Let me say at the outset that I would be quite thrilled to know that next November either Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders had been elected President of the United States. What a relief? But I can’t deny that I’d be anxious if either one of them came out of the Democratic convention as the Party’s nominee.
(And the latest poll readings from the statistically adept folks at 538 suggest that may be where we’re heading.)
The national polls show them running pretty well against Trump, but I have an uneasy feeling about what either of them as Democratic standard bearer would mean for American democracy at this dangerous moment.
I worry, for example, about how Joe Biden would fare going toe-to-toe with Trump. He’s shown himself to fight Republican lies and brokenness in a manner too much like the ineffectual ways Democrats have been fighting for years. And besides which – though I hate to say it – he’s showing his age in sometimes worrisome ways I fear might make too many Americans hesitate to choose him for the top job.
And I don’t feel confident that today’s American electorate would be immune to the way the Republicans would campaign against Bernie Sanders as a Jewish “Socialist.” Plus, there seems to be a rigidity about the man that makes me wonder how well he’d do in achieving the “possible” with a Congress that won’t just rubber stamp his proposals.
But if either of them becomes the nominee, I’ll back him enthusiastically.
What I’m still hoping for is that Elizabeth Warren will show herself to be the candidate that can best wrest the Presidency from Trump. I see the potential for that there—she’s as American as apple pie, she’s smart and strong and fearless, and she already showed she could best Trump in a duel with their Twitter battle back in 2016.
It is said that Warren is the second choice of a lot of people’s second choice— which means that there’s some for her claim that she could best bring the various components of the Democratic Party together. I can better imagine her, as President, compelling the Republicans to behave better to avoid Warren’s exposing them and imposing on them a high political price for attempting to cripple her (as they did Obama). And I like her wisdom in saying that her policy would be to sign whatever legislation “helps,” and then to fight to get more of what would help more.
What remains to be demonstrated is that she’s got the capacity to inspire a wide swath of the American electorate such that she can win Democratic primaries and can dominate Trump in national polls.