Oprah gave a fantastic speech at the Golden Globes. That being said—she should not throw her hat in the ring for the Democratic nomination for president in 2020. As a matter of fact, many of the folks currently being thought of for that same nomination should not throw their hat in the in ring either. Some of those names that have been thrown around are:
Businessmen/women:
Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg
Dallas Mavericks’ owner Mark Cuban
Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz
COO of Facebook Sheryl Sandberg
Politicians:
Virginia Senator Tim Kaine
L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti
Hillary Clinton
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe
Former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick
New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo
Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown
California Gov. Jerry Brown
Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy
New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker
California Sen. Kamala D. Harris
New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren
Former Vice President Joe Biden
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders
Celebrities:
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
Oprah Winfrey
Private Citizen:
Michelle Obama
Now we have the list, what do we do about it? First off, the country cannot be run like a business. So the titans of industry are immediately crossed off the list. I do not care how many billions of dollars a person has made, how they have grown a company from a corner in their garage to multinational corporation. Business and government are not the same thing and take entirely different skill sets. The government is not set up to make a profit—this idea that has permeated into the left from the right is a bad one and should be put out of its misery for good.
I am going to skip over politicians for a minute, don’t worry, we will come back to them, so the second group of presidential hopefuls, celebrities. For the love of all that is wholesome and pure—NO. NO. NO. NO. NO. NO. Absolutely not, no way, no-how. Can a celebrity make a stirring speech that touches you at your core? Well, they should be able to, they are actors! We have been down this road twice now, Ronald Reagan, and the current White House resident. How well has it worked out for us? I get it, our celebrities on the left are better than those on the right. Again, no. This is a road we do not need to go down. There are other, more qualified candidates out there.
I hesitated on how to classify Michelle Obama—celebrity? Politician? Private citizen? I settled on private citizen as she has not run for office, and while she is famous, I am not sure I would consider her a celebrity, though your mileage may vary on this. Should she run, probably not. Yes, she is an intelligent, well-read, well-educated woman—but, she has never held a political office before, nor has she ever really expressed interest in it. This could change at some point in the future, but I would be surprised if she ever ran for office.
Onto politicians—if you are a sitting U.S. senator, I would say take yourself out of the running in 2020. Control of the Senate is too important to lose if we are to fix the disaster we are being left with. Joe Biden—I love Joe, he is amazing—I saw him speak once. It was to a roomful of people, but he made you feel like he was talking only to you. That being said, I think his window to run has closed. He is 75 years old—if he were to win in 2020 he would 78 when he took office, I would prefer to see him enjoy his retirement. Bernie Sanders is in the same boat as Joe Biden. I love the guy, I think he would have made a fantastic president, but I cannot see him taking office at the age of 79. Hillary Clinton—I would have loved to have seen her be president. Sadly, it was not to be. Should she run again? No, as qualified as she is, the right has tarnished her name so badly that I do not think she could ever win the presidency. That leaves some governors and a mayor on the list. I am sure each one of them would be a fine candidate, each of them has strong positives, a couple have some negatives.
This leads me to here. My ideal candidate. I joked a couple days ago that I would be happy with someone who is sane and had at least an average IQ. Trump has lowered the bar that much. In reality, the person I want to see lead the country is intelligent, has legislative experience at either the state or federal level. Someone who has critical thinking skills, and puts country before party. Policy positions should include a woman’s right to choose, single-payer health care, a strong proponent of public education, and worker’s rights. Someone who will select a cabinet with people who are experts in his/her fields. There are more policy positions that I would like to see, but they would take a much lengthier post to get into.
Will I get everything I want in a candidate? No, and I am okay with that. What it comes down to, is which candidate offers the best vision for the future of this country. We have seen the vision the GOP has—it is dark, it turns the clock back a hundred years (if not more). We need a candidate who can give us hope for the future, and not just for a select few, but for all of us.