No Country for Old Men

So now we find ourselves with the fate of our democracy hanging on two old white men. Somehow or other we looked at all the options we had and managed to talk ourselves into the idea that either a) “other people” would only be able to vote for Biden, or b) no one else was as “pure” a progressive as Sanders. And let’s not even get started on misogyny. We had more than a couple female candidates who could have mopped the floor with Trump, and the only reason we’re not looking at Warren or Harris as a clear frontrunner right now is because they’re women.

I am, honestly, fine with either of these men as the nominee. I can vote for either one with a clear conscience. But geez, we had to go and make it hard on ourselves, didn’t we? Here’s what I hope to Bog both of these candidates and their teams are thinking about, and I very much hope that you, my friends, are thinking about these things as well as we head toward convention.

First off, these guys are old. I am not using that word pejoratively. Current life expectancy in the US is 78-79. Biden is 77, Sanders is 78. It’s not ageist to point this out. These are concerns that the campaigns need to address clearly and straightforwardly. Sanders had a heart attack already. Without speculating about anything more serious than that he’s getting up in years, Biden is clearly not as sharp as he was 8 years ago. These are, in fact, serious concerns.

Second, these are two white men. That just isn’t going to fly in 2020. There had better be a woman of color on their ticket, or at the very least a woman. To not do so will basically guarantee that many Democratic-leaning voters will stay home, and we need every single vote. Yelling at people who do not see themselves represented on that ticket that it’s “in their interests” to vote Democratic is racist, misogynistic, and it will not make them get out and vote. Biden needs to figure out what he’s running for, other than “not Trump” or “Obama’s third term.” His policies are uninspiring, and when pressed on them he basically falls back on “you liked them fine when Obama had them.” First off, them being “fine” is open to question. I and a lot of other progressives perpetually wished that Obama had gone further. I recently saw a chart that put Obama fairly far to the left politically and laughed out loud. Obama was always center left, and it’s mostly a sign of how far we’ve fallen that that’s seen as somehow extreme.

But the bigger point is that the party has moved on. Most of us have spent the last 3 years studying exactly what’s wrong with our society that could have led to someone like Trump being elected and have come to the conclusion that there are fundamental flaws that have to be fixed before anyone else gets hurt. Any candidate who is not making those proposals will not be able to inspire people to vote for them. There are far too many Democratic-leaning voters who will stay home if they are not inspired to vote FOR someone.

Sanders needs to figure out how to get the more vocal members of his base under control. There is no grand conspiracy to undermine him, and his supporters who immediately go there are not helping him. Even the crap that happened in 2016 didn’t amount to a conspiracy. It was a bunch of people who worked for the DNC and liked Clinton complaining about someone they didn’t like. That doesn’t mean that they were conspiring to defeat him. The DNC just doesn’t have the organizational ability to pull off a grand conspiracy like that. Sure, a lot of the 90’s-era Clintonian Neoliberals are losing their gourds over a Socialist candidate, but they don’t have the influence they used to over the majority of the party. The DNC is trying to just hold things together and praying that Milwaukee 2020 doesn’t turn into Chicago 1968.

No, Biden surged because too many Democratic voters were playing the game of “who are “they” most likely to vote for?” It’s a fool’s errand to try to game out what someone else will do when they vote, and it likely leads to a candidate no one really likes, although in the era of Trump it’s at least understandable. But as long as some of Sanders’ supporters spin these theories, as long as they shout down anyone who isn’t “pure,” as long as they don’t listen to others whose views might be slightly different from theirs, they will alienate the very voters they need to get enough numbers to defeat Trump. I honestly don’t think Sanders knows what to do about this segment of his base, but his efforts to get them to stop have been milquetoast, and that lack of direct contradiction of those voices has permeated his organization. It needs to stop and it needs to stop now, or Trump will win.

I continue to be cautiously hopeful. There are a lot of people who are energized. There are a lot of people who are sick of what we’ve come to. There are a lot of people who are determined to vote blue no matter who the nominee is. But I know Trump voters. I’ve lived and worked with them for almost 8 years now. I know the true believers. I know those who think he’s not too bad. I know those who think the economy is going great, why rock the boat. They will all be voting. We had better be damn sure we’ve gotten every last one of our voters to polls, and the only way we can do it is by giving them something to vote FOR.

Joe, Bernie... that’s up to you.