyone from the right.

According to a survey done by Politico, more than 55 percent of Americans disapprove of the President, while the highest peak was a 52 percent approval rating in March of 2017. How can nobody be running against the president on the right unlike the rest?

“Well, you know, they probably just like the president.” Well, you may be right, but why is nobody speaking out on the right? Either way, this doesn’t seem like it’d really be fair for someone to not be able to do, whether the president belongs to your party or not.

There are many things to consider as to why this could be in question. The first would be if another Republican would run for president, it would just split the party into two, weakening their chances of holding onto control for another four years. Another could even be something completely opposite.

Some Republicans want to run but don’t want to jeopardize their careers as someone who challenged the President of the United States.

I would argue that the second option from above is the most likely answer as to why one will not run for the presidency on the right. Looking back at the 2016 election, I can see why they wouldn’t want to run against Trump. Really, the only one who is a “big name” now would be Cruz, but he still has the reputation of “Lying Ted” and more. 

There are some Republicans that have been very critical of Trump’s work in office.

The aforementioned Paul, Governor John Kasich of Ohio and Representative Justin Amash of Michigan are constant critics, and two of the three have previously ran against him. Why are they not doing anything now?

It’s because of Trump and his divisiveness. Sure, they may run, but it will be hard getting past the rhetoric spewing from Trump. Looking back previously at 2016, he essentially tried bullying his competition out of the picture.

Jeb Bush was probably the biggest victim next to Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. He tried ruining their careers by tarnishing them with ad hominem attacks.

To sum this up, I will give my final opinion. I firmly believe if a Republican like Kasich runs for president again, he could possibly dethrone Trump and get him out of office.

Would I think a scenario of a Republican challenging Trump could actually happen? I would say no and I would not blame a Republican who wouldn’t.

In the end, we are people, who share the same common belief.  We want to succeed as a nation, and we have our own opinions on how we want to do so.

Instead, due to our great divide, we can’t seem to get past that, constantly calling things a difference in morals trying to shut down arguments.

Once we learn to better ourselves and accept that we all have differing opinions, and that’s okay, we can move on and become successful as a nation and learn to grow from each other. That is one of our core and intrinsic values as Americans.

We are Americans, and we need to see that John Dickinson was right when he said, “By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall.”