- Location
- Op een dag, Nederland.
- Pronouns
- she/her & ne/nem
As Americans prepare to go to the polls for the midterms, some of them will chance to encounter with a rare creature - a pollster!
This pollster isn't asking them about the midterms, but about who will they want to support in the coming primaries for 2020. While most of them think "It's too early for that!", the pollster has convinced them to give an answer. If they're Democrat, they're offered Democratic choices of course
For the Democratic voters that are ready to cast their vote in the midterms, the pollster's question has brought up ten names that they recognise
For you, dear Democratic voters, how will you respond to the question?
Governor Rocky Anderson (D-UT): Perhaps the most unorthodox of choices here, he was a surprise victor in the 2014 gubernatorial election in deep blue Utah, and has governed rather... unorthodoxly. With the Populists once again swallowing their pride and endorsing him, he has bounced back and is now only slightly behind Republican Mia Love. With re-election increasingly sounding very much possible, he has became a name many will see in "possible presidential candidate lists". But is America ready for the most rare of people - a staunchly left-wing Mormon? Or will they decide otherwise?
Governor Michael Avenatti (D-CA): Loud, brash, often seen as "sleazy", he is the voice of the "Angry Left". Staunchly environmentalist, firmly socially-liberal, economically 100% "Beattite", he stands for rejecting the 2016 turn to moderation and back to uncompromising left-wing stances. And with Rubio's isolationist capitalism, there is some who argue that Avenatti's brash anger could appeal to voters. However, some have pointed out that his brash masculine attitude might not turn out to be that appealing to liberal women, which makes up a big chunk of the Democratic base and might want to nominate a woman to "avenge" Klobuchar's loss in 2016 and not a brash loud-speaking man
Governor Steve Bullock (D/NPL-MT): A folksy man from the rural state of Montana, this card-carrying member of the Montana Nonpartisan League and registered Democrat is popular with rural voters and clearly walks in the same path as Amy Klobuchar did in 2016 - that of the folksy prairie pragmatist opposed to "unworkable" radical ideas. But on Bullock's defense, he has been very liberal on social issues for a Montana Governor, up to supporting and signing a bill recognising and defending non-binary people in the State of Montana. Will this expand his base to Democrats elsewhere who might wish for firm social values, but not economic radicalism?
Former Speaker Andrew Cuomo (D-NY): Of course, there are some who think the Democrats need to move on from being the party of radicalism, and instead become the party of firm social liberal pragmatism. Heading that faction is former Speaker Andrew Cuomo who might be wielding the gavel once more come January if the people give the Democrats advantage. The son of 1988 candidate Mario Cuomo, Andrew has been oft criticised as "only a Dem because his father was", which he has rejected, arguing that his Democratic reputation is strong. Will the Democrats think so?
Actress Ellen DeGeneres (D-CA): The Democrats have always had a bit of a celebrity obsession, going all the way back to when they were reforged by media mogul William Randolph Hearst, and made worse when their most successful [and apart from Wallace in the 40s, only] presidents were celebrities. Ellen DeGeneres is a firm liberal, critic of President Rubio and was one of Klobuchar's firmest supporters back in 2016. And perhaps, with American society totally different from how it was eighteen years ago, it is time for a LGBT president? DeGeneres has been rather quiet about possibly running, so she could not run after all. Who knows
Governor Rodney Ellis (NU-TX): The National Unionists don't often get the chance to run candidates for the Presidency, being in the region where the general "Democratic" thing is weakest. But since President Redford oversaw the Democrats returning to political "legitimacy", there have been quite a few names that popped up every now and then. The latest and most certainly not the least, is Governor of Texas Rodney Ellis. A Texan NUP "elder statesman", he was drafted to run for the governorship in 2014 and thanks to a Populist split and record Hispanic turnout, he won. Set for re-election easily, perhaps it's time for him to set his eyes further up?
Former Governor Patrick J. Kennedy (D-MA): Ted Kennedy's shadow looms large on the Democratic Party. Widely considered the favourite in 1996, he was set to win the primaries easily and polls even suggested that he had a chance to defeat Bill Clinton, a health scare forced him to withdraw. Now with many feeling like it's 1996 all over again, with a moderate Populist president being quite popular, Ted's son has possibly considered stepping forward. A former Governor of Massachusetts from 2007 to 2015, it isn't like he lacks experience. Perhaps it is time to go back to 1996 and "do it right" this time? However, PJK isn't his father...
Senator Barack Obama (D-HI): One of the Democrats' most intensely charismatic Senators, Obama is known for his inspiring speeches and for being one of the most prominent Democratic senators to criticise President Rubio. With Rubio being one of the Populists' most charismatic people, perhaps it is time to respond with one of the Democrats' best? However, he has only won elections in Hawai'i, a rather liberal state where the Dems enjoy dominance and has for decades. Would he flounder on the national stage given a radically different audience and notably, the presence of the Populists?
Governor Robyne Robinson (FL-MN): Amy Klobuchar was a Farmer-Labor woman from Minnesota. So the argument goes, if we want to keep our gains in the Plains while not losing our Midwest presence [some would remind you Rubio did well there] and boost female turnout, we should nominate another FL woman from MN. However, this is not all that is selling Governor Robinson. She, notably, is to the left of Klobuchar, being more in the vein of past Farmer-Laborites like Floyd Olson and Paul Kvale, and her being African-American while governing a lily-white state appeals to those who want the Dems to nominate a person of color for once
Professor Kanye West (I?-IL): One of the foremost left-wing intellectuals, he has criticised America's social inequality when it comes to class, race and gender, and has managed to sell his thoughts to a general audience in his books such as Blue Collar: The Working-Class Reality, The Life of Pablo: Immigration and Nativism in Modern America and his latest A Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy: White Perception of Black America. Those have never not been controversial, even within the American Left. Regularly a hate-symbol by the American Right, many call on Professor West to run for the Presidency. But will this passionate intellectual make the dive?
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