Democrats Could Lose to Trump if They Don't Play Their Cards Right
by John Lawrence, April 16, 2019
Big article about Joe Biden in Time magazine. Only nothing mentioned about the fact that he cast a vote taking bankruptcy protection away from student loan debtors and he never met a credit card company he didn't like. After all his state, Delaware, is where they're all incorporated. In the media it's all about Biden's touchy-feeliness which is irrelevant. Biden's too old and too associated with the status quo. I don't care if he's the most popular Democrat. He'll lose to Trump.
The fact is that the Republican base - about 30% - will vote for Trump even if he takes out his dong in the middle of Fifth Avenue and waves it around, let alone shooting somebody as he has stated. The same holds for the Democratic base. So the game is about peeling away just those voters who voted for Obama in 2012 and then turned around and voted for Trump in 2016. As Trump has been a disrupter so should the Democrat be a disrupter in the 2020 election. The best person to do that is Bernie Sanders. He sticks to a very simple economic message which is what the Democrats should be all about. They should forget all the peripheral issues, but they're prone to getting all tied up in them because the media prefers that and the Republicans would prefer that. Bernie has a clear message: Medicare for All and a Green New Deal. That's it.
Democrats also need to co-opt Trump's main issue: immigration. They need to take a realistic look and realize that Trump is right about some things. The asylum situation is a mess and smugglers are actively recruiting people in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to come to the US and seek asylum. They are organizing bus rides to the border. This is the reality, not some figment of Trump's imagination. The Democrats need to make this their issue as well and nullify Trump's appeal based on this single issue. Instead they are for the most part taking the totally unpopular side on this and letting the Republicans and the hate talkers define them as "open borders." Come on, Democrats, get real. I'm for humane treatment of immigrants and asylum seekers, but the point is that they are being professionally organized with only one thing in mind - to overwhelm the asylum system and thereby effectively gain permanent entry into the US.
The choice for Bernie's running mate is very important. Elizabeth Warren is great but she's too much like Bernie. Too much of a policy wonk and a firebrand. We need someone more mild and appealing but someone who has the same values as Bernie. Someone like Kamala Harris. Kamala is a very appealing person. First of all she's a beautiful woman, and, let's face it, beauty and personal appeal count for a lot in politics and in life. She's mixed race and did I say she's a woman. She would be a great contrast and a great balance for Bernie. She's young, and that's a point in her favor also. She's everything Bernie's not in terms of personal appearance, but they're both on the same wavelength politically.
I hope the Democratic establishment does not screw this up. We need Medicare for All and a Green New Deal. Stick to the economic issues and leave the peripheral and cultural issues for another day. The Left is going to vote for a Democrat anyway just like the Right will vote for Trump. The Democratic candidate for President in 2020 needs to be someone who can peel away enough Trump voters to win, and it will not be someone like Joe Biden running as a status quo candidate.
