Some Uninvited Advice for the Democratic Party

Last updated on: October 19, 2018 at 7:53 am by Roger E. Olson

Some Uninvited Advice for the Democratic Party 2018-10-19T07:53:50-05:00 Roger E. Olson

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I am not a partisan when it comes to American politics. I’m independent and have voted for independent candidates several times. I have no party allegiance or loyalty. However, I pay attention to the two main American political parties (Republican and Democratic) and often shake my head in bewilderment at both of their antics. Over my lifetime I have seen both become overly rigid, ideologically-driven, and just downright dumb in their decisions.

I very much want to see a woman finally elected to America’s highest government office (president). The time has come and passed! (Meaning it should have happened already, not that it’s too late.) On the other hand, I think the nomination of Hilary Clinton before the last presidential election (2016) was just downright dumb. That’s not because I think she is unqualified; I think she is unlikeable. Probably not to people who know her personally, but to most people who only know her via her public life and especially television.

I’ve been watching to see who will emerge as the likely candidate for the Democratic nomination next time (2020). Two people seem to be emerging as “wannabes”—Elizabeth Warren (senator from Massachusetts) and former Vice President Joe Biden. Both are being coy about it, but nobody else is even close to being in the spotlight. A “dark horse” may yet emerge; I hope so—for that party’s sake.

I would very much like to like Warren, but, like Clinton, her public persona isn’t likeable. And she is too ideological left wing. I’m afraid Trump would eat her alive. She made a huge mistake by playing his game regarding the Native American ancestry question. The outcome led to a national “Eh!”

Biden is likeable but goofy. Trump would eat him alive. So would the media—as they have done by highlighting his every gaffe. (Reminds me of how they attacked President Gerald Ford saying he couldn’t walk and chew gum at the same time.)

Right now I think the Democratic Party’s only hope is to pull together around a centrist, pragmatic senator or governor who is genuinely likeable and yet has gravitas. A left-leaning McCain. Is there one? If not, then that says a lot about the sad state of the Democratic Party.

Okay, I’ll just say it. I very much fear the Democrats will nominate Warren for lack of anyone else and because she’s a woman. As I said, I would very much like to see a woman in the White House. But I do not think Warren is the woman who can beat Trump—in the current cut-throat atmosphere of American politics that thrives on ridicule and personal attacks. Her failure to rise above Trump’s challenge about her claim to Native American heritage shows her lack of wisdom. His challenge was childish, but so was her response.

My uninvited advice to the Democratic Party is to groom (in the best sense possible, not the currently degraded sense) California senator Kamala Harris to go up against Trump in 2020. Part of that grooming, insofar as it is necessary, is to encourage her never, never to play Trump’s game of baiting by responding to ridicule, accusations, etc.

I do not know enough about Harris to know whether or not I would vote for her; my advice here is simply that the Democratic Party stop dilly-dallying and rally around someone who can win. I believe both Warren and Biden are too vulnerable in terms of the vast middle of America’s voters (not ideologically driven or bound to Trump by loyalty) who—for whatever reasons—seem to need an attractive (I don’t mean primarily physically) candidate who has not stepped in the mud, who is not vulnerable to Trump’s childish attacks, and who has (or can have) both joy and gravitas.

*Note: Here I always speak only for myself. This is not a discussion board; it is a moderated blog. I do not welcome or approve responses that are hostile, uncivil, vulgar or slanderous. If you respond, do not include a hyperlink in your response and avoid naming names in any potentially slanderous way. Keep your response relatively brief (no more than 250 words). Make sure it contributes to conversation; do not attempt to use my blog to preach your own personal message. Respond only to me. If anything in your response misrepresents what I have written here or elsewhere I will not approve it.

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