Yes, it is seven months away, but I have ben thinking about the American presidential election. Mostly I have been wondering what can be done to fix a broken system.

Technically there is nothing wrong with the way Americans elect a president. The system has worked for more than 200 years, with a peaceful transition of power the norm – until the last election in 2020.

In 2024 we will see a rerun of the last campaign, the only difference being that the roles re reversed, with Donald Trump the challenger and Joe Biden the incumbent. Given his attempts to negate the results of the last election, the prospect of another Trump presidency has a lot of people very worried.

I suppose there’s the possibility Trump will be convicted on one of the many criminal charges he is facing and be in jail on election day. If the polls can be believed, that wouldn’t make a difference to his fans. After all, this is the man who boasted in 2016 that he could shoot someone and not lose votes. He doesn’t have supporters, he has worshippers.

The world wonders if Americans have lost their collective mind that they would even consider voting for Trump. The problem in many ways is that those who don’t like Biden or his policies really have no other choice.

It is effectively a two-party system. While the occasional third-party candidate may receive publicity and some votes, rarely do they win any votes in the Electoral College that actually selects the president. (Independent candidate Ross Perot received almost 20 million votes nationwide in 1992 and failed to win a single Electoral College vote – most states have a winner-take-all policy.)

In 2020 Joe Biden’s biggest strength was that he wasn’t Donald Trump. After four years of drama and political chaos, Americans wanted change.

But Biden doesn’t inspire, and memories are short. Even though Trump will lose the popular vote for the third time, he may manage to squeeze out enough Electoral College votes to regain the presidency. The Republicans, in thrall to Trump, know how to get their voters to the polls. The Democrats, with a numerical advantage, don’t work as hard and that may cost them.

The next six months of campaigning will probably be mostly boring, After all, it is a rerun.

Election night though may be very interesting.