A Washington Post election feature this week identified the emergence of a new group of voters that may decide the 2024 election. More prevalent in swing states, their common thread is this: they are skeptical/patently disappointed/furious that out of more than 300 million people, the best two people we have to stand for the office of President are Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

These are the "double haters" and I have found my tribe.

I decided I needed to take a deeper look into my 2024 election traumas as my primary copywriter, guest columnist, and husband looked at my last two columns and said, "you are at the same time angry and nihilist." I've always wanted to use "nihilist" in a column, although perhaps not as a self-reference.

According to The Washington Post, swing states (Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Georgia) have the largest numbers of double haters. In the 2020 election, these states had the highest number of third-candidate votes or no votes for President. According to Cook's Report, Five Thirty-Eight, and The Economist, along with every other credible political data center, the swing states are deciding the election.

Washington Post writer Ashley Parker interviewed double haters and their quotes ring so true. "Terrifying," "Absolute trash," "…it's going to boil down to what sucks less." It's like these people have been in my living room. I would happily quaff nice bourbon with any of them.

It also maps with what one of my oldest friends and fellow St. Mary's (Silver City) First Communicant wrote to me recently: "Is there any hope for positive change without catastrophe to drive it?" Seriously, dear reader: what catastrophe will it take?
New Mexico Political Report just commissioned a poll, cited by Five Thirty-Eight showing Biden up by seven comfortable points in New Mexico. The Economist gives Biden a 5 in 6 chance of winning our five electoral votes. Clearly, my brilliant and erudite childhood friend, whom I shall call "FC" here, and I, and our fellow double haters in the Land of Enchantment are not going to move the needle.

The 2024 nihilist in me wants to bring up the weaknesses in both candidates, the disasters of both administrations, throw up my hands, and flounce off to go back to my day job.

That is, I know, intellectually lazy on a breathtaking scale.

It is our habit to allow Presidents two terms to finish a policy agenda. What would that look like? When I pause in my rage (is it a nihilist rage?) to ask that question, I find that is where the double haters can't move forward.

Neither President has exactly earned a mandate. And in the background Congress is sucking all the air from the room with its inertia. To be fair, the two administrations straddled the pandemic, which was a societal and economic trainwreck largely out of their control.

Nearly 1.18 million people died. Vaccines were rapidly deployed which was a phenomenal success of the Trump administration, but MAGA wouldn't let him take credit. A generation of schoolchildren lost a solid year of instruction.

Spending, too much before, became unsustainable under both administrations. A massive surplus package was passed under the Trump administration, and additional spending packages under Biden's. Billions of dollars went to our schools as an example. I can tell you, that money for schools disappeared in two blinks and has not gone to pathogen eradication or other interventions to keep children learning in the next pandemic.

Let's look at the economy. Both Trump and Biden are in love with tariffs, which are both inflationary and fly in the face of free trade. Biden is picking and choosing his tariffs, generally on Chinese clean energy imports. Trump promises a plus en plus tariff, 10% on all Chinese goods. That is pretty much everything you buy at Walmart and also from Amazon. And neither candidate nor most of Congress are worried about the Federal debt. This is truly frightening.

We are all concerned about immigration. We know Trump will bring back Xenophobe-In-Chief Stephen Miller to pull the U.S. in a direction that pleases MAGA but does little to address the backlog of asylum seekers already here. Biden is clamping down on immigration to get elected, but will it hold after November?

Our world is more uncertain and unstable than it has been in my lifetime. Neither candidate brings anything to the table when it comes to the United States' position abroad and as Commander-in-Chief of the world's greatest military. Trump is a blowhard isolationist who seems to have man-crushes on some of the worst dictators on the planet. Biden is overly cautious at best and irresolute at worst. All of our enemies know this.

Okay. Here is my non-nihilist plan for Election 2024. Congress. Congress is key. And the Legislature.

Everything down ballot is going to be, well, everything. Congress has given up too much power to the executive branch. I wish everyone who reads this column would look up their U.S. Representative's and U.S Senator's local office. Then, call them. Tell them what is important to you. Tell them to claw back their power and quit waiting for an executive order.

And, vote! We have very exciting challengers to our entrenched incumbents in New Mexico. Ask good questions. Mix up your ticket. Surprise me. Down-ballot politicians of today are the Presidential candidates of future decades. Whether you are on your last nerve like the double haters and me, or enthusiastic about your choices for President in 2024, we should all agree that we need the best and brightest to lead our nation in 2028 and beyond.

Merritt Hamilton Allen is a PR executive and former Navy officer. She appeared regularly as a panelist on NM PBS and is a frequent guest on News Radio KKOB. A Republican, she lives amicably with her Democratic husband north of I-40 where they run one head of dog, and two of cat. She can be reached at news.ind.merritt@gmail.com .