Friday, January 25, 2019

Anyone special can run for president

I've lost track of all the people who have now announced they're going to run for the Democrat candidate for the Oval Office in 2020, but it's become really interesting to look at the group as it keeps developing.
First we had the woman candidate who does in fact have a lot of political experience, and it a tiny fraction of a percent Native American genes.
Then we got the woman candidate from Hawaii, a newcomer politics and largely unknown. Then a couple more came in, one of them Kamala Harris, a woman of color with political experience and an aggressive approach to things. Now we have the first openly gay person to announce for the job,
mayor of a midwestern town, a Navy vet of the Afghan excursion. (Who likes the Medicare For All idea and the Green New Deal too.)
I am waiting for the trans candidate to announce soon. Or the trans woman of color candidate with either an Hispanic surname or Native American genes, who would be an absolute shoo-in for the job.
What I'm not waiting for is the middle of the road straight White guy, practicing Christian, to announce, because clearly that person is no longer a key personality type to represent the Party. At this point, if you ain't diverse, you ain't nobody.
We have slid far into identity politics, where your group, your
"intersectionality" is what counts, and as Ms. Octavio-Cortez says, facts are not all that important, it's being "morally right" that is the real key thing.
Of course most of the newcomers and unknowns will drop out in the convention, but exactly who will end up as the standard bearer for the Party is a very open question right now. The only thing I feel confident about is that it won't be a 50 year old White guy with wife and kids who has record of regular church attendance.
Don't get me wrong, at this point I would not care if the person in the Oval Office were a crossdressing albino dwarf with bad teeth who chews tobacco and spits into the fireplace, is an agnostic, and knocks down a few shots of bourbon every day, as long as that person was actually an intelligent, capable, far thinking, inspirational leader who was working their butt off for the long term good of the nation. I just want the person elected based on their record of abilities and achievements, with no real regard for whatever subgroup of the population they may belong to. Sadly, that doesn't seem to be the way things are going these days.
--Del

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