In Picking Kamala Harris, Democrats Follow the Tories’ Folly
Conservatives suffered an electoral shellacking when party elites chose a leader the voters didn’t like.
Consider Britain’s Conservative Party, which burned through five prime ministers in eight years and recently lost an election in crushing fashion.
Liz Truss won overwhelming support from the party membership but not lawmakers, and those lawmakers eagerly ousted her as soon as her economic-reform agenda hit political and market turbulence.
Dispiritingly for Ms. Harris, the closest analog to her situation may be Rishi Sunak.
The main feature of his career was a meteoric rise unrelated to any obvious aptitude for government or politics other than a talent for appealing to party elites.
America’s genius should be its ability to do better than the democracies across the Atlantic.
We boast a highly developed primary system to vet candidates independent of elite opinion, and a boisterous federalism that allows voters to test a wide range of talents in lower offices before voting them into higher ones.
Parties don’t always seize the opportunity to nominate their best options, but Democrats may yet regret not even having given themselves the chance.
Joseph C. Sternberg Wall Street Journal 25 July 2024
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