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As I look around at the crumbling democracy that Trump hath wrought, I recall the joking statement that I and my friends have made over the years: Oh my God, if XXXXXX is ever elected, then I’m moving to YYYYYY.
On the one hand, I’m pretty certain that I’m not going anywhere regardless of the results of the coming Presidential election. On the other hand, I’ve heard too many stories of my European brethen in the 1930’s who decided to sit tight until the temporary storm blew over.
This melodramatic preface serves as my way of stating that Donald Trump must not be elected again! Having said this, we immediately arrive at the saddening question of which one of the tweedle dee and tweedle dum Democratic hopefuls could possibly defeat him in November.
So let’s go down the list and choose one, OMG, by process of elimination:
First there’s Joe Biden. Joe, dear Joe, old Joe. I started this electoral season as a big Joe fan, a fan of the Joe I remembered from as late as four years ago (when, if he ran, I fully believe he would have beaten Hillary for the nomination and Trump for the White House). But the aging process is fickle and unpredictable. A year younger than Sanders and Bloomberg, and only four years older than Trump, he just seems to have lost it. The strong and dynamic Joe that I could count on to whip Donald’s butt seems to have lost several miles per hour off his fastball. I fear that Joe’s time has passed, and I’ve felt no choice but to jump off the Joe bandwagon.
Then there’s Bernie, dear Bernie—so many pro’s and con’s. He’s 78, a cranky old man, and he just had a heart attack. But he’s a dynamo, and he excites young people. He’s an idealist, a self-admitted socialist, and a Jew (although many Jews believe his election would be terrible for Israel). Dear Bernie could get elected overnight in Scandanavia or Holland (he’d be known as a moderate in Amsterdam), and, yes—I wouldn’t bemoan a Bernie victory here, but it just ain’t gonna happen.
I don’t believe for a single moment that a majority of the voters in THIS country will cast their ballots for a man who will be portrayed by the Republican machine as left of Stalin. Bernie, I know you’ll enthrall kids on college campuses, but your beliefs are not those of the majority of the electorate, and even your best values will be violently—and, I fear, successfully–twisted and misrepresented. If Bernie’s our candidate, I’ll be checking the price of one-way tickets to YYYYYY.
There’s not much to say at this point about Elizabeth Warren. She and Bernie were vying for the same voters and her sort-of-friend from Vermont seems to have won. Just to get it off my back, although she’s my Senator, I’ve never loved her personally. She sees life as a battle, and every third word out of her mouth seems to be some form of “fight” or “fighter.” I say this knowing that every female on the planet will remind me what a male chauvinist I am, noting that the same behavior emanating from a man would be respected and valued. My simple answer is no. I’m not a big fan of people of any gender or race who frame the world as a fight. And if seeing the world as a zero-sum game is the province of males, I take it as a negative male trait and don’t see why I should be happy to hear the worst kind of male rhetoric coming from any candidate of any sex.
If we’re talking about the remaining viable candidates that we’ve seen on the debate stage, we’re down to two. Pete Buttigieg, whose name I still can’t spell, reminds so many of us of Kennedy and Obama, attractive, well-educated, and articulate. But can he win? I sadly fear not. Besides the fact that he’s never governed anything larger than South Bend Indiana, I would love to believe my friends who tell me how far this country has come on the topic of sexual orientation, how accepting people are of same sex couples.
Unfortunately, social scientists have found that people tend to overestimate the presence of all sorts of sentiments based on their local sampling of opinion. I know that “my friends” would never hold being gay against him, would never hesitate to cast a vote for a man simply because… But it’s important to acknowledge that the people I talk to are not a representative sample of the electorate. My friends don’t live in Pennsylvania mining towns or in Wisconsin farm country. And even if the bias that exists in this country is not widespread, I fear that it’s still enough to swing the margin of victory in a subtle, but decisive way, from one side to the other.
Then there’s Amy Klobuchar. Right age. Right sex. Thoughtful, well-educated, highly experienced. Solid middle American values. But unless she can convince me (and several million others) that she’s the person who can lead this nation away from Trump, I simply can’t find the energy to go all-in for her. If someone somewhere has perfected a charisma transplant, then I’m on the Klobuchar bandwagon, but until they do I remain a skeptic. What a pity that charisma makes so much of a difference, but I fear it does—especially against the evil incumbent in the White House.
So, who’s left? Mike Bloomberg. He’s rich. He’s short (to be honest, he’s no shorter than I am). He’s got middle of the road, yet still progressive values, and he’s smart. He’s not Mr. Charisma and he is old, but he does have a real presence about him. From his days in New York, he knows Trump, and clearly he knows how to get under the Donald’s skin. The Trumpster only attacks those people whom he fears, and the fact that he’s going after Bloomberg is Trump’s tell, the sign that the bully has noticed a new kid in the schoolyard who just might contend for alpha male.
Is Bloomberg also full of flaws? In as long as it takes to say stop-and-frisk or billionaire, you can bet that he’s got his own baggage. But until or unless Michelle Obama comes riding in on a white (or black) horse, I’m thinking Mike.
For now I see you as my fully flawed, but my only and last hope.
well reasoned, Ed.