Tuesday, February 25, 2020

Election 2020: The Democratic Primaries

I'll reiterate here what I've been saying everywhere else, which is that the only way you're going to find the strongest candidate is to have all the possible nominees fight it out until one of them wins the majority of votes. That's the traditional method, and it's the method that works.

Beyond that, everything is just supposition and conjecture and hot air. Nobody knows anything.

I'm hoping enough voters start picking Elizabeth Warren to make her the frontrunner again, because I think she's the best person for the job, but you may have a different opinion. That's fine.

All of the remaining candidates beat Trump in head-to-head matchups. He's upside down in popularity numbers. Could he win if we're not careful? Sure, but I'd rather be where we are now, winning by ten points than vice versa.

Right now, there are many, many pundits saying that "Bernie can't win" or "a centrist can't win", either or both of which actually mean that the pundit could not imagine voting for such a candidate. I tell you, it's the same every time. When your guy or gal is in the lead, it's "Vote Blue No Matter Who" and when your guy or gal loses, it's "Screw you guys, I'm going home." 

At the same time, we're working on social media time, where snap judgments are the rule of the day. People want this process to be over so they can get on with dumping Trump out of office. 

Everybody's going to have to calm down and let the process work itself out. We're going to have a much better idea of where things stand by the end of March. Worst case, we've got another three months of wrangling to do until the convention in June.

Whatever happens, there's local work to be done. Vote in the primaries. Vote in the general. Work on behalf of the downticket candidates. 

And engage in some self-care now so you're ready for the general.