Thread by @DavidPriess

Now that Joe Walsh has joined William Weld in taking on a sitting president of his own party, here are a few thoughts on intra-party challenges to incumbents, and their primary purpose:

They are a relatively effective way to get rid of an unworthy president.

1/6

Major parties once removed their own incumbents who’d been deemed too unpopular or unfit to move forward with.

In the mid-19th century, in fact, three successive sitting presidents—Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, and James Buchanan—were rejected by their own parties.

2/6

Back then, politicians weren’t shy about ditching a toxic incumbent when voters seemed likely to boot him in the general election.

Here’s my @BulwarkOnline article, from earlier this year, about that:

thebulwark.com/history-offers…

3/6

Later in the century, Chester Arthur had risen above the lowest public expectations ever for an entering president to redeem himself much while holding office. The turnaround was admirable, even historic. Yet Arthur failed to convince his own party to renominate him.

4/6

More recently, Lyndon Johnson’s actions in 1968 suggest that after announcing he wouldn’t seek another presidential term, he hoped Democrats would beg him to jump back into the field to save the party and the country.

Spoiler alert: They didn’t.

5/6

Bottom line: Presidents need not be thrown out at the polls on Election Day to find themselves politically dislodged from the White House.

“Rejected by the Party” is the first chapter in my book, HOW TO GET RID OF A PRESIDENT:

amazon.com/How-Get-Rid-Pr…

/end