My basic position on the 2016 Democratic primaries is unchanged and has been for some time now.
I’m not ready for Hillary, I ain’t feelin’ the Bern, and I have never been enthusiastic about the Democratic presidential field for 2016.
I was somewhat indifferent in 2008 as well but for the exact opposite reason; I liked Edwards, Obama, and Clinton (and even Bill Richardson for a hot minute) and thought at the time that any of the three would make a fine president. When the field winnowed to Obama and Clinton, I slightly favored Clinton based on the fact that she had a tad more experience, in my opinion, but when she started talking about those hard-working white folks...well, I really can’t print what I was thinking then (or now).
(FTR, I wasn’t all that surprised and the “kitchen sink” race-baiting approach of the Clintons’ in 2008, wasn’t all that offended by it overall, but I loved the timing of when Obama would throw the shade back at Clinton...)
it’s now 2016 and I’m not fired up and ready to go at all. I’ll be brief with this.
Martin O’Malley: Ideologically, I’m closest to O’Malley but he had awful timing on everything; his entrance into the presidential race, the Baltimore riots, a rather stiff persona. Even his attacks on Clinton and Sanders landed like a dud. Maybe it’s not his time, maybe it will never be his time.
Hillary Clinton: I still get the sense that Hillary Clinton is stuck in the politics of the 1990’s, both in terms of specific policies and in the way that she does politics. I have also greatly enjoyed the relatively scandal-free Obama Admnistration. I’ve been spoiled enough where I am not ready for round 2 of As the White House Turns.
Times have changed since the 1990’s and I don’t think that Hillary Clinton has changed with the times.
Carl Bernstein put it best:
It's Hillary Clinton deciding that she could put a server in her closet, the same with these transcripts, the same with accepting this money in a presidential year when she knew that she was going to probably be running for president....We're also seeing a different time in America. It is possible she is not in tune with the time of her country and her party. And somehow she has to get herself aligned with whatever this new strain of economic populism -- you know, she's got a problem. She is cozying up to Goldman Sachs and she's got transcripts that she can't release that shows her cozying up to Goldman Sachs, it's a problem.
And, of course, there are other things like her explanation for supporting DOMA.
And I do feel, sometimes, that the Democratic Party’s “clearing the deck” for a Hillary Clinton run came at the cost of other candidates that are worth taking a look at (i.e. Kirsten Gillibrand, Deval Patrick, maybe Cory Booker, there are others)
Bernie Sanders: My feelings about Senator Bernie Sanders’ candidacy are similar to my feelings about the potential mayoral candidacy of Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis last year. Lewis was a single-issue candidate, in my view, but she had the right single-issue to run on in 2015: public education in Chicago.
Like Ms. Lewis, I feel that Sanders is pretty much a single-issue candidate; the issue of income inequality and the very related issue of campaign-finance reform. In the age of Occupy, though, those are two damn good issues to run on and Sanders speaks eloquently and effectively on those issues; those issues are the primary issues that he has advocated for decades.
Other than those issues, which are a sort of philosopher’s stone to getting the changes that we need on a host of issues, it seems to me that Sanders isn’t much interested in anything else. Like any good politician (and Sanders is a very good politician, let’s be clear about that) Sanders has, to a large degree, more than acceptable (and mainstream) overall views and policy proposals but, in the words of Kathleen Grier, “an occasionally clueless 74-year old white guy.”
Which was fine very early in his insurgent campaign but is not a good look now that actual voting is taking place.
It’s not that he isn’t sincere about some of his various proposals for, say, racial issues, mass incarceration, immigration, and the like, but I really don’t feel that these will be any sort of priority for a Sanders Administration. As I have pointed out, one curious similarity that Senator Sanders and Secretary Clinton share, in their own ways, is a certain rigidity.
I do have some words to say about the issue of candidate supporters but for this essay, I will simply say here that I never held the occasional obnoxious behavior of Sanders (or Clinton) supporters against the candidates until the Sanders campaign seemed to start “believing the hype.” The first trickle of this was Sanders’ “don’t you know who I am” moment at NN. Later, it really became thick with the petty squabbling over the NGP VAN voter database, the various reactions of the campaign to various endorsements (especially Planned Parenthood’s, the Human Rights Campaign’s and Astrid Silva’s Clinton endorsement).
That type of petty squabbling should have stayed at DK, reddit, and other blogs and debate parties. The Sanders campaign was downright petty and ungracious in these instances.
Finally, I do think that given the current environment, many of Sanders’ proposals are implausible. I’ve also felt, from the start, that there is a path to the presidency for a self-proclaimed “democratic socialist” in 2020 but not in 2016.
So I am not enthusiastic about this Democratic primary season at all. Between the beginning of the early voting period in Illinois (Feb. 29th) and the date of the Illinois primary (March 15th) I will, of course, vote but I do not foresee casting a vote for either of the remaining Democratic candidates for President.
Of course, either Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders will get my vote in November and I will do what I can to get them elected (even if it’s simply being a better keyboard warrior) The stakes of this election, especially given yesterday’s news of the death of Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, are way too high and the Republican Party is far too dangerous. I will be “fired up and ready to go” even if I have to fake it for awhile.