The presidential elections in the USA are set to happen in 2020, and the Democrats are gearing up with their best — or at least so they believe. A lot of Democrat politicians are coming out with a lot of ideas on how to improve the country. The major issue here is that they’re not so much focusing on fixing things, but on casting the Republicans off their throne. Although it is evident that these two forces in our political system will never come to terms, Democrats are starting to lack genuineness they have always had.
Why Paper Over the Cracks Won’t Work
Here’s a theory — it looks like the plan Democrats have is to make Republicans leave by storming them with 23 presidential candidates. Yes, you’ve heard that well. Are all of the 23 genuinely good politicians who know what they’re doing? Probably not.
Moreover, all of these candidates will be permitted in the debates. That’s plural because there will be two debate nights as one can’t really place so many people on the stage at once. So let’s all hope that the general public won’t be bored out of their minds. They will have to watch two nights of politicians coming up with trivial ideas that probably won’t affect their lives in any way.
Evidently enough, memorizing 23 candidates can be quite a challenge — especially so for the Democrat supporters. A testimony to this is just how many people keep confusing John Delaney with John Mulaney, a stand-up comedian. If memorizing so many names is a challenge, how do Democrats expect voters even to set them all apart?
Colorado is coming up with two candidates for the elections. They’re both white, they both come from an outstanding background, and they’ve both achieved things. Most importantly, none of them have yet tackled the most critical issues the USA deals with.
John Hickenlooper, for example, has never come out with a legitimate agenda as to how he would solve problems the country is facing. Moreover, he keeps relying on his experience of being a mayor and a governor. Truth be told, he has pushed Colorado forward, proving that Coloradans really are one of the most modern-thinking citizens. But as far as the presidential elections go, he’s not really doing that much other than denying labels.
When Joe Scarborough asked him if he was a capitalist, his reply was that he didn’t like labels, nor was he sure if any of them fit him. A couple of days later, Margaret Brennan from CBS decided to let Hickenlooper explain things more thoroughly. So she followed up with the same question as Scarborough. Again, he didn’t clarify anything — to him this question was silly.
Brennan then faced him with some serious facts, one of them being how the best weapon Republicans had against Democrats was to depict them as anti-business socialists. And yet again, Hickenlooper was very firm on refusing labels. Something one could expect from an interview with Jennifer Aniston or Ariana Grande — definitely not from a potential president.
Statements Have Been Changed
If you travel three months into the future, and a quite undesirable one for Hickenlooper at that, you will see that his stance on labels has suddenly changed. Has this come as a result of getting no support in national polls? Who knows.
Either way, Hickenlooper did state that if one wished to defeat President Trump, socialism wasn’t the answer. Does this mean that he is a capitalist all of a sudden? Has he finally taken on a label he has so firmly tried to run away from?
Senator Michael Bennet, on the other hand, applauded President Trump when he proclaimed that the USA would never be a socialist country. Bennet is another candidate coming from Colorado, and he has worked closely with Hickenlooper.
What is it that these two political figures have in common exactly? Well, they agree on three things — guaranteed jobs for all, guaranteed homes for all, and Medicare health insurance for all. Most importantly, they wish to help the struggling middle class in the States, although none of the candidates have any idea how they would do this.
Here is where the capitalistic Republicans and the somewhat socialistic Democrats clash — the way they would handle Medicare. Health insurance in the USA has been privatized for quite some time now, and these two candidates think it needs to become more public. A genuine gesture considering that many Americans struggle with their health insurance bills. The problem is that a lot of Americans also pay for the Advantage plan — a more expensive alternative that brings more privileges, such as great dental care.
Not to mention how a lot of high-profile companies actually do offer the Advantage plan to their employees. Where will this leave them if Bennet or Hickenlooper come through with their Medicare-for-all plan?
We Need to Become More Educated
This just might be the biggest problem we’re facing as a nation. Republicans are accussing Democrats that they follow a Hitler type of political model. After all, the Nazis identified as national socialists, and Stalin did the same thing.
On the other hand, Democrats blame Republicans how they don’t really care for the biggest part of the population — only for the privileged 1%. Both of these arguments exist to manipulate and scare the voters from one side to another. Republicans are using two of the biggest mass murderers in history to depict socialism as something horrible and scary. And Democrats are trying to scare the voters by presenting Capitalism as Neo-Capitalism, a system that grinds people for money.
For reasons like these, voters need to get educated. Socialism didn’t cause the wars in Europe — it was the people with sick ideologies who did. For example, Sanders has spoken about democratic socialism a couple of times. This is a political model that many Western countries have incorporated. It is a mixture of capitalism and socialism — the idea is to create a strong economy and economic growth, not leaving behind people who couldn’t make it. For all of those left behind, there is a safety net — fantastic healthcare and excellent retirement plans.
Surely there is no sign of genocidal authoritarians in Sweden, France, Spain, Canada or Japan? Does this mean that democratic socialism really isn’t as scary as some politicians are trying to convince us?
The fact that Hickenlooper so firmly denies “labels” means that he indirectly supports the ideology of President Trump and the Republicans. Is he afraid of even admitting socialism could be a good thing?
One thing is clear though — both of these men have a somewhat naive approach when it comes to how they would govern the States. The difference is that Hickenlooper is significantly more naive than Bennet. While Hickenlooper keeps relying on his charming personality, and how he has achieved a lot without being the class president as many other candidates, it isn’t enough. He doesn’t seem to realize that Congress isn’t, by any means, a class of high school teenagers. Things are much more serious and complex than that. And he continues to insist on refusing any labels.
Bennet, however, has a somewhat more serious approach — which is probably a result of being in Senate. One thing he realizes is that one cannot negotiate or even compromise with Freedom Caucus. According to his words, Mitch McConnell isn’t the person ready to give and take, unless he can take everything — something he’s been selectively doing for the last ten years, according to Bennet. He says that Freedom Caucus enjoys the financial support of a chosen few billionaires and Fox News. As such, it will be very difficult to take down.
His idea to beat them is to isolate them and then enforce policies that will significantly limit their power. So technically, his approach is to use the same tactics Republicans have used on Democrats. Can Democrats beat Republicans in the game they have created?
What Will Happen Next?
The truth is that neither Bennet nor Hickenlooper have developed legitimated strategies on how to deal with some political issues. Moreover, they are more concerned about how to defeat Republicans instead of offering solutions. If they want to get new voters, they need to provide solutions Republicans have never come up with. Unfortunately, Hickenlooper relies on his charm and past achievements that are somewhat insignificant in Congress. On the other side, Bennet recognizes the problem better, but he isn’t coming up with new tactics. He wishes to defeat Republicans at their own game.
Bennet even admitted that by seeing so many candidates running for the elections, he thought to himself, “Why not?” Is this a reason good enough for both of them and us? I guess we need to wait and see what the future brings.
