2020 DEM RACE: A NEW HOPE

Many of us have been thinking about the 2020 presidential election since Inauguration Day in January 2017. Democratic Party politicians have been eager, too – there are over 20 candidates in the race, including both political front-runners and underdogs.

While it’s clearly too early to tell who will ultimately win, it seems as though history is being repeated, given the demographics of our current Democratic front-runners.

Joe Biden is quickly leading the early polls after officially kicking off his campaign only recently. With a focus on rebuilding the middle class, his widespread popularity among Democrats can only be credited to his position as vice president under former President Obama.

It would appear that Biden’s campaign should have been off to a rocky start, considering allegations from several women of past “inappropriate touching” that bordered on sexual misconduct. There notably also was Anita Hill – poorly treated during Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas (chaired by Biden) – who publicly denounced his run for the presidency, after his weak attempt to apologize.

Surprisingly, the accusations did not put a dent in his campaign – posing an interesting (and frankly questionable) position for supporters who in the same breath call for repercussions against Trump for his own sexual misconduct. By now, I would expect that especially in left-wing politics where we pride ourselves on seeking justice for our current president, that a man who admitted to many of these allegations, mind you, wouldn’t get off so easy.

The candidate who has slumped the most after Biden’s announcement is his front-running counterpart, self-proclaimed “Democratic Socialist” U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Sanders has been a favorite among younger voters, especially since focusing his previous campaigns on free college tuition, universal healthcare, and protecting the middle class.

Even in the down-to-earth way we call him by his first name, Bernie is an intriguing persona to counteract the damage done on our country by the current administration. He could have a serious chance to turn the politcal landscape of America into one where we can be again seen as world leaders.

Of course, it would be nice to have faith that Sanders can pull ahead of Biden with a campaign based solely on grassroots fundraising, but I’m afraid he has built his campaign in an atmosphere not yet ready for his strategies and policies.

Despite one of the most diverse candidate fields yet, with two white men holding the lead for the Democrats, chances of breaking the glass ceiling by 2020 remains slim. Of course, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren would have an edge in the race if it weren’t for her unfortunate, cringe-worthy mistake of playing up her Native American heritage only to release results of her DNA test, which show only the slightest chance of someone in her family, generations ago, having these genes.

I find it disheartening that her blunder is taken more seriously than the inappropriate conduct charges against Biden.

This column hardly scratches the surface of the mix of personalities running for president. But the power dynamics between Sanders and Biden, two vastly different politicians (despite the sparse amount of white hair both sport), are worth re-examining when determining who might represent our country in the next few years (generously assuming it won’t be Donald Trump).

There are younger candidates such as Beto O’Rourke, Pete Buttigieg, and Eric Swalwell, running in hopes of capturing mainstream, traditional-minded Democratic voters, and more people of color in the early running than ever. There are African-American U.S. Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kamala Harris of California – while Buttigieg, an Indiana mayor, is gaining attention as a gay married man. The fact that diversity is being shown so far does matter.

And yet, it seems that it remains difficult to run a successful campaign in the company of donor-rich white men, willing to almost stroll into a position that shouldn’t so easily be theirs for the taking.