Election 2020

Elizabeth Warren "suspended" her presidential campaign this morning, which means that she dropped out this morning. You can probably guess, knowing my demographic (white, college degree, woman), that she was my candidate, for the reason that she was the smartest and best-prepared of the remaining Democratic candidates. I have regrets over not supporting Harris and Castro earlier in the campaign, because it is just wrong that the field wound up so old and white. I have a lot of rage about the rules change that let Michael Bloomberg - Mr. Stop & Frisk - get debate time this year when Harris and Castro - who are real Democrats, unlike Mr. Party-Changer - were eliminated so early. And even more over the fact that Bloomberg outperformed her in a number of states.

It's not that Warren was the perfect candidate - there is no such thing. She would need to mend her relationship with Native Americans, at a minimum, and still wouldn't be perfect. But she was so much better than those remaining, which is to say:

I'm very unhappy about the choice I'm left with.

My political aims are well-aligned with those of Bernie Sanders. BUT, I think he is just about unelectable. He's Jewish in an era when anti-Semitism is coming back into view (do not think it ever went away); he calls himself a Democratic Socialist in a country where there is limited knowledge of what that means (he is not in favor of nationalizing all business and property!); he is terrible at compromising; he was unable to bring in the wave of voters he thought he could. Even this week, he was saying he'd be able to do this in the general election. Buddy, if you can't get voters to the polls now, why would you think you would be able to get them to the polls in November? He also hasn't got much traction with African American voters, and let me just say that the Democrats cannot win without earning the support of African American voters. And...his health. That heart attack last fall, which took days for him to acknowledge?

And then there's Joe Biden. He has a terrible history, policy-wise. He supported the terrible bankruptcy bill of 2005...which supposedly is what got Warren into politics. He helped get Clarence Thomas onto the Supreme Court by not calling witnesses who would have backed up Anita Hill's testimony. He supported the Iraq War. He was the Senator from Delaware and a big supporter of big banking and big corporate interests. He is handsy; he has lied or made up incidents from his past. He is vulnerable to Trump because of his son. His health? Well, he might be showing signs of dementia! This is all terrible! And yet...people are willing to vote for him. To see why African Americans are behind him, read this NY Times op-ed piece by Mara Gay, and any number of Twitter threads by Black people.

We could have had Elizabeth Warren, and now we have to choose between Sanders and Biden. I am about ready to weep.