Good lord and little fishes, it’s starting already! Over the last few days, whenever we have five little minutes between Trumptard Twitter tantrums, the media has been busy slyly teasing us with the upcoming 2020 primaries. Who is exploring the feasibility of a run. Who is making quick exploratory trips to early primary states, the whole nine yards.
And I’m starting to get more than a little pissed off. Right now, the last page on the Democratic calendar should be November of 2018. The only thing we should be exploring is the weakness of every single GOP candidate on the ballot in November. You wanna neuter Trumpy Cat? Well, guess what. The appointment with the vet is in November of this year, not 2020. I can’t tell you how many sports teams have gotten their asses kicked because they were looking past their current opponent to the rivalry game coming up next. I know, I’ve been on a few of them.
And the current lineup is pissing me off even more. Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren. Biden keeps letting these little leaks come out that he’s informally polling friends about a run in 2020. Reports have indicated that Bernie is already licking his chops about a Hillary free landscape in 2020. And Elizabeth Warrens emphatic denials of Presidential ambitions come off sounding exactly like “The check is in the mail.”
Look, let me make my point, and then y’all can hammer me in the comments to your little hearts content. Many people, including myself have literally spent years slamming the GOP for lashing themselves to the mast of pleasing an ever shrinking electoral base of old, scared, evangelical white men and women. And what are we doing? Threatening to saddle what we hope is a younger, progressive base with a shrinking number of “old school” political figures who were political power players when most of these new voters were born.
Right now we have a bunch of 14-17 year old’s, getting ready to get on a bus tomorrow and ride up to Tallahassee to kick politicians of both parties firmly in the ass on gun control. They’re dominating the news cycle on a day when congress isn’t even in session, and the louder they get, the more they’re going to scare politicians, they own social networking, and they talk to their voting parents, who are also scared shitless every day. All three Democratic “front runners” are old enough to be their grandparents. And while they all love their grandparents, that doesn’t mean they want their grandparents making the rules they have to live by. Especially since their grandparents have to hire one of them to do their social networking for them
#metoo has irrevocably changed the political landscape. But while both Biden and Sanders can extol the justice of the movement, and even believe in it wholeheartedly, they, as well as Trump himself, and Mitch McConnell, and Steny Hoyer et al grew up in a political and social reality where “controlling” women was an inherited perk of being born with a Johnson. They may say all of the right words, they may even be believed, and sincere, but history is what it is, and they can never actually “know.”
In January of 2017, Nancy Pelosi had to put down a pocket rebellion by younger, more progressive House Democrats for her Minority Leader post. If the Democrats retake the House this November, that is going to be a full blown revolution, especially if a lot of those flipped seats are won by younger, more progressive candidates, who believe more in the “possible” than the “practical.” And if Pelosi falls, then James Clyburn, Steny Hoyer and John Lewis can forget about it too.
I’m not saying we should kick these people to the curb, only that we need to put them in their proper places. I have four daughters, but I no longer “tell” them what to do, I give them sage advice instead. Obama was smart enough to know what he didn’t know, and Joe Biden was the perfect mentor. The GOP was smart enough to know what W didn’t know, so they saddled him with Dick Cheney. The GOP’s problem was that they didn’t realize that if they put a scraggly, birds nest beard on Cheney, you had Grigory Rasputin.
Since Donald Trump was elected, more and more younger voters have been turning out to voice their objections, and for the most part, the Democrats have been giving them younger, more progressive, and relevant candidates to vote for, while the GOP continues to trot out the same old dog chow. Younger voters have already proven, as recently as 2016 that they will sit out if they’re not motivated, and if the Democrats don’t motivate them, they’ll motivate themselves, they have the bit between their teeth now. I would be surprised if quite a few old guard, entrenched Democratic incumbents don’t find themselves in a serious primary fight from the left, whether the party wants it or not.And these younger voters are willing to put their money where their mouths are. This is highlighted by the fact that younger, less known Democratic challengers in Virginia, as well as other special elections were able to outspend entrenched GOP incumbents by anywhere from three to five to one show that the grassroots is alive and well.
There is obviously still a place, just as there always has been, and always will be for “elder statesmen.” But, in a world suddenly roiled by a myriad of social issues, and problems that inspire and motivate younger voters, that place is not spinning the wheel. I have no problem with as many of them running in the primaries, and if they come out on top fair and square, then I was wrong, and I’ll happily admit it, hell, I’ve eaten humble pie before. But if the DNC tries to put their thumb on the scale again, the way they did in 2016, then we can all start looking forward to four more years of Trump.
It’s here! The moment you’ve been dreading looking forward to. My new e-book President Evil. A common man looks at Trump and the 2016 primaries. You can get it now on Amazon. And please feel free to leave a review at either Amazon or goodreads, every review helps, positive or negative.