By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP — The wait is finally (almost?) over and the division and vitriol can stop. But will it? That, of course, depends on who wins between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden.
John Froonjian, executive director of the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University, said he has never seen division like there is right now in the country.
“I’d say the political climate is stressing out people of all … stripes,” Froonjian said. “It’s probably the most intense election I’ve seen in decades of covering and commenting on politics. The most often-repeated phrase at this time is, ‘I can’t wait for it to be over.’”
Whether it is over quickly or not depends on how close it is, as Trump has threatened litigation if he does not win. If that is the case, the end could be a long time coming and threaten to widen the divide.
And as soon as it is finally over, or likely before, the campaign for the next election will begin. Froonjian said the 2024 primary season begins Nov. 5.
“There is no question that as soon as this election is over, angling and planning will begin for 2024,” he said. “So it will be interesting to see how the Democratic side positions themselves.”
He said if Trump wins, he would not be able to run again in 2024 and that Biden will be 82 come the next election and unlikely to seek re-election.
So that would leave a gaping hole in leadership on both sides of the political spectrum that many people will be eager to fill.
Froonjian said Biden already has positioned himself as a transition figure, hoping to hold the place for the next Democratic candidate.
He said the Republican Party has been “taken over” and its future is now unclear.
“You will probably have some people running to carry on the Trump banner and Trumpism. You may have some Republicans who want to try to bring the party back toward the center, toward traditional Republican values, and you may see some that are more Libertarian, so it will be interesting to see the Republican Party kind of fight it out what they are post-Trump,” Froonjian said. “It will be an interesting process of how the candidates position themselves and what the Republican Party is going to be going forward.”
He said it is a certainty that Trump is “not going to go away and be quiet.”
“I think Donald Trump, win or lose, is going to be around for a while, a factor for a while,” Froonjian said. “How many millions of people follow his Twitter account? He might be on cable news or have his own cable news channel.”
He said half-jokingly that the Republican Party could completely rebrand and rename itself the Trump Party, and “then any never-Trumpers, disaffected Republicans, true conservatives who don’t agree with tariffs and deficits would have the Republican Party name to rebuild.”
“I say that half-jokingly but I also think it might not be that crazy of an idea if I were a Republican wanting to rebuild the brand,” he said. “Trump puts his name on anything else — whether it be buildings, steaks, universities — so why not on a political party?”
He said that could usher in a time of more than two legitimate options.
“If the Republican Party split in two … that might give some fuel to other parties like Libertarian or Green Party,” he said. “I don’t expect it to ever happen but the Republican Party is completely owned now by Donald Trump and they are going to have to decide if that’s what they continue to be after this election or do they tack back to what they used to be, or is it an irreparable split?”
Asked how the nation heals after this election, he said it won’t be easy.
“The nation is so polarized, and we see this division in our polling. No matter what issue we ask about in our Stockton polls, it’s split very strongly along partisan lines,” he said.
Froonjian said from the nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic to racism, there is “very strong disagreement between Democrats and Republicans.”
“When there is a party line on a virus, you know this country is very divided. It will be tough, but I am not completely pessimistic. What it will take is a strong leader to model good citizenship and have people want to follow them.”
Asked if Biden is that man, Froonjian said he “has shown a lot of principle during this campaign, but whether people will follow that, I don’t know.”
“We are very divided but I think he is at least saying the right things. He is at least saying he wants to be president for everybody. He has demonstrated the ability to be bipartisan during his career, so I think that’s what we need to hear, whether anyone listens or not remains to be seen.”
But whoever wins the election, Froonjian believes mail-in ballots are here to stay.
“I think it’s popular, certainly one of the reasons why turnout was so high in the primary. It’s just so easy and once you give people a convenience, it’s hard to take away,” Froonjian said.
But people will still go to the polls, he said, “because it’s kind of a tradition, a custom, people are used to it, it’s a social event. People enjoy that convention of going to the polls, going in the booth. I don’t think a lot of people want to give that up but I think going forward you will see a lot more mail-in voting if they have that option.”