It’s Trump v Biden again. Why were there no better options for voters? | Moira Donegan

Real political struggle has been largely suspended for the sake of defeating Trump and his threat to constitutional democracy

You would hardly know from the 2024 cycle that primaries are supposed to be political contests. Each party's primaries, if they can be called that, were long exercises in foregone conclusions. And so the primary process, which for nearly 60 years has been a popular contest in which each party's internal factions jockeyed for position, worked to shape the party identity, and ultimately made their case to voters did not come to pass this year. Functionally, there were two incumbents. And functionally, neither party's primary offered a meaningful opportunity for the expression of internal dissent.

This did not change on Super Tuesday. Biden and Trump racked up delegates; the votes that were cast in the presidential contest were cast mostly in full awareness of their futility, the result already decided. There is one option labeled R", and one option labeled D". More than once throughout the campaign, I've imagined America's political party leaders as cruel lunch ladies, slopping greyish gruel on to trays for an unappetized America. You'll eat it and you'll like it."

Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist