The Five Competing Narratives of the 2024 Presidential Election
There are five competing narratives for the 2024 Presidential election. As the narrative goes, so goes the candidate. If the narrative's not going his or her way, even the best politico will struggle.
Every successful stock market investor understands that you can have the best-run, most profitable company in the world, but if it resides in an out-of-favor sector, it will likely flounder. Memo: Don’t fight the sector. The same is true in politics. For example, in America, we are currently amidst a highly partisan political era that favors personality, populist instincts, and protectionism. If you are a clinical, detached, and bipartisan globalist, this is likely not the right era for you. Still, many persons running to be the most powerful person on earth are betting that the narrative du jour changes. They will be positioned perfectly should that happen.
Below are the wholly subjective five top narratives that will decide the 2024 U.S. Presidential election, followed by the leading candidates who more or less exemplify each narrative. Left out are candidates or possible candidates with zero chance of being elected: Dudley Doo-Right NeoCon John Bolton, TDS-afflicted NeoCon Liz Cheney, Corpulent Has-been Chris Christie, Ultra MAGA Dakota siren Kristi Noem, No-name former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, Bobby Jindal Redux Vivek Ramaswamy, Chris “Who?” Sununu, Course in Miracles eccentric Marianne Williamson, and surprising Anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
NARRATIVE ONE: The country is going to hell in a handbasket: out-of-control crime, a cartel-controlled Southern border, a fentanyl overdose epidemic, declining literacy, Woke indoctrination in schools, pre-teen genital mutilation, primed and paid-for anarchists ready to explode over any police miscue or court decision that does not go their way, a senile President spending like government expenditures have no connection to inflation, a politicized Justice Department, media, social media, and entertainment. Desperate times call for desperate measures. We must vote for the only guy who can punish the terrorists at home, abroad, and on our border, and who can clean out deep state rot from within: DONALD J. TRUMP, aka “Orange” or “Orange Man.”
NARRATIVE TWO: The country is going to hell in a handbasket, but mercurial firebrand Trump is not the answer. Rather, we need to go about solving the mess Democrats created by calmly, methodically attacking each of their self-inflicted disasters with policy smarts, grassroots buy-in, and savvy media management. We need to dial down the drama and dial up the results. It's not about "owning the Dems," it's about delivering safety, prosperity, and sanity for the American people. Trump talked a good game about the border, but he never punished the cartels, or made Mexico pay for the wall, or cracked down hard on illegal felons still in the country. I will. And I will liberate our schools from the teaching of adult topics unfit for children. My name is RON DESANTIS and my running mate GLENN YOUNGKIN and I are governors who’ve proven how to get hard things done. We will take that success to Washington. And I promise to deploy the formidable and newly slimmed-down MIKE POMPEO in some high-level way, or if Glenn won’t run with me.
NARRATIVE THREE: Things are bad, but not that bad. A little tweak here, a little tweak there, some tax cuts, some China-bashing, some lip service on the border, a little deregulation, a few DEI cuts, lots of prayer, and happy times are here again! Just keep Trump and the Dems out. NIKKI HALEY, MIKE PENCE, come on down!
NARRATIVE FOUR: We need to bring the country together again, man. We need peace and love, brother. We can't keep going at each other. We need togetherness and healing and tax cuts and faux fixes on crime, the border, taxes, and Woke indoctrination. We need to get back to friendly, smiling, virtue signaling. And don’t forget: I am that rare bird, a black Republican. My name is TIM SCOTT, “the optimistic conservative.”
NARRATIVE FIVE: Everything is just great, “peachy” in fact. The country is getting better all the time and, by the time November 2024 rolls around, inflation will be at 2% and the economy and stock market will be roaring back (these things go in cycles, you see, despite what I previously claimed). Besides, man, we are buying more votes, silencing more voices, effectively labeling Republicans as "domestic terrorists," building up the military-industrial complex with preventable wars abroad, tightening our grip over social media, media, entertainment, fashion, education, the intelligence services, the State Department, the Department of Defense, and Wall Street, taxing more, regulating more, castrating more, while investing in boondoggles to nowhere and letting more violent criminals roam free. Also, those racists in the other party are led by Donald J. Trump. We can’t afford that guy again. My name is JOE BIDEN. Should I die or be otherwise incapacitated (maybe I already am!), my Vice President KAMALA “THE BRAHMIN” HARRIS or PRETTY BOY GAVIN will do just fine in driving the country further into a ditch!
So, which of these narratives and candidates do you see having the best shot in 2024? Don’t be shy. Share your thoughts in the handy-dandy comments area below.