William Jennings Bryan did something no other person did. He ran as a major nominee for President three times and lost the popular vote all three times.
The first time he ran in 1896, he was only 36 years old, the youngest nominee in American History, a record that still stands today (unless AOC runs in '24 - currently, I have her penciled in for 2028 when she is 40).
Bryan had his virtues and his flaws. He was a great defender of agrarian interests and favored farmers over the banks and wealthy interests that tried to control them. He was more Progressive than his opponents (an exception might have been the Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Teddy Roosevelt). He later became Secretary of State in 1912 under the racist President Woodrow Wilson, but it was not a good fit - Bryan opposed imperialism and resigned in 1915 as he protested our increasing movement towards involvement in World War I.
But his attitude towards African-Americans was mixed at best, as were many at that time. And he was a fundamentalist., very conservative in his religious views. His last public act was leading the prosecution at the Scopes Monkey Trial, where a Tennessee teacher was put on trial for teaching evolution. This trail was dramatized in my favorite play, Inherit the Wind, and featured the most famous defense attorney of that time, Clarence Darrow, bringing Bryan to the stand, where he grilled him about the Bible and its contradictions. Bryan died only five days after the trial.
He lost the first time by 600,000 popular votes and 95 electoral college votes. Yet the party turned to him again in 1900, this time losing by 858,000 popular votes and 237 votes.
Yet this was not enough to dissuade the Democratic Party. He was their nominee a third time, in 1908, this time losing by 1.270,000 popular votes and 159 electoral college votes.
The more he ran, the further away he got. And yet, the Democratic Party turned to him time and time again.
This hasn't happened in modern times. Since 1972, major parties have turned fiercely against their Presidential losers. The Democrats turned against McGovern, Carter, Mondale, Dukakis, Gore, Kerry, and Clinton. The Republicans were even more extreme in their reactionary exclusion of Bush Sr., Dole, McCain, and Romney. Oh, sure; they might become a cabinet Secretary, or win a Senate Seat. But they would never be considered as Presidential candidates again.
This hasn't happened in modern times.
Until now.
Until Donald J Trump. A man who has only flaws and no virtues. A man whose only claim to fame is his desire to preserve the American caste system. A man who shouldn't be a dog catcher, much less President. A man who led an insurrection against democracy.
In 2016 he lost the popular vote by 2,869,000 votes and only won the Presidency because of a deeply flawed and broken electoral college system. In 2018. he was the major factor in the Democrats winning control of the House.
In 2020 he lost the popular vote by a whopping 7,053,000 votes and lost the still skewed electoral college vote by the reverse of his 2016 results (304 to 232). And now, even the Senate fell narrowly into Democratic hands.
And yet, the Republicans did not turn on on him. They cling to him all the harder. If he wants to be the nominee in 2024, it will be handed to him on a silver platter. Heck, probably a golden platter.
Unless he's in jail by that time.
Hell, who am I kidding? Even that may not matter to Republicans
Why this clinging to someone, who if he ran again, is likely to finish further away from winning, as did William Jenning Bryan?
Because the Republicans are no longer about policy positions.
They only care about power. And that power is to be deployed in the preservation of the American caste system.
And for them, that is a fight worth having.
It horrifies me. But it is true.
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