In 2004 Vermont Governor Howard Dean, then running for President, claimed he represented the “Democratic Wing” of the Democratic Party. Today we urgently need a candidate who represents the core of the Democratic Party, and essentially the core of all American voters. We need a leader who offers a platform for the country that is pragmatic, progressive and visionary and which will unite Democrats and some Republicans and independents behind policies which improve the lives of all Americans, regardless of party or ideology.
We need a leader with proven experience and a clear vision of where we can and should go as a nation. We need a candidate who inspires a substantial majority of voters of all stripes that we are better off working to rebuild and revitalize American Democracy than we are suffering and lamenting the destruction being caused by a loose-cannon President with no clear goals, vision, integrity or respect for anything other than his self-interest.
To defeat Trump in 2020, Democrats need more than plans and pipe-dreams. Ideally before the Iowa Caucuses, and more realistically by the end of Super Tuesday, Democratic candidates and voters across the nation need to decide which two or three candidates has the best chance to unite voters and legislators across the aisle to support and enact programs that start to actually solve the many challenges facing Americans regardless of party or ideology.
In other words, the Democratic candidates need to “broker” the nomination process even before the convention by winnowing down the current field of nearly 20 candidates to the two or three who have the best chance to achieve two goals: defeat Trump and unite voters of all stripes with a vision of leadership and accomplishment that will improve the lives of all Americans.
Polls suggest that voters are beginning to reject Trump’s Pinocchio Presidency, finally realizing that his self-aggrandizing, corrupt, cynical and chaotic pretense of leadership is deeply damaging to American values, institutions and way of life. But voters still have no clear vision of which Democratic candidate is the best and right choice in 2020 to rebuild and preserve American democracy at home and American leadership abroad. While the field has narrowed with the withdrawal of Kamala Harris, there is still considerable uncertainty about who should top the Democratic ticket.
Democrats now need to provide voters with a compelling and inspiring alternative, a candidate who has taken the temperature of the nation and has the vision and capability to deliver achievable solutions to the many challenges facing America today.
Recent polls suggest that voters in the early caucus and primary states are beginning to come to their senses. According to many polls, Joe Biden is still the solid front-runner. This reflects a clear preference to elect a candidate with actual experience, moral values and integrity and who represents the moderate center of both the Democratic Party and all voters.
Polls indicating that Pete Buttigieg is gaining significant support suggests that voters value a candidate with a clear commitment to our community and our nation. Buttigieg inspires by example: a middle-class upbringing, Ivy League credentials, a deliberate choice to forego a lucrative career in big business to give back to his community by seeking to revitalize rust-belt South Bend, Indiana, and his selfless commitment to public service, as a Mayor and by serving in the U.S. Navy deployed to Afghanistan.
As Biden and Buttigieg hold or gain ground in the center, far left candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are sinking in the polls. This suggest voters are beginning to realize two important things. First, for most voters as individuals, fixing what is flawed or broken makes more sense than burning down the house and starting over. Second, that most Americans, while unhappy with many aspects of our society and our politics, now realize that fixing what is flawed or broken makes more sense for most voters of all stripes, than burning down the house and starting over.
Voters are beginning to accept the wisdom of John F. Kennedy when he said in 1958:
Let us not despair but act. Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past – let us accept our own responsibility for the future.
But the still large field of candidates and the public debate among them does not instill confidence that the Democratic Party is united behind common values and objectives. Warren and Sanders want to fight for the left against the right. But history tells us that you can’t win a war just by crushing the opposition and forcing it to live by your rules. You have to win hearts and minds to persuade opposing forces to unite their energies in favor of their common good.
It is also becoming clear to voters that even if Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders were to win the Presidency, neither would actually be able to garner sufficient legislative support to overcome stiff Republican opposition and even broad Democratic skepticism that their far-left ideas would actually be good for most Americans.
The candidates should get together as a group and hash out which two or three among them would provide the best solution to the problems posed by the Trump Administration by answering the following questions:
- Who has the best chance to defeat Trump?
- Who has the best ability to unite our divided nation?
- Who has the best set of policies and plans to move the nation forward?
- Who can best inspire voters as individuals and as a nation to join the effort to rebuild and revitalize American democracy, by fixing what is broken and by building some new additions to our democratic values and institutions that will make the country stronger and better?
If the candidates won’t do this amongst themselves, then voters must make it clear through the early primaries their realization that the country needs stability, accountability and integrity which will only come from a centrist candidate with broad appeal across the aisle.