O Say Can You Please Entry 7

O Say Can You Please Entry 7: The Obligatory Top 10 of Something

     Welcome back to O Say Can You Please… is what I would say if I had a story to write about. As a result of this lull, I will rank the Top 10 2020 Democratic Presidential candidates. As this is a ranking of Democrats, President Trump will not be included, but on a reassuring note to his supporters (and a frightening one to me), he would beat at least half of the people on the list proper. However. Before we begin, I will give joke awards to those who didn’t make the list, from No. 11 all the way down to No. 21. Here are the Semi-Honorable Mentions. By the way, all of these candidates are actually in the race, according to Rolling Stone, which is my main source for this whole list. Also, I am only using this source because of my focus on one party here. If Trump were involved with this ranking, I’d definitely pick a less progressive source.

• The “Dying Meme” Award (#11): Andrew Yang (Entrepreneur) (#NotInTheYangGang)
• The “Promising Policies on a Completely Unknown Candidate” Award (#12): Jay Inslee (Governor of Washington State)
• The “Worn Down Flip-Flops” Award (#13): Tulsi Gabbard (US Representative from Hawaii)
• The “Promising Policies on the Wrong Candidate” Award (#14): John Hickenlooper (Former Governor of Colorado)
• The “I’ve Been Running For Over A Year Already” Award (#15): John Delaney (Former Congressman from Maryland)
• The “No, He’s Not Paul” Award (#16): Tim Ryan (US Representative from Ohio)
• The “Swall’s Well That Ends Well” Award (#17): Eric Swalwell (US Representative from California)
• The “I’m the Other Mayor in the Race” Award (#18): Wayne Messam (Mayor of Miramar, Florida)
• The “My Campaign Application is Still Pending” Award (#19): Seth Moulton (US Representative from Massachusetts)
• The “Older Than a T-Rex Fossil” Award (#20): Mike Gravel (Former US Senator from Alaska)
• The “Miss Irrelevant” Award (#21): Marianne Williamson (author/activist)

    Now, it is time to evaluate the Top 10. These remaining candidates are ranked on how likely they are to win the primary, the general election, and the strength of their signature policies. Past experience is also a factor, but that is rated out of 5, as Trump showed that a lack of experience is not a complete deal breaker for electability.  They will be scored on each of the criteria on a scale from 1 (a trainwreck) to 10 (master class). And now, the countdown shall begin with a sample scorecard and then our No. 10 pick.

    Sample

    Scores: Primary/General/Policy/Exp.

    10. Julián Castro

    Scores: 4/3/4/3

    Julián Castro was a former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under Obama. However, that’s pretty much all he has going for him. In a field with Joe Biden, Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, Castro is hopelessly outclassed as a more moderate candidate, and a Hatch Act violation involving a Trump diss also reflects poorly on him. On top of that, his signature policy is universal Pre-K, which is nice, but really isn’t high on anyone’s list of priorities for this nation. This makes him seem rather bland as a candidate, unfortunately, and as a result, he only cracks the list by a hair. Maybe he would have had a chance in the pre-Bernie era, but as it stands, Castro isn’t very electable.

    9. Amy Klobuchar

    Scores: 4/4/2/5

    Klobuchar seems decent on paper, with a great amount of experience and a sense of practicality in her policies and achievements. These achievements include a ban on lead in toys and a reduction in untested rape kits. However, her signature policy for the campaign is not only low on people’s priority lists, but also detrimental to our national unity in a divisive time, as having the capital be its own state opens up room for more questioning the fairness of the system. My idea here is to give them one Congressperson in the House and only one in the Senate due to DC not being a state (All states have 2 Senators). Granted, that would require a Constitutional amendment, but I’m getting ahead of myself. She has also faced criticism over her subpar treatment of employees. I won’t go in-depth about that here, but I will say that is a big problem that she will have to fight to sweep under the rug.

    8. Kirsten Gillibrand

Scores: 5/4/7/4

    Now, we begin to see the candidates with some potential to win, albeit very little in the case of Gillibrand. Her signature policy is rooting out those accused of sex crimes in government, which sounds amazing as an idea. However, while her intentions are probably beneficial, some other people may try to abuse this policy to kick out political foes. This could lead to all sorts of problems, such as a one-party state being formed, but she still has a good distinguishing policy factor. However, Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren are running, leaving Gillibrand generally outclassed. While her policy on the #MeToo movement is timely, nothing else about her really is.

    7. Beto O’Rourke

    Scores: 5/7/7/2

O’Rourke is a candidate with decent electability (especially for his average name recognition), but his weaknesses are crippling. For one, he’s only remotely known because of a failed Senatorial campaign. Granted, he was a Democrat running statewide in Texas, but his opponent was Ted Cruz. However, his main policy is immigration reform, which is actually important. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find what his policy of “respect and dignity” actually was due to a bad link. He would be doing better if Pete Buttigieg wasn’t running, but he is, so Beto is in trouble. He has a shot, but his strategy should seriously focus on the long game, or else he risks an early elimination.

6. Cory Booker

Scores: 8/5/6/5

Booker is an interesting candidate, but he leaves a little to be desired in certain areas. For one, his voting record is pretty liberal, despite his centre-left, Obama-esque image. This shouldn’t hurt him in the primary, but in the general election, this confusion may bite him in the posterior quite hard. His signature policy is also interesting, if a financial black hole for our government. This is because it’s basically a bond program meant to close the wealth gap. I also see mild potential for systemic abuse due to corporate tax laws possibly allowing them to cheat should this go by taxable income. This plan would probably be effective at fixing the wealth gap, but it’d exacerbate America’s fiscal quagmire even more than currently so. Still, he has a shot to win, but it could be tough for him to do so.

5. Elizabeth Warren

Scores: 8/4/9/4

At this point, I shouldn’t have to go into detail about why Warren’s general election score is so low, right? For those of you who want to know, she grossly sensationalized how Native American she was, which was something I stopped doing in the 5th grade. In all seriousness, President Trump hammered that point on and on for months, and it worked, as Warren is just now recovering from it. Therefore, I will spend the rest of this entry focusing on what she does well. For one, her signature policy is an extra (and very mild) tax on the absolute wealthiest. According to Rolling Stone, “fortunes greater than $50 million would be taxed at 2 percent. Billionaires would pay 3 percent. The proposal has greater than 60 percent support and would raise $2.75 trillion over 10 years.” It’s a mild tax, but that’s all America needs (along with closing some corporate loopholes). All in all, Warren may not be down for the count anymore, and her return to contention is going well. However, she’ll have to show a little more fortitude (despite the impressive existing levels) to stand up to Trump.

4. Pete Buttigieg

Scores: 9/7/8/3

Mayor Pete burst onto the scene in late March proving that it is best to face a Presidential campaign with a sense of poise and rationality. Panic! At the Disco references aside, Buttigieg is an unconventional Democrat who has only one thing going against him: the fact that his surname has confused many about its pronunciation. Back to the point about him being unconventional, this is due to the fact that he is quite religious. This could give him crossover appeal to some right-wing voting blocs, but not all of them. For one, Evangelicals are not going to take kindly to the fact that Mayor Pete is a married gay man. A lot of left-wing and centrist voters probably won’t care, but failing to win over Evangelicals will hurt in some Midwestern states. Back to the positive, he is also an Afghanistan veteran and a Rhodes scholar, both of which are going to work out greatly in his favor. Buttigieg is also against the Electoral College, which is a controversial stance that some Democrats have recently taken, likely because Hillary won the popular vote. He is electable, but with little political experience outside of his status as Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, time will tell to see if he can keep up with the field.

3. Joe Biden

Scores: 7/8/9/5

While Biden has impressive credentials and an ability to reach across the aisle, he is prone to mistakes, and some in particular are rather embarrassing. These include him plagiarizing a part of a speech he gave in 1988 and, more recently, the whole story about him getting a tad too affectionate with others. In the #MeToo era, one can’t help but wonder whether Biden can overcome these obstacles of his own making. However, when he’s bringing his best to the table, he can run circles around most of the field due to having 45 years of national political experience. Also, having a capable foreign policy mind in office is quite important right now, especially given that Bush 43 (Iraq), Obama (Benghazi), and Trump (Got outplayed by North Korea) have all made major foreign policy blunders. Granted, he was Obama’s Vice President, but if he can climb out of the early hole that he has dug for himself, he will be hard to take down, unless he makes another embarrassing gaffe.

2. Kamala Harris

Scores: 10/8/7/4

While Harris is one of the most electable candidates in the field, her past could come back to bite her just enough to prevent her from winning the general. She is an establishment candidate who has incorporated some grassroots policies into her platform, such as a Green New Deal, for example. Her signature policy is decent, as it pays working-class families a small dividend to counteract taxation. This would be paid for by repealing the Trump tax cuts, but a policy like this may still not fix the budget problem considering what Harris is using the money for. Also, she made many mistakes as the Attorney General of California, but has since owned up to them. Granted, she could have been trying to stay by the book with the law and not twist it to benefit her interests, which is admirable, but she could always have pressured the state’s legislative branch to update a few things. Basically, while she is highly electable, I am torn about her actual ability, and a sharp fall in the rankings could be imminent.

    1. Bernie Sanders

Scores: 10/8/10/5

While I am a bit annoyed that a perceived socialist is topping this list, I realize he’s not really much of one in the grand scheme of things, either. Rather, Bernie seems to believe more in social democracy, a left-wing, but still capitalistic system with socialist seasoning that is the basis of many European economies, as well as that of FDR-era America and present-day China. He is also highly electable, as his base is almost as dedicated as Trump’s. Like with Trump, he has made radical ideas mainstream, but on the opposite end of the spectrum. The fight for a higher minimum wage and tuition-free college were both benefited from his exposure of those movements to the mainstream. This kind of influential politics is exactly what the Democrats need right now, as Trump has his supporters believe ever more absurd claims which are so ridiculous that I could previously only have imagined them in a Mel Brooks movie. All in all, Bernie could be exactly what the Democrats are looking for in 2020.

And that is all for this Top 10. Please leave a comment if you have any different ranking in mind, but please keep the discussion civil. Also, subscribe to the blog if you want to know right away when I actually post something. Anyway, that’s all I got, and I’ll talk to you soon!