As Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders continue to duke it out for the Democratic party's nomination, we're getting closer and closer to the July 15th start of the Democratic National Convention. As such, people are starting to look ahead towards the general election, and beginning to speculate over who the candidate will choose to be his or her VP. Assuming that Clinton holds onto her delegate lead and beats out Bernie Sanders for the nomination, there has been speculation that she will choose her current opponent as her running mate. Not only do I believe that scenario is virtually impossible, it's also not a great idea.
First of all, though the Democratic race so far has been more civil than the Republican primaries, the two candidates have different approaches to policy, and their staffs don't exactly see eye-to-eye either. There have been multiple reports this primary season of Clinton and Sanders staffers clashing, including the data breach incident and tension on Twitter . Sure, these aren't huge incidents, but under the surface it seems pretty clear that the top aids of the two potential nominees do not respect the other's vision for America, which makes it highly unlikely that either would offer the other the VP slot. If Clinton gets the nomination, she will not believe she needs Bernie on her ticket. It's as simple as that.
Choosing a VP is somewhat important, but not one of the main elements that voters care about. However, it is always a strategic choice and Clinton will surely view it as such. The goal of her VP will be to improve her percentage and turnout of the youth vote in the general, and to secure high turnout of women and minorities. For a Democrat in this race, the nominee will need to 'walk the walk' per se and choose a running mate who helps the ticket better reflect America. This makes a Clinton-Sanders ticket extremely unlikely, as two older, white candidates would be almost hypocritical for the party that emphasizes diversity and inclusion. To bring in Bernie's youth vote, Clinton should find a younger candidate (also a younger option with less history in Washington equals fewer former scandals), preferably a minority, and probably a man since let’s face it, a woman and a minority on the ticket will spin enough heads, two women might just be the end of the world.
As it stands now, the job may go to either Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro or Labor Secretary Tom Perez or Senator Cory Booker or former Governor of Massachusetts Deval Patrick. Any of these choices is vastly preferable to Mr. Sanders. Though I respect him and the platform he has run on, there is a place in this campaign for his ideas, but not for him, at least not as VP. There is a possibility, as many say, that Clinton will have a turnout problem because so many Sanders supporters seem to hate her, however the majority will turnout for her in the end. Back in 2008 as the primaries were heating up, many Hillary fans were adamant they would never vote for Obama, and vice versa. At the end of the day the party united and Obama was elected in a landslide. For every think piece insisting that Bernie's supporters will stay home, there is another by a Bernie supporter urging fellow fans to vote for whoever the nominee will be.
Finally, I must speak to the familiar adage made by Bernie supporters that people just don't like Clinton, and that she is untrustworthy. There have been how many congressional investigations against her now? If there was something to find there, Republicans would have found it by now. Their circus shows have had the effect of making her look like the least trustworthy politician in the 2016 lot (which is just comical), and the media has always ran with this narrative. One of my favorite articles to come out of this hokey election so far puts it best:
"I’m not here to argue about Clinton versus Sanders. I genuinely like them both. I’m here to say that I’m sick of seeing her reviled for the same things people forgive easily when they’re done by men, and that the stakes are too high this election cycle to indulge that or leave it unexamined. If you’re reviling Clinton for saying something racist and stupid in 1994 in favor of a crime bill that turned out to be a very bad idea, but you’re not reviling Sanders for actually using his political power to pass that very bad crime bill law, I want you to take a long, long think about why that is. If you’re reviling Clinton for campaign contributions made by banks, but did not revile Barack Obama for the same thing , I want you to take a long, long think about why that is.
So that's why I don't think Clinton needs Sanders if she gets the nomination. To put it plainly, we don't need (and can't have) two old white people on the Democratic ticket in 2016. It is true that Clinton will need to make inroads in the youth vote and counter her image as untrustworthy, but the way to do this is by embracing a young, minority candidate for VP who can bring energy and greater legitimacy to her cause.
In this election, we talk about the Trump voters and the Bernie voters and the Cruz voters, but no one really has much interest in examining Hillary's base. They write her supporters off as middle-aged women and leave it at that. It just isn't true. Clinton has the ability to unite the 'Obama coalition' of progressive white voters, women, youth, and minorities, and sweep the general election. As one piece from the New Republic says, "It’s certainly curious to presume, as many do , that Clinton’s supporters are somehow less enthusiastic than Sanders’s are. How is enthusiasm measured, if not by actual vote count? . . . If anything, Clinton might need to thank the press for consistently underestimating her. Perhaps this is why her supporters are coming out for her in such strength: to assert their existence in the face of a narrative that both overlooks them and disparages their candidate."
I like Bernie. I love what he has to say. And I hope his ideas and the energy he has brought to this race don't fade, but I also hope he and his supporters take the hard, pragmatic route of supporting the Democratic candidate in the end, even if it isn't him, and even if he is not the VP candidate. The media narrative that people hate Hillary is just that - a narrative. She wouldn't be winning if people didn't like her. If Clinton chose him as VP it would not be because the two genuinely want to work together, it would be a plot to try and get his voters, and such a scheme would be an insult to those Bernie supporters.
This post is originally from Tremr, join the debate now!