2020 Presidential Candidates

[jp1]

I'm happy to let the primary system shake out the losers and then focus on the frontrunners when the date of the vote is much closer.

I agree. As Ldahl points out in a later post we have an abundant field of potentially well qualified candidates. While I'm a political news junky and as such definitely have a short list of favorites already I'm definitely still in a persuadable mode. A lot can happen in the 13 months before super tuesday.

[Yppej]

Indeed. Personally as regards the D side I'm much more concerned with Booker's chummy relationships with pharma and wall street.

And gutting the public schools of Newark to enrich private companies. He has been cozy with Betsy DeVos among others.

[LDAHL]

I see someone has begun planting stories that Amy Klobuchar is a mean boss who can’t retain good staff. I wasn’t even aware she had declared yet.

[Williamsmith]

I’m wondering how all these candidates will invent a reason for change. The economy is firing on all cylinders, our military footprint is smaller than when Obama was in office, the average American has more spendable dollars in his pocket than ever, the media has been attacking Trump for going on three years and Rassmussen has him higher in popularity than Obama at the same point in his first four years....I could go on and on. The Russian investigation has failed to implicate Trump in wrong-doing and Democrats are rushing to burn their old yearbooks for fear of turning up blackfaced before the whole nation. Most never Trumpers are looking like bitter losers. I’ve never seen such hatred and disgust since maybe 1968 during the civil rights era.

[Yppej]

Revolutions happen during times of rising not falling expectations. Health care, the loss of which would bankrupt many families in the event of a serious illness, and tuition rates spiraling far beyond the rate of inflation are issues.

[Alan]

I think the 2020 candidate selection process will be a fascinating spectacle to watch. I predict the Democrats fascination with race, gender and sexual preference will overpower traditional concerns such as foreign policy with the more pressing social concerns such as the existence of billionaires.

It's hard to imagine traditional politicians such as Joe Biden or Sherrod Brown gaining much traction without coming out of the closet, and I even suspect Bernie's Socialist bona fides may not overcome his burden of white maleness. If nothing else, it will be interesting to see how the party's rush to the left plays with the population at large.

[Williamsmith]

This is the era of urban Utopianism versus conventional rural white American rights. It’s not that black and white but it has the undertow of racism, sexism, entitlement and always the hint of “revolution”. In past struggles people whispered revolution because they knew it would cost them their property and family if not their lives. Now the “revolutionists” tattoo it on their bodies and shove it down their neighbors throat thinking the power of local politics has their back.

Serious illness has always bankrupted families and then they started over, picked up the pieces and when forward again. No one is forcing people to go into debt to pay for useless degrees in areas there is no hope of finding a decent wage job. But somehow people think they have to love their job. If you love your job you never will work a day in your life.

There has never been a better time for a principled, hard working person to make a good life for him or herself. If people would see how easy it is to outperform the competition....they could be comfortable.

But now, the Democrats have a chorus of candidates who want to promise easy welfare without any explanation whatsoever of how to pay for it. Urbanites who have simplified their lives to public transportation , 500 square foot apartments, and single without kids....figure it would be easy if everybody lived the express life. Rural Americans are repulsed by the “European” adaptations.

Democrats are moving farther out from shore.

[LDAHL]

Will the green new deal become a primary litmus test? Will it require political courage for candidates to demur from promising “economic security for those unable or unwilling to work”?

[JaneV2.0]

The DNC didn't hand pick our wonderful new array of politicians--they were freely chosen by their constituents and voted, sometimes overwhelmingly*, into office by their constituents. And there will be more after the 2020 election. The stranglehold rich old white men--wholly owned by billionaires and corporations--have on our government is slipping away, though given their proclivity for breaking the law and getting away with it, they may yet prevail.

I doubt anyone would bat an eye at "the existence of billionaires" if they paid a fair share of taxes and contributed something to the common good instead of buying off politicians and despoiling our environment. Too few do.

*Ocasio-Cortez won her district with 78.2% of the vote.

[Teacher Terry]

The average person is getting a tax shock that they are paying more in taxes not less as trump promised. I saw some interviews in Iowa and people that voted for him are mad.