http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/theres-a-clear-democratic-front-runner-for-2020/ar-BBxq70O
I’d love to see Tulsi Gabbard run for the Democrats. After the 2016 race to the bottom, it would be wonderful to have a candidate running for one of the two major parties who is both physically and morally fit for the job.
I’d wait for Gabbard to win a statewide race, which she certainly would in Hawaii, but still, you want proof that she can function in the bigtime against Republican opposition.
A Samoan Hindu is certainly an intriguing candidate for President. I don’t think the Samoan part would be a problem at all but the Hindu part might be a dealbreaker for Christians and non-religious Democrats alike. No US politician is going to fake belief in a polytheistic faith. She believes that stuff.
I think the Democrats need to move on to the next generation of leaders and work on building up the base. Presently the Republicans have a deeper bench than the Democrats do because of their dominance at the state and local levels in most of the country. To counter this Democrats need to work on their own message and not rely on “we’re not Trump” to carry them to victory in 2020. The DNC needs to be reformed as well, with more focus on local and state races.
Part of the focus should be having Democrats that appeal to working class white people run in places like the rust belt. Looking back on the last several years, the writing should have been on the wall regarding WI, PA, and MI. With Republicans like Pat Toomey, Scott Walker, Ron Johnson, and Rick Snyder winning elections in those states, it should have been more obvious they were becoming more red. Now the question is should Democrats focus on winning those 3, or to write them off and instead focus on North Carolina and Florida to compensate for their loss? I think the correct answer is to fight for them, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the DNC goes with a let’s try to compensate by winning Florida and North Carolina strategy instead.
But the Republican ticket was hijacked by an outsider. So I think even the GOP needs to rethink things. Will Trump choose to run for re-election? Would the party not support him if he does? It’s too early to tell. I don’t think we know who will be running in either party.
The one lesson that the Democrats need to learn is that it is never too early to unload on a primary opponent. Clinton should have let Sanders have it with both barrels and killed Bernie fever much earlier. Getting the truth about Sanders out would have dried up his small donations and forced him out much earlier. Yes, Clinton knew she’d win in the long run, but the constant drip drip drip of Bernie winning some minor caucus state after she destroyed him the previous week with multiple big state primary wins kept Bernie fever alive far too long.
I still think both he and she planned his campaign to be just sparring experience for her, and to frame her from the left. By the time he started to get full of himself, it was too late to change the dynamic.
Interestingly enough, Trump seems to have plans for Gabbard: