As the world’s oldest continuously functioning constitutional republic, some things are exceptional in British politics. Yet the pending fight between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, while a second within recent storage, has happened numerous times in our country’s longer story.
In American history, there have been six presidential election rematches dating back to the showdown between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson in 1800. In four of those rematches, the loser of the first tilt won.
However, Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison’s election of 1892, which is a prime example of Trump vs. Biden round two, stands out. It is the only rematch election to date between two men who both held office as presidents.
Eight years before, in 1884, Grover Cleveland became an unlikely presidential election winner. While Cleveland was a Democrat, he resembled President Trump in many ways. In those days, the Republican Party was the party of America’s establishment, while Democrats were the insurgent outsiders, still recovering from the aftermath of the Civil War. Like Trump, Cleveland was a surprise national political figure. In the fall of 1881, Cleveland was simply a prominent lawyer in Buffalo, New York. However, just three years later, Cleveland was elected president-elect after grueling stints as mayor of Buffalo and governor of New York.
Cleveland, like Trump, escaped an election-year sex scandal, with his case an out-of-wedlock child rather than the Access Hollywood tape ( the times were simpler then ). He soared to the top as a result of voter frustration with corruption in both major parties, just like Trump. Just like Trump, his foreign policy emphasized noninterventionism, while his domestic policy emphasized a limited federal government and lower taxes (yes, Democrats were the low- tax party at one time ).
In 1888, Cleveland lost a nail-biter election to Republican Benjamin Harrison after the urban Tammany Hall political elite used its weight against Cleveland in New York City, costing him the state’s election-deciding electoral votes.
Cleveland’s wife allegedly told a staffer to take good care of all the building’s furniture as she left the following spring,” for I want to find everything just as it is now, when we come back four years from now.”
It was a bold boast, but it came true. There was no denying that Cleveland would win the party’s title once more four years later, just like Trump did. He romped to a win on the first ballot at the 1892 nominating convention. Just like Biden, meanwhile, President Harrison was dealing with surging prices and a divided party. In 1892, Harrison and Cleveland were the candidates for low inflation, the gold standard, and monetary discipline, which was a very different Democratic Party at the time. In 1892, inflation was one of the key issues.
The 1892 election, just like this year’s, had a formidable populist third- party candidate, James Weaver of the literal Populist Party, who managed to win 9 percent of the popular vote and the electoral votes of five states. And just like with Cornel West this year, there was another significant third-party candidate in John Bidwell of the Prohibition Party (yes, a single-issue “ban alcohol” party ).
Thanks to all these forces, Grover Cleveland’s third election was much stronger than either of his first two. In 1884, Cleveland had won 20 states with 219 electoral votes. Eight years later, he won 23 states worth more than 277.
I think Donald Trump has all the necessary components to replicate Cleveland’s success. The determination is there, and the feeble incumbent is there. The most crucial fact is this: In a rematch like this, voters wo n’t have to question whether the opponent would do better as president. Instead, they can just make a direct comparison. So how does that look?
The New York Times and Siena College conducted a poll earlier this month that revealed the shocking findings: 42 percent of respondents thought Trump’s presidency was mostly good for America, compared to a gruesome 25 percent for Biden. On the other side of the coin, while just 33 percent think Trump’s presidency was mostly a bad time, for Biden the figure is an ugly 46 percent.
In another Wall Street Journal poll from March 17- 24, just 38 percent of voters approve of Joe Biden’s performance as president, but 51 percent approve of Donald Trump’s performance during his term. This is 2024 in a nutshell — just like it was in 1892.
Americans have changed their opinions of Joe Biden’s performance in the White House three times, and they now know that Donald Trump handled it better.
In November, Republicans must make that the main inquiry for every voter: Who was better? Who was better on the border? Whose economic policies caused the growth and blue-collar boom, and whose led to inflation and oligarchy? Whose foreign policy created peace, and whose created chaos? Whose actions sparked the indolent elites that Americans despise, and who won their unwavering support?
Because in 2024, unlike any other election in our lifetimes, there is no speculation. Both candidates have a record, and we know which president saw success and which one has only produced one failure, flop, and crisis after another.
So let’s make Joe Biden 2024’s Benjamin Harrison.
