After teasing about it for some weeks, Beto O’Rourke has joined the herd of Democratic candidates for President in 2020. Remarkably enough, there may still yet be some undeclared candidates (looking at you, Joe Biden).
On the one hand, there’s a lot of value in a crowded field like this — it offers up opportunities for new and interesting ideas that might not bubble up when only one or two candidates dominate the field, and it creates enough breadth for people to feel like someone they really like has an opportunity to make a difference. (One of the criticisms of the Dems in 2016 was that Clinton’s nomination was treated by the party powers as a fait accompli, which led to some untoward behavior and people feeling turned off by the process.)
One of the dangers of such a crowded field, though, is that it gives everyone a chance to find that One, True Candidate That They’ve Always Been Looking To Follow … and it’s altogether possible that person won’t get the nomination. Which, then can lead to people being turned off (“How dare ‘they’ not choose X?! Fine, I won’t compromise my pro-X principles by voting for Y! Let it all burn!”).
That wasn’t the only dynamic going on in 2016, but it was certainly one of them.
To which I can only say to my fellow Democrats (et al.), you may very well feel that one candidate or the other has all/most of the right answers to being the leader of this country. You may rightly feel that the candidate who gets the Democratic nomination has some significant flaws — too radical, not radical enough, held some unfortunate ideas a decade ago, still holds some unfortunate ideas, whatever.
You betray your preferred candidate — and your country — far more if you let Donald Trump get re-elected. We don’t get to vote for the individually best candidate; we vote for the candidates that are selected in the nominating process.
The only “message” I am interested in seeing next fall is a sound rejection of Trumpism and the GOP that has capitulated to it. Anything short of that from the Left is self-indulgent twaddle.
So do go ahead and cheer and shout and campaign for your Dem of choice. That’s what this period of time is about. Caucus, vote in the primary, splatter their videos all over your social media.
When the candidate is finally chosen, remember, the choice is no longer between your ideal and the reality, it’s between that reality and another four years of Donald Trump and what he is doing to this nation and the world.
And, honestly, kudos to O’Rourke for illuminating that.
“Any single Democrat running today — and I may not be able to enumerate every single one of them — would be far better than the current occupant of the White House,” O’Rourke, a Texas Democrat, told a packed coffee house here. “So let’s keep this in mind, and we can conduct ourselves in this way every single day for the next 11 months until voting begins here in Iowa.”
“Ultimately, we all have to get on board with the same person, because it is fundamental to our chances of success that we defeat Donald Trump in 2020,” O’Rourke added.
Do you want to know more? Beto O’Rourke announces presidential bid, calls for unity to defeat Trump
Ummmm…. the Democrats are already legislating, doing and saying things to get Trump re-elected. From NY’s anti-life, oopps, abortion law, to A. O. C. running around, etc… People may not like President Trump’s personal life (i.e. Christians), but they see him as their protector of their rights.
Also, where is the differing view points from all these Democrat candidates? They pretty much are saying the same thing, free this, free that, Green New Deal (LOL) the world will end in 12 years, etc…
If you think things are expensive now, just wait until they are free.
I assure you, from the perspective of Democrats, there are a lot of differences seen between them.