The Democrats should win in 2020 just as easily as they should have won in 2016. But evidently they have learned nothing. They are still animated by hatred of Trump and, by extension, half of their own potential voters, rather than by principles or even common sense.
Let's just talk about common sense. If the Democrats were smart, which they most decidedly are not, who would they nominate?
Mayor Pete. The choice is so obvious that of course they won't do it, and Trump will be re-elected. I'm not saying that I want the Democrats to win, because, unless something drastic changes very quickly, I hope they lose. And I say that as someone who finds exceedingly few redeemable things about President Trump.
But just as an agnostic observer of the Democratic field, how can this guy not be ahead in every poll?
Here are the reasons why Pete Buttigieg is obviously the best candidate to run against President Trump and why he should be the dream candidate for the worldview that Democrats claim to hold.
1) He's young. He's 37. He is several years younger than the two youngest men to ever be elected president, both Democrats. They met one time:
Buttigieg, were he nominated, would be debating a President literally twice his age in 2020. Elections are about contrast. That's a clear one.
2) He's a veteran. Democrats are widely perceived as being less supportive of the military than Republicans. This is true, from a certain point of view. But that debate can be bypassed temporarily if the Democrats nominate a combat veteran who chose to serve over a hedonist who chose not to. That could offer another compelling contrast.
3) He's gay. I don't care. And I don't not care because I don't approve of his lifestyle; I don't care because it's none of my business and, when it comes to evaluating a person's character, who they are sexually attracted to is way, way, way, waaaaaaay down my list of important, or even relevant considerations. God bless him. I don't care. I don't judge. And I assume he's not interested in who I'm in love with either.
And the Democrats claim to be the great defenders of gay people. But let us keep in mind, the first president to ever be elected after publicly stating that he had no objection to gay marriage was...
How are the Democrats not swooning over the prospect of a gay president?? Well, according to several recent left-wing think pieces, and I use the word "think" very liberally, Buttigieg isn't gay enough.
Or, in other variations, he's gay, but does not belong to any other victim group. Gay? Great. White? Male? Borrrrrriinnnnngggg.
4) He's married! Gay married! And he's only been married once! And he's still married to that same person! Family values. Another clear opportunity for the Democrats to hijack a typical Republican strong point.
5) He's from Indiana. A red state. Home state of the sitting Vice-President. Even if Buttigieg doesn't win Indiana, that's not the point. The point is that the Democrats could signal that they are aware of the existence of the middle 90 percent of the country and that they don't assume that every one living outside of major coastal cities is a deplorable troglodyte.
But of course they won't nominate Mayor Pete. Because they can't help themselves. What I find much more likely is the following scenario:
Due to the rules of how these primaries work, no one will win over 50 percent of the votes, simply because there are so many candidates. But this guy will be in first place when the Democratic Convention begins:
Here we see Bernie Sanders after being asked why, if he opposed Trump's tax cuts, he didn't just keep paying the previous, higher rate.
At this point the Democratic establishment will steal the nomination from Bernie in a back room in favor of someone else. Possibly someone who isn't even running. Maybe Michelle Obama. And mark my words, Hillary Clinton has one more card up her sleeve.
However it shakes out, Trump will be re-elected, due largely to the fact that the Democrats are staring a dream candidate in the face and refusing to acknowledge it. We have a very unsympathetic President. A third of the country loves him. I don't. More than a third of the country hates him. I don't. I'm in the third camp, which sees him as a profoundly flawed vessel that is acting, sometimes unwittingly, to hold back the worst excesses of his political enemies.
The Democratic party is the only group of people who can fix this. But they won't. It's clear that they could, but it's not clear to them, because their vision is hopelessly clouded by their own self-obsession. The Party of Science, everybody. Not political science, evidently.
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