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Jacqueline Salit

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    Voting

    Virginia's results are no mystery, if you know your election history

    Jacqueline Salit
    November 19, 2021
    Ross Perot and Bill Clinton at the 1992 presidential debate

    Either party could capture the middle if they studied Ross Perot's 1992 presidential run, writes Salit.

    Wally McNamee/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images

    Salit is president of Independent Voting, which works to promote the political clout of unaffiliated voters, and the author of "Independents Rising: Outsider Movements, Third Parties, and the Struggle for a Post-Partisan America."

    A look in the rearview mirror can reveal a lot. And sometimes objects are closer than they appear.

    The year was 1993. Bill Clinton had been elected president with 43 percent of the popular vote. His predecessor, George H.W. Bush, had been turned out of office after one term. And a Texas billionaire with no history in politics or government, Ross Perot, had mesmerized the country with his independent presidential bid and stood on the debate stage with Clinton and Bush, garnering nearly 20 million votes.

    The Democratic Party held the White House and a majority in Congress. But the party was worried. Clinton had taken office without a clear majority and his mandate to govern was thin. Internally, the party was restive and divided, echoes of the progressive Jesse Jackson Rainbow movement still reverberating against the party's turn towards Clintonian centrism. Looking to the future – not merely the next election but the prospect of creating a durable electoral majority – the Democratic Leadership Council commissioned a study of the Perot voter. "These voters hold the key to the future of American politics, and there are widespread misconceptions about them," Al From, the president of the DLC, announced at a press conference on July 7, when the results of the study were released.

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    Big Picture

    More excessive partisanship will make wound from Capitol siege even worse

    Jacqueline Salit
    January 14, 2021
    Donald Trump, before the Capitol riot

    By inciting a riot, President Trump gave Democrats the chance to transcend the gamesmanship they helped to create, writes Salit.

    Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images
    Salit is president of Independent Voting, which works to promote the political clout of unaffiliated voters, and the author of "Independents Rising: Outsider Movements, Third Parties, and the Struggle for a Post-Partisan America" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).
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