Jockeying for the American Presidency: The Political Opportunism ...

1812, 1824)…Slash-and-burn as the country may be in countless ways, its basic political institutions date to the eighteenth century or earlier…[and] that can make for an often surprising sameness or continuity in the way these institutions, including the selecting of presidents, operate.”²⁶

Noting the previously mentioned qualifications, in this account, parties are rational (intent on winning each election cycle), albeit typically inefficient institutions, and this is owing to inherited legacies (e.g., structural, procedural, rhetorical, and coalitional) from previous aspirants (especially nominees and presidents) and the ongoing competition between current aspirants to become their party's presidential nominee. Extending John Aldrich's claim that “parties may help officeholders win more, and win more often,” this account asserts that aspirants (those aspiring to the presidency, whether they are five cycles from running or acknowledged candidates) compete with one another over how to make their party “strong” so that it will, in fact, enjoy more success (first electoral, then governance). Holding contradictory views, aspirants try to mold their party into an extension of their strategic beliefs. They argue over policy positions and reinterpret ideological tenets to persuade others of their vision. Courting like-minded partisans and civic leaders (officeholders, lower-level office-seekers, party officials, financial contributors, and grassroots activists), these aspirants offer assistance, grant favors, and dole out government largesse. They cultivate and promote some groups more than others, representing the regional (e.g., the West versus the East) and/or factional interests (e.g., “religious conservatives” as, perhaps, opposed to “corporate conservatives”) that they believe will bring about an auspicious future. Although Aldrich asserted that other officeholders and lower-level office-seekers shape and direct parties, it is more likely that they take sides in this presidential competition, betting their political futures on their service as supporters and surrogates, sustaining the commitments made by past aspirants and promoting the new commitments offered by the current generation of aspirants. Thus, aspirants (including the successful ones who become president) are the main engines driving party politics in America, and their motors are rarely, if ever, in neutral.²⁷