U.S. elections 2020:
Send in the clowns

Eddie Colla’s rejected intro to the 2020 RNC plus a minor parties rundown

By Byron Toben

Eddie Colla, a photographer/painter, has been featured in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and Huffington Post. Since 2008, his Street Art mural paintings incorporating Barack Obama led to his being featured with other such artists as Banksy, even creating street pieces in Paris and Thailand.

With the current publicity regarding the forthcoming U.S. elections, he has devised several relevant digital montages, one of which is an opening announcement for the recent Republican National Convention.

It was rejected (understandably, he states, by the RNC).

Note that the background music is to Send in the Clowns, the 1976 Grammy winner for song of the year. Written by Stephen Sondheim for the play and film A Little Night Music, based on the 1955 Ingmar Bergman film Smiles of a Summer Night, the ballad took off when Frank Sinatra recorded it in 1973 and really zoomed when Judy Collins did same in 1975. Since then, a number of other noted singers have performed it.

Other minor parties

Having covered both the Democratic and Republican Conventions (as well as the dissident Republican group, my attention was turned to the 16 other minor parties plus 4 independents on or seeking ballot access to run their presidential candidate. Unlike Canada, which fields at least four parties of some strength, the USA has never had a meaningful third party. So why bother looking at some of these now?

The U.S. system of electoral votes results in a distortion of the national popular vote. The majority of States are historically either Democratic or Republican. Therefore the real battleground boils down to the “swing states”.

2020 Presidential Election Interactive Map courtesy of 270towin.com

Click the map to create your own at 270toWin.com

The magic minimum number of electoral votes to win is 270. Unlike the primaries, which allocate popular vote percentages proportionately among its electors, the national election has “winner take all” (only Nebraska and Maine are proportional). Thus California, with its huge population has its votes limited to its assigned 55 electoral votes so any California Democrat votes above 51% are “wasted”.

In 2016, Trump won a number of swing states by narrow margins, thus gaining all those state’s electoral votes. Studies have shown that the margin of his wins was less than the total of the minor parties in those states.

The U.S. system of electoral votes results in a distortion of the national popular vote. The majority of States are historically either Democratic or Republican. Therefore the real battleground boils down to the “swing states”.

Here are the thirteen 2020 swing states listed by size of electoral votes: Texas 38, Florida 24, Pennsylvania 20, Ohio and North Carolina 18 each, Georgia and Michigan 16 each, Arizona 13, Minnesota and Wisconsin 10 each, Iowa 8, New Hampshire 4, Maine 1.

And here are the possibly significant minor parties listed by number of states they are printed on ballots:

Libertarian party (48 states plus D.C.)
For president: Jo Jorgesen, Clemson U. Lecturer
For vice president: Spike Cohen, businessman/podcaster
Both reside in South Carolina

Green party (31 states plus D.C.)
For president: Howie Hawkins, co-founder of Green party
For vice president: Angela Walker, legislative director ATU local 998
Hawkins from New York, Walker from South Carolina

Constitution party (18 states)
For president: Don Blankenship, former CEO Massey Energy
For vice president: William Mohr, chair, U.S. taxpayers of Michigan
Blankenship from West Virginia, Mohr from Michigan

‘In 2016, Trump won a number of swing states by narrow margins, thus gaining all those state’s electoral votes. Studies have shown that the margin of his wins was less than the total of the minor parties in those states.’

Alliance party/Reform party (15 states)
For president: Rocky De La Fuente, businessman
For vice president: Darcy Richardson, author/historian
De La Fuente from California, Richardson from Florida

Party for Socialism and Liberation (13 states)
For president: Gloria La Riva, activist and writer
For vice president: Sunil Freeman, activist and author
La Riva is from California, Freeman from D.C.

Birthday party (11 states)
For president: Kanye West, rapper, producer, fashion designer
For vice president: Michelle Tidball, preacher
West is from Illinois, Tidball from Wyoming

Besides the above six parties, there are 4 independents and 10 other parties too tiny to mention here. However, a few humorous observations:

Kanye West at his first campaign rally in North Charleston, SC on July 19, 2020 – Image: Nice4What / CC BY-SA

On names

One is named The Prohibition party! I thought that went out on December 5, 1933. Perhaps it should be called the Dry Persistents!

Another is the Transhumanist party. Translate that – is it transformative, transgendered or transitioned?

A cute one is the Bread and Roses party – should attract progressive types. Theatre folk would rally to a Bread and Puppets name.

On trickiness

With regard to Kanye West’s Birthday Party (nothing to do with Pinter’s play), it appears that Trump emissaries lent money and skills to set it up hoping that it might draw black votes away from Dems in swing states.

Feature image: LibreStock

Read more articles from Byron Toben

Byron Toben, a past president of The Montreal Press Club, has been WestmountMag.ca’s theatre reviewer since July 2015. Previously, he wrote for since terminated web sites Rover Arts and Charlebois Post, print weekly The Downtowner and print monthly The Senior Times. He also is an expert consultant on U.S. work permits for Canadians.