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2020 Primary Update
The last time I posted about this topic was in June, and in some ways a lot has changed since then, but one thing has stayed constant: my support of Elizabeth Warren. It's not long after I wrote that post that I decided I was all in for her, and nothing has ever caused that stance to waver. I love her detailed plans, her enthusiasm, her fighting spirit, her willingness to learn from her mistakes and ability to bring other candidates' ideas into her platform -- always with permission. I think she would make a stupendous president, and I dearly hope she has the chance.
It disappoints me that she hasn't done better in the earlier states -- although she beat her polls in Iowa, that fact never got any traction in the media narrative, and I fear it's hurt her in the later states, especially among voters concerned about electability. But a lot can change on Super Tuesday. And for that change to happen, I think it's important that her vocal supporters actually be vocal about it, so I've finally gotten involved with the campaign: putting the bumper sticker on my car, being more intentional with posts like this one, and signing up to send texts to voters. I've only done three batches so far -- you need to keep up on responses, and that's a challenge during the week because I'm not allowed to use work resources for political campaigns. Still, I feel like I'm contributing -- I've convinced a few Warren fans to volunteer, and at least one person who was on the fence committed after speaking to me! That was a super-exciting moment.
While at this point, I'd rather focus on the candidate I do like rather than the rest of the field, I do have a few thoughts.
So I can't really rank the rest in any kind of order because, unfortunately, I'm not excited about a single one of them. None of my second tier of candidates (Harris, Booker, Castro, Gillibrand) even made it to the Iowa caucus, and that's a damn shame. The primary process is messed up in so many ways, and I hope we have the opportunity to take a hard took at it and make things better. Anyway, the remaining options as of this writing are Bernie, Biden, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Bloomberg, and I suppose Tulsi Gabbard, although why she hangs around in this race I have literally no idea. Just as well because she's my actual last choice and has been for awhile.
Bloomberg's presence in this race makes me actively angry. I suppose I wouldn't mind so much if he'd started from the beginning rather than using his billions to buy his way in just in time for Super Tuesday. Instead, it's pretty clear that he got in it for his own ego and to keep either Warren or Bernie from winning because he doesn't want to pay a wealth tax. I've probably gotten at least a dozen pieces of mail from him, and of course his TV and internet ads are inescapable. Besides the whole "buying the election" aspect, I am deeply concerned by his authoritarian tendencies, his racism and transphobia, his behavior toward women, his blatant sense of entitlement. I have no interest in trading one blowhard billionaire for another, and while I SUPPOSE I'll vote for him in the general if I have to, I really hope I won't have to. I certainly couldn't bring myself to volunteer for him. If he's the candidate, I'll focus on the Senate and keeping the House.
My early sense that Buttigieg and Klobuchar are too moderate for my tastes has been confirmed. It's too bad about Klobuchar -- I'd had some hope that she might catch on as a compromise candidate and move to the left on a few things, and that she might strike a chord as a strong campaigner, but that hasn't really materialized except for a good performance in the New Hampshire debate (which probably propelled her to third place there). Like Warren, either of them could get more traction on Super Tuesday, especially Mayor Pete who I think is still second place in the delegate count, even after South Carolina tonight, and I suppose I prefer either of them to the remaining options, but not particularly strongly.
That brings us to Biden and Bernie, who are basically two sides of the same coin. Biden looked to be fading, but his strong performance in South Carolina tonight puts him back in the mix. Bernie is peaking at the right time, and I'm starting to wonder if momentum really is on his side. I'd rather either of them than Bloomberg, but there are so many reasons that I'm not enthusiastic about either of them. Very different reasons, I should say: Bernie is too unwilling to compromise, shows no interest in campaigning for down-ticket races, and had the 100% wrong response to the news about Russian support for his candidacy; Biden is too willing to compromise and I differ from him on almost every policy ideal. But one reason is the same, and that's how sad it makes me that, after only 12 years, we're back to the old white men. There's no question that I'd vote for either of them in the general, and possibly even volunteer for them, but neither of them gives me the same kind of hope that Warren does.
As for the electability issue, I'll say just one thing: we have no idea what makes a candidate "electable". The term is essentially meaningless. Any of these candidates could win in November. And any of them could lose. I know that's not what most of us want to hear right now -- we want a sure thing, a guarantee that this nightmare will come to an end, or at least move into a more manageable state, in January 2021. But there is no such guarantee, and anyone who tells you that any candidate is certain to win or to lose is just flat out wrong. A candidate is electable if we vote for them. If we work for them. If we convince our neighbors to do the same. There is no such thing as a "safe" choice, and that's a truth that I find liberating.
Super Tuesday in three days. Best of luck to us all.
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Voted for Warren, btw.
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I suspect that California may transition to all vote by mail within the next decade or so. I think vote by mail is a wonderful innovation, and I understand how important it is for making it easier to vote, but I admit that I still like the ritual of going to the polls on Election Day, and I would miss that if it were gone.
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Whichever candidate we end up with, we're going to hear ad nauseam that they are unelectable. So that is a red herring. We have to go "all in" just as they did.
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