I watched the Democratic presidential debate Tuesday, and it wasn’t depressing! At this point, I’m so dispirited with the whole national political scheme, I expected it to be just one more dismal event in a season of them.
In fact, we viewers saw some sharp candidates who could perform credibly in the Oval Office. Even that really rich guy, Tom Steyer, who in his TV ads looks almost robotic. He was sane, sharp, sensible, even displayed a bit of a sense of humor.
Over the last three years I’d about decided – like, I suspect, lots of other voters – that really rich guys should be barred from public office. Forever.
In fact, the evening was downright pleasant, if one just ignored Bernie Sanders condescendingly mansplaining the concept of time to Elizabeth Warren.
And I thought back on the cavalcade of candidates we’ve been treated to over the last few months. By and large, an impressive bunch of folks. Most could perform credibly – even impressively – as president of our United States.
And certainly the whole pack has the makings of a truly outstanding presidential cabinet should the nation soon need (oh, please, please, please!) a new presidential cabinet. Far more professionally qualified than what we now seem to have, a cabinet of cronies.
The bigger, more important question: Who could actually beat the current occupant of that office?
Because another four years of Donald Trump will cause irreparable damage to the country we love. He is without a doubt the worst president this country has been afflicted with in my lifetime.
He’s crude and rude, a man who demeans women, mocks people with disabilities and attacks Gold Star parents who dare to criticize him. In the words of conservative stalwart Max Boot, Trump “is a liar, a cheat and a bully without an ounce of dignity, empathy or decency. In place of his soul, he has a black hole. . . . He is a monster.”
As bad, Trump is both ignorant and malicious. He ran because he wanted the presidency as a trophy. He didn’t know a whit about government when he was sworn in, and he’s shown no interest since in learning. Instead, he assumes he knows – by intuition? – all there is.
And because he really doesn’t care, he has turned the reins of the government he was elected to lead over to an unelected band of extreme anti-government zealots who have been busy, in the last three years, undoing every positive achievement of the last 50 years.
Especially if it happened during the administration of his immediate predecessor, Barack Obama, for whom he seems to have a pathological hatred and whose accomplishments he wants to wipe from history.
He has taken a crowbar to our relationships with our allies, particularly the democracies of Europe. He’s cozied up to the world’s most repugnant strongmen. And he’s treated the democratically elected leaders of our traditional staunch European allies with contempt.
Domestically, too, he’s been a wrecking ball, doing his best to block and if possible undo decades of decent government and progress. This is particularly true of environmental issues. A voluble climate change denier, he has installed fossil fuel champions through government and has tried administratively to turn back the regulatory clock and undo regulations that protect air, water, land and people from hazards, including climate change.
Last year alone, he and his administration loosened regulation of methane emissions, repealed a major Obama clean water rule, rolled back off-shore drilling regulations designed to lessen the chances of a catastrophic oil spill and significantly weakened the nearly 50-year-old landmark Endangered Species Act.
We really need to get rid of this guy, and so it follows: We really, really need to nominate someone who is electable.
As far as I’m concerned, that effectively eliminates Sanders and makes Warren marginal. Both, despite humble beginnings, have marinated for too long in climes – Elizabeth in the rarified air off Harvard Square, Bernie in the boutique state of Vermont – that are far removed from the ticked-off voters the Dems have to lure back into their fold.
As one who worked for both the George McGovern and the Walter Mondale campaigns – two of the Democrats’ all-time losers – in the critical state of Ohio, I can guarantee that anyone tagged with the label “socialist,” even if untrue, is unacceptable to much of the electorate.
And Bernie Sanders is and always has been by his own definition a real socialist, even if he does affix the word “democratic” onto it. For heaven’s sake, the man honeymooned in the Soviet Union! Not Russia but the bad old USSR of 1988. And while there in the USSR – which was still holding millions of eastern European countries in thrall – he publicly criticized America’s foreign policy as well as the high cost of medicine and housing in the United States.
Americans may not be sure what socialism even is – but they are sure they don’t want it
Plus, when he’s challenged he visibly seethes, bringing to mind the cliché of a cranky old man, which of course at age 78 he is. And one who just weeks ago had a heart attack. At the risk of rattling a cage or two, I – as a cranky old lady – still believe that age is and should be a factor when choosing the most powerful person in the world.
And Elizabeth has to stop acting so … well, righteous. At least in public. Tuesday night when she stormed over to Bernie after the debate to berate him for calling her a liar on camera – which he certainly effectively did – she forgot that cameras and mics aren’t always turned off promptly. And it gave reporters a sideshow they could happily focus on in following days, ignoring the substance of the debate.
And all of the candidates should just stop trying to come up with newer, snazzier programs. The only thing their proposals can do at this stage is to turn off potential voters.
The truth is that any new president, however progressive, will of necessity find his or her first term completely consumed with undoing, or trying to undo, damage the Trumpsters have done in fewer than four years. We can’t afford to give them four more.
(“Monitor” columnist Katy Burns lives in Bow.)