Why Mayor Bloomberg as president makes a lot of sense

By Morgan Levy ‘19

Contributing Writer

Living in a nation with the second most unproductive Congress in history and multiple government shutdowns, I can’t help but wonder how our nation became so politically separate in such a dramatic way.  For hundreds of years our nation has been run by a bipartisan system.  That’s worked decently for some portion of those years, but recently the bipolar nature of the system has begun to get in the way of American progress.

This has become especially apparent in the recent election.  With a myriad of Republican candidates and a handful of Democratic candidates all expressing radically different ideas and belittling the others’ ideas, how could we ever get our nation to agree on anything?  An increasing portion of our population has expressed disdain with the system. Very few people fit neatly into the radical ends of our current political spectrum.  This is a troubling reality for a large portion of the population.  A problem that is rooted in the fundamental nature of our political system is quite difficult to solve.

Which is exactly where an independent candidate comes in.  As a New Jersey native with parents who worked in New York City during the 9/11 years, Former Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg is much more familiar to me than to those outside of the Northeast.  Arguably being the mayor of New York City is analogous to running a small country, considering the diversity of the population in ethnicity, ideology and just about anything else under the sun.  However, New Yorkers all share the strong spirit and vision that the city has to offer.  This is truly a beautiful thing for a president.  But most importantly, Bloomberg has a track record of success.  Many of today’s frustrated voters are looking for a more bipartisan candidate.

A New York Timesarticle from Jan. 23 provided insight from anonymous sources that Bloomberg expresses concern with the possibility that either Ted Cruz or Donald Trump will get the Republican nomination and Bernie Sanders will get the Democratic nomination.  Time will tell whether this will come true, but it is definitely possible.  Bloomberg has toyed with the idea of running before, but never chose to do so in the end.  But in the world of politics these days and the absolutely insane (how else would one describe it?) election we are in, crazier things have happened.

Independent candidates have gained traction before, but never made it to the White House. If he decides to run and is elected, Bloomberg would be our nation’s first president from an independent party. But before you dismiss the idea entirely and say it would never happen, I encourage you to adopt the Lafayette motto and think: cur non?