The presidential election is on November 3, 2020. It is now March 13, 2019. For the next nearly 20 months, we will be drowning in campaign news coverage. It will be an exhausting time, especially because the stakes feel particularly high. If you don't already know, I believe Donald Trump is a menace to the office he currently occupies, our American way of life, and our image around the world. A second term would feel like a worse nightmare than his first.
With that, there is a 99% chance that I will be voting for the Democratic nominee for the Presidency of these States United, whoever it becomes. If you know me, this is not unexpected, although I am not a proud and loyal Democrat.
The Democratic candidate field is saturated, and the two polling-based frontrunners, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden, don't excite me. Therefore, as of now, I am throwing my cautious support behind Elizabeth Warren.
Here are some key reasons why. I believe:
- She is a deeply moral, kind, and good person.
- She has a clear platform for her candidacy: capitalism works when it is fair and responsible to all Americans.
- She is the best communicator out of all the Democratic candidates of complex policies to the average American voter.
- Her economic and tax policies are largely the right prescriptions for what I believe is an extremely dangerous problem: income inequality.
- She has a great early life story that can appeal to the Rust and Wheat Belt regions of the U.S.
And her recent interview on the New York Times' The Argument podcast helped with her appeal to me.
However, she has two downsides right now that hamper my ability to be unequivocally enthusiastic about her candidacy. They are as follows:
- The controversy surrounding her supposed Native American ancestry is a problem she could've done better to nip in the bud quickly. Instead, to a passive observer, it felt like she was prolonging the problem before she eventually made clear apologies. It will likely come back to haunt her over and over again throughout the campaign season.
- Her most recent crusade against Silicon Valley is terribly misguided. Apart from Facebook's complicated reputation, most American consumers love the major tech companies. And while I believe antitrust regulation needs to be modernized for our modern landscape (and the Bork-ian framework revisited, if not neutered), I'd like her policy team to be better equipped to deal with understanding the major tech companies' business models.
Despite those downsides, her positives speak strongly to me. And while it's too early to tell who the clear and eventual frontrunner will be, I hope she fights her way to be one of the Democratic Party's strongest contenders, if not ultimately the presumptive nominee.