The anticipation that Michael Bloomberg could become the leader of the Democratic Party and a viable candidate to compete against President Trump was thoroughly dashed during the Democratic debates by his clear inability to articulate a vision for the future, his complete lack of empathy for and understanding of average Americans, and his embarrassing level of unpreparedness for the debate stage. Regardless of what others have said, he earned his opportunity to be heard and to be seen. He was heard, he was seen, and he was found wanting.
Now it appears that the Democratic ticket will be Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren. This ticket represents decades of political experience on a national and international level, and an apparent balance between the moderate and progressive wings of the Democratic Party.
However, electoral failure is all but assured by the Democratic Party’s inability to move the discussion past the present and towards the future.
For better or worse, President Trump is going to lead this country out of the COVID-19 recession and reopen our economy during the next few months. By the time of the election in November, COVID-19 deaths will probably have tripled from their current levels, but most people who still have jobs will be back to work and a new normal will have been established.
Complaining about what President Trump and his administration says and does, stating without any factual basis that a Biden/Warren administration would have done a better job in protecting the country – this is all a waste of time and a clear demonstration that there is no Democratic vision for the future.
The Democratic Party seems to be lost.
To illustrate this point, let’s characterize their major players:
- Tom Perez – inauthentic and ineffective.
- Nancy Pelosi – power-hungry and tone-deaf.
- Chuck Schumer – powerless and visionless.
- “The Squad” – angry and undisciplined.
- Hillary Clinton – unindicted and unlikable.
- Bernie Sanders – extreme and unelectable.
- Elizabeth Warren – intense and misdirected.
- Joe Biden – unfocused and underwhelming.
It is certainly possible, and without too much effort, to make the case that Donald Trump has exacerbated the division between rich and poor, squandered more of our nation’s wealth than any president before him, fermented a civil war within our nation, and turned this country into a second-rate soap opera with him typecast as the brilliant, opportunistic, but ultimately psychotic “Great Leader”.
But there does not seem to be anyone in the Democratic Party who can make this case.
Nor does there seem to be anyone in the Democratic Party who can provide a vision of a wiser and fairer future for this country.
This COVID-19 experience has clearly shown that a great many Americans make starvation wages, have no access to health insurance, and live within a paycheck or two of economic disaster.
This COVID-19 experience has clearly shown that large corporations and retailers had no problem in selling out American workers and the security of the country by moving the production of everything to China in order to maximize stockholder profits, upper management bonuses, and political graft.
This COVID-19 experience has clearly shown that a significant percentage of Americans mistake civic duty for a violation of their constitutional rights, do not understand that American exceptionalism is based upon the collective actions of each and every one of us, and that patriotism has nothing to do with waving the American flag in one hand and a gun in the other.
These are the types of issues that the Democratic Party should be addressing now, not wasting precious time with ineffective critiques of President Trump’s words and actions.