Looking over the candidates for the 2020
election, one has a sinking feeling of dread.
Not a single one of them presents anything
even beginning to resemble a coherent plan
to defeat Donald Trump. The biggest name
officially on the ballet so far, Elizabeth Warren, has already fallen into the same trap that
Clinton did — claiming to be a champion for
the middle class. Bernie Sanders is the only
candidate that truly seems to present a challenge to Trump, he appeals to a broader sense
of justice, instead of simply rehashing bored
and trite talking points. That would be the best
way to describe this elections lineup: boring.
Despite it being the most diverse lineup in the
party’s history, the candidates seem incapable
of showcasing diverse opinions. Each of them,
in turn, touts one of the three major Democratic talking points as their “priority”. For the
Washington Governor Jay Inslee its climate
change. For Julian Castro, it’s immigration.
For Sen. Kamala Harris, Washington is simply
“broken”. None of these candidates promise
a coherent plan for defeating Trump. None of
them present a new version of the Democratic
party.
Sen. Cory Booker is perhaps the only candidate that presents any sort of hope. His campaign announcement speech was marked by
hope for America, and its values, specifically
collective action. In a line up as weak as this,
Booker is perhaps the best chance that the
Democrats have in actually answering Trump.
Despite his low approval ratings, Trump posed
an existential threat to the Democratic party,
and one that the party still has not answered.
Trump cannot be answered with policy and
logic, as Warren and so many others are eager
to do. Trump does not operate at the level
of logic, he operates at the level of the gut.
Trump’s appeal, first and foremost, was to
white people and the white working class.
His rhetoric, which is overtly racist, cannot
be answered by facts and figures. It must be
answered by a vision. Booker and Sanders
are both offering up visions, one a vision of
a unified America, the other a vision of just
America. This is the kind of political rhetoric
that the Democratic candidates must employ.
Warren can continue to be a champion for the
middle-class, but Clinton lost on that exact
same rhetoric. The problem with Clinton was
that her rhetoric was dry and unexciting. It
didn’t make people feel, and that, no matter
how logical the rhetoric be, is a death sentence
in the post-Trump era. We’ll have to wait for
the primaries, but my guess is Warren, a near
carbon copy of Clinton, wins. Warren will say
the same things, act the same way, and once
again appeal to identity politics. And once
again, it won’t work. This time, hopefully we
won’t be surprised. But at least we’ll know
who to blame.