McMullin, Kasich, Hickenlooper, Huntsman, or somebody else sane in 2020!

I don't expect to be disenfranchised in 2020. I'm looking forward to Evan McMullin running against President Trump and whatever left-wing extremist the Democrats nominate. McMullin may or may not run for the Senate next year, and he may or may not run for president as an independent again next time around, but the nation can't afford to lose its most eloquent and intelligent critic of the populist takeover of the Republican party and the Executive Branch. We need the man in public life.

But interesting alternatives have developed. Ohio Gov. John Kasich has been mentioned as a potential primary challenger for Mr. Trump. I hope somebody continues the fight for the soul of my former party, even though I believe it to be a lost cause. Entrepreneur Mark Cuban is reportedly also considering a challenge to Mr. Trump. While I tend to see him at this point as somewhere to the left of where a candidate I would feel comfortable supporting might be, I would wish him well. Still, I see the chances of either Cuban or Kasich or anyone else denying Trump renomination as non-existent. The Republican party, I fear, has lost its soul as well as its mind, and if it ever manages to purge itself of the crazy it won't be as early as 2020.

Meanwhile, rumors just won't die that Gov. Kasich and Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, are considering running on a national unity ticket against Trump and his Democratic challenger in 2020. It should be noted that both men have previously ruled out doing so, Kasich joking that "Kasich-Hickenlooper" wouldn't even fit on a bumper sticker.  Yet despite their denials, the rumors persist.

I disagree with Kasich, too, on some issues, but he and Gov. Hickenlooper are both good and very substantial men who could well strike a telling blow for the founding principles of our nation by setting partisanship aside and running against the crazies on both ends of the political spectrum.

For all his support from the ill-informed, the haters, and the fearful, the American people are coming more and more to recognize what a disaster for America and its ideals the election of our first openly authoritarian president last year truly was. The Democrats have a "weak bench," and seem unlikely to come up with a strong opponent for him. They are even less likely to nominate anyone who could appeal to the centrist independents and disgruntled Republicans who are hungry for an alternative to the most irresponsible and least-qualified president in our history.

A Kasich-Hickenlooper national unity ticket might be just what our nation needs. But barring that, somebody is going to stand up to the crazies in 2020, and given the insanity of both major parties, it will have to be through an independent or third-party race in the general election. It might be McMullin again. It might be Ambassador John Huntsman.

But somebody will do it, There are still enough reasonable, decent and sane Americans around that I can't see us being denied a voice in 2020, and I plan to be heard by means of that voice just as loudly as I can.