Democrats and their electability problem

Electability is the 2019 Democratic Party buzzword for the 2020 presidential election.

But what is electability?

If you’re a Democrat, it has to do with the search for a candidate who will beat Donald Trump in 2020. Because for some, the race to replace the incumbent president has become what I call ‘ABT’ — Anybody But Trump. It’s a goal I agree with — in part. “In part” because if the candidate the Dems throw out in 2020 happens to be, for example, Joe Biden… what the heck, like Hillary in 2016, I will vote for him.

But I will not be happy.

It is my opinion that the traditional Democratic Party leaders, many of the same people who anointed Hillary Clinton in 2016, are wary of what is occurring within Democratic Party ranks. These are the same people who are afraid of the young Turks coming up within the Party. They are the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezes, the Ilhan Omars and others, who are sick and tired of the status quo and politics as usual. They are, in my opinion, the future of the Party — if it wants to survive.

They’ve run as opponents of the real “swamp” Trump so easily derides, but which he’s made even swampier. They are the newcomers who refuse to bow to the special interests who helped create many of the problems we face today. Big business and Wall Street types, and their juicy contribution($), control both parties — no matter what the Democrats try to sell you.  

These Dems are wooed by big money, which then is used as a straitjacket against them. It disallows Party leaders from straying from the status quo. It is not unusual, therefore, to hear them warning against the Party veering too far left, or falling into the sphere of socialism in this country — which is simply red meat offered to ignorant voters who’ve been brainwashed into believing that the “free market” cures all evils.

Listen to most every-day Americans. They will tell you Medicare, Social Security, police and fire departments, highway projects, public education, and numerous other social welfare initiatives, are great. Just as quickly they’ll jump, incensed, and scoff at any word that comes close to sounding like socialism. All the while unaware that these programs they love are exactly that — a form of socialism.

And that’s where the electability question comes in — for these Democrats hooked on special interests. Because like the Republicans on the other side of the aisle, they too do not want to jump off the big-money gravy train, as long as they’re riding it. 

“I don’t understand why anybody goes to all the trouble of running for president of the United States just to talk about what we really can’t do and shouldn’t fight for.”

— Elizabeth Warren

This two-party (or almost same party) system has produced a society where millions of Americans go without healthcare (and die every day because of it); nearly one of every five children in America fall under the poverty line; too many elderly must often miss meals (because they just can’t afford to eat, or because they must spend money meant for food on medicine not covered by their insurance); schools and the educational system are on a downward spiral; good teachers are leaving the profession because many need a second job just to make ends meet; the NRA has prioritized the right to own a gun over our own children…

And all the while those who need it least are getting tax breaks; Wall Street types and other ‘banksters’ commit crimes while the authorities look the other way; the military industrial complex is happy to drain our tax dollars; and now we’ve created the prison industrial complex where the commodities traded are African-Americans, Latinos, and poor people.

I know it’s frustrating. But it is our truth in 2019, and why I am bothered by those citing electability as the most important factor in order to beat Trump. Nonsense! And yes, electability is important in any election, but they’re trying to steer us in the direction THEY want us to take. 

In 2008 I often heard that Barack Hussein Obama was not electable. Then in 2016 many sighed with relief when an “unelectable” Republican buffoon won the nomination.  And now we’ve had two back-to-back unelectable presidents.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren may have said it best in the last debate: “I don’t understand why anybody goes to all the trouble of running for president of the United States just to talk about what we really can’t do and shouldn’t fight for.” Bernie Sanders followed that with his own zinger: “I get a little bit tired of Democrats afraid of big ideas.”

But they’re unelectable. They’re the so-called socialists in the group. 

Now Joe Biden, who cited having record players (record players??) in the home so children can expand their vocabularies, is considered much more electable. Yes, of course… And he might turn out to be 2020’s Hillary Clinton.