The Great Debate gnawing at the Democratic Party!
No, I'm not talking about the donnybrook debate that occurred this week in Nevada. Although that was a lively and I would say necessary debate. Kumbaya and milquetoast centrism ain't gonna win the day over Trump. And the takedown of Republican Billionaire buy-in Bloomberg was absolutely mandatory. Elizabeth Warren did a magnificent job of eviscerating him. Her stellar debate performance pushed her back into the frontlines of the contest, just as the mainstream media was preparing to write her off.
No, this is about the great debate on how to defeat the greatest threat to American democracy we have ever seen - narcissistic racist con-man President Donald J Trump.
The two main approaches are -
1) We need to hew close to the center (or center-right if we can stand it) in the hopes of pulling in disaffected Republicans
This strategy emphasizes fuzzy or non-existant positions in order not to turn off the mythical marginal voter, the ones who are basically conservative but don't like a few of Trump's tweets.
Some approaches to this believe that superior experience will win the day, whether it's Biden's nostalgic to the better days of Barack Obama, or Klobuchar's hard-nosed pragmatism. Another approach is Buttigieg's "Look! Look! I'm new! You know - like Obama was new! I'm new without the edge - offering positions that are really not that far from what we have now!"
This approach reflects the fear that a more progressive candidate will scare voters off. It also reflects a snakebit quality in running a person of color and/or a female candidate. After all, didn't Trump beat a woman last time? Maybe we should try something different.
2) Clear policy benefitting average Americans and massive voter turnout among the young and people of color will win the day
This strategy believes, at least as far as the white working-class goes, that policy benefitting them will win more of them than Republican Lite will. It also feels like someone the young and people of color can enthusiastically support will drive turnout up and win the day. And, yes. There are a lot more of us than there are of them. But they will turn out in droves every time. We will not. It's the great shame of American politics., and it has to change in order to save the country.
Sanders is approaching by lighting a fire and making strong stances that no one can mistake. The dirty secret the mainstream media is not telling you is that he is increasing his base among non-white voters, and either has or is close to passing Biden. Waren is doing something similar, but not as loudly or as decisively as Sanders. That may be a plus or a negative. I guess it depends on how important a revolutionary stance is to you.
Ok, there may be a third approach, although there shouldn't be - we'll match your fake billionaire with our real billionaire, even if he's really a Republican. This approach is so moronic and disgusting I don't even want to go into it.
Obviously, being an Independent Progressive, I believe strongly in the second approach over the first one.
Think the first approach will work?
Let's see.
Did it work for Gore?
Did it work for Kerry?
Did it work for Hilary Clinton?
That said, I would agree with something valuable that Hilary said:
If we are going to take down Trump, we have to be united. We're going to all have to unite and BE ENTHUSIASTIC.
It will take appeals to disaffected Republican voters, calling for a sense of decency and a restoration of constitutional values.
It will take clear positions that favor the average American over the wealthy and corporations that favor fair play and even playing fields over corruption and deep-pocket donors.
It will require massive turnout from the base and from people of color and the poor and disadvantaged, and everyone left out of the oligarchical and extremist forces that now control things.
Politics ain't beanbag. I do not begrudge the Democratic candidates going after each other - that's the nature of the game. Primary voters and caucus-goers will decide who's gone too far, or who has not gone far enough.
Whoever the nominee is will have to weave together this coalition. Who they pick as their running mate will be as crucial as it's ever been in American politics.
We need a ticket that will inspire people beyond their hatred of Trump, someone they want to see as President regardless of who the Republicans run.
And I believe that person is Elizabeth Warren. She will need to adjust and win the support of both moderates and people of color (who run the gamut from conservative Democrat to Progressive Democrat). She will need to choose a running mate carefully, but more than any other candidate, I believe she is capable of doing that.
She is smart, competent, empathetic, and able to work with others. And as a special bonus -
What she did to Bloomberg is only a sample of how she will fillet Trump in a debate.
I can't wait!
UPDATE: Post Bernie Nevada Blowout
Why is the Nevada win by Bernie Sanders so important?
I'll give you three reasons: Robert F Kennedy, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama.
Because they put together the only coalition that counts in the successful election of a Democrat - they combined the white working class with the working class of people of color.
And that's what Bernie showed he can do in Nevada. He reassembled the winning coalition that takes Democrats to the top.
In 2016, the biggest problem that Bernie had is that Hilary won among African American and Latino voters, even the ones who might otherwise identify as Progressive.
As Progressive voters grow in strength in the electorate, that has always been their biggest problem. I really feared that Bernie had not solved that problem. The first two states, Iowa and New Hampshire, gave no clue as they were very white states. The Mainstream media mostly talked about the non-white vote as if it were a firewall for Biden.
The mainstream media, unsurprisingly, was wrong. Bernie has won Latinos and is neck and neck with Biden on the African American vote.
The Democratic nominating process is not over. Biden could still do well in South Carolina, perhaps leading to a revival on Super Tuesday. Warren, despite her Nevada, finished, finished second in a national poll. She has probably the best positions regarding issues of relevance to people of color (and all of us, really).
The other exciting thing that happened in Nevada, that gives me hope and encouragement, is that the workers of the Culinary Union defied their union leadership, who urged them not to vote for Bernie because he might take away their union-earned health care plan, and the workers voted for Bernie and Medicare For All anyways. Why? Because they wanted ALL workers to have excellent health care, not just a few select unions. Usually, health care voting as being supremely self-centered (forget everyone else - what's in it for ME?), so this patriotic act in support of all is very hopeful and impressive to me.
I still intend to vote for Warren in the March 24rth Georgia primary. Nevertheless, I am very impressed with what Bernie did, and if he is the nominee, I will vote for him with great pride and hope.
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