Here’s the thing about the 2020 Democratic primary race
Julian Castro announced today that he’s entering the 2020 race for President. I’m supporting him, of course. I’m also supporting Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, Beto O’Rourke, Amy Klobuchar, and some other Democrats I’m probably forgetting to list. Why am I supporting them all? They’re all good solid candidates. However, I’m not going to be agnostic about the Democratic primary race.
This process is essentially one big job interview. These are all people who are good at their current or most recent jobs, and who show potential to be good at something bigger. For now, we have a somewhat incomplete picture of these candidates when it comes to the presidential level, and it’ll be up to them to fill things in.
For instance, we all know precisely what Elizabeth Warren would do as president from an economic and anti-corruption standpoint. We also know she’s impressively far left on social issues. But we know little about her foreign policy stances, for instance, because that hasn’t been her focus during her time in the Senate. Is she as impressive at foreign policy as she is at domestic policy? She’ll show us as the process goes on.
During my time in California I came to really appreciate Kamala Harris’ work as a prosecutor and as state Attorney General, though her record has been wildly misrepresented by the far-left fringe, who doesn’t like her. In any case, most people around the nation know her best from her assured performances during televised Senate hearings. So if and when she enters the race, she’ll have plenty to show us as well.
Most of us know Julian Castro best from his cable news appearances over the past few years. He’s always comported himself well. But while he’s impressive as a pundit on a national level, his successful tenures as Mayor of San Antonio and HUD Secretary don’t necessarily tell us a lot about whether he’ll be an impressive candidate on a national level. He’ll show us that starting today.
The bottom line is that while we know plenty about these candidates, we still have a lot to learn about them as candidates. It’s totally fair to favor one over the others. It’s not fair to try to prop up one candidate by repeating iffy accusations about the other candidates, if you know those accusations are probably mere nonsense coming from the Republican side. And if you’re already saying “I’ll only vote for the Democrat in the general election if it’s my preferred Democrat,” then you’re the problem.
There are going to be some crappy people who shouldn’t be in this race, and we shouldn’t treat them with kid gloves just because they’re running under the Democratic Party mantle. For instance, Tulsi Gabbard is a far-right conservative who has a history of praising Putin and Assad while trashing Obama, and is conveniently beloved by Donald Trump’s base. She also has an ugly and inexcusable history of trashing LGBT people in years past. Gabbard shouldn’t even be in the Democratic Party, let alone the Democratic primary race for 2020, and no, I’m not going to give her candidacy a free pass just because she’s technically a Democrat.
But we’ll see. It’s still very, very, very early. We all expected Cory Booker to run, but he’s been quiet. We don’t know what Bernie Sanders will do, though Elizabeth Warren may have already made that decision for him by entering the race so early. We keep hearing buzz about Amy Klobuchar, Kirsten Gillibrand, Sherrod Brown, and others, but that could all go either way. The Democrats could end up with twenty-five candidates or ten candidates. It’s just that early, and we still know that little.
I would prefer not even covering the 2020 campaigns yet, because we’re still in the midst of taking down the traitor Donald Trump, and we’re coming up on the full court press for his ouster. But because the election cycle has its own internal clock, the candidates are already entering the race. If we decide to pay no attention to the early days of the primary race, we could very well end up with a less than optimal primary outcome.
So even as I continue to give full coverage to Donald Trump’s crimes and downfall, I’ll be covering the 2020 presidential campaigns well. As crucial as it is to remove and imprison Trump so that this can never happen again, it’ll all have been for naught if his complicit Republican Party retains control of the White House after the next election. Buckle up, because a whole lot is about to start happening at once.
