Sorry Bernie. Sorry Joe. Sorry Donald. But the last thing America needs is yet another old white man as president.
But wait, Fandango, aren’t you an old white man?
Guilty as charged. Yes, I am, in fact, old, white, and a man. And that is why I am so sure that what America needs to move it forward is not another white, male septuagenarian as head of state.
But are you arguing against “old,” “white,” or “male”? Or all three?
It’s not so much any of those individual attributes as much as it is the combination of all three. After all, I really like Elizabeth Warren and she would, should she earned the Democratic nomination, be 70 at the time of the 2020 election. And she is white. But she’s not an old white man.
Donald Trump is an old white man who will be a “youthful” 74 years old at the time of the 2020 election. He lost the popular vote in 2016, and despite being one of the least popular presidents in modern history, he is successfully driving the United States to the edge of a very steep precipice.
Bernie Sanders is an old white man, but he already sounds like everyone’s crazy uncle at Thanksgiving dinner. And Sanders will be 78 at the time of the 2020 election. 78! It’s no surprise that Bernie keeps winning in Vermont, though, and will likely win his state’s primary. Vermont has one of the nation’s oldest and whitest populations. But the general American electorate is not like the population of Vermont.
Joe Biden is an old white man, and he’ll be almost 78 at the time of the 2020 election. He is a middle of the road, “mainstream” Democrat who has a lot of baggage and a questionable track record when it comes to some of the hotbed issues that are important to progressive Democrats in 2020.
So Fandango, if you’re railing against old white men like Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, and Joe Biden, who do you think should be the Democratic candidate to run against and to defeat Donald Trump?
That’s an excellent question. Thank you for asking. As I mentioned earlier, there’s the very impressive, very intelligent, very persistent champion of people’s rights, Elizabeth Warren. Or there’s Kamala Harris, a triple threat. She not old (54). She’s not white. And she’s not a man.
Or how about Pete Buttigieg? Sure, he’s white and he’s a man. But at 37, he’s young. And he’s smart, articulate, a veteran, and genuine. Everything that Donald Trump is not. Maybe Mayor Pete is the dream candidate to go up against Donald Trump.
But what I do know is that I would revel in any candidate who can take out Donald Trump, as long as he’s just not another old white man.
Written for these daily prompts: The Daily Spur (lost), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (edge), Ragtag Daily Prompt (surprise), Your Daily Word Prompt (dream), and Word of the Day Challenge (revel).
This, That, and the Other 
I agree. We don’t need another old, white man. Especially not someone who’s nearly 80. No offense; I’m married to an 80-year-old white man. LOL
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Great Post. I just wish Corey Booker would pull his finger out and get rolling. I had such high hopes for him. 😔
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Some of the candidates are having trouble getting out of their own way.
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This was a great interview, but I have no idea who was asking you those questions.
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My alter ego?
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I’m not a fan of Sanders, but he’s honestly the only Dem that has a chance of beating Trump. A non-entity like Buttigieg has 0 chance. Warren is alright, but she has 0 charisma, and Biden is corporate Dem with too much baggage. Sanders is well-known, can hold his own in a debate, and “walks the walk” when it comes to progressive policies which people like and actually need. But, honestly, Sanders will likely lose the nomination in favor of Biden who will subsequently lose to Trump. Because the Democratic Party, just like the GOP, isn’t interested in what the people actually want.
The Dems (represented by Biden and Pelosi) and the GOP are just wings of the same corporate party which enables companies to continue fucking the world over. Age, race, and gender are mostly diversions that can be used to manipulate people into voting for their candidate. What we need are politicians with the right policies, vision, and actual balls, regardless of their race or age. We also need to dismantle the two-party system and electoral college in favor of either popular choice or a rank-based voting system.
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We definitely need rank voting.
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I wish the Electoral College had done something to rescue us last time, but it didn’t. Theoretically, it could have. We’re in a moment of facing realities over theory.
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If there is anything Trump has been good for, it’s for bringing greater awareness to the flaws of our political system and institutions. It seems like more people are serious about doing away with the EC, but we will see.
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It will take a constitutional amendment, and that will take years and a bunch of red states to vote in favor. Don’t hold your breath.
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I’m not a big fan of Sanders, but I can’t argue with your assessment that we need to dismantle the electoral college for sure.
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It should definitely be prioritized. It doesn’t make sense to give unwarranted power to certain states over others. Popular choice and rank-based make more sense and would do a better job of representing what the people want, as opposed to states.
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I really liked Biden as Vice President. He was great at that. I think he’s out of his league running for President… somehow always* has been, just a tad. I mean it as a good thing that he was, actually, outstanding as a vice president; he was an excellent team member with Obama… for what they did. But what is the right league, if Donald J. Trump is part of it now?
Actually, I think Warren would be good at rethinking things beyond what Democrats have been since the nineties and at being bold about it. I was a fan of hers because of her deconstruction of what’s going on with economics in this country way back (while she was still Republican and I couldn’t figure out why Republicans had decided to pick on her).
Buttigieg is genuine, engaged, articulate and very smart and bright, clearly concerned. I do also think it’s a very good thing he’s a veteran. He would be a good pairing with Warren. Somebody else could be, maybe; we will see. And I would choose Bernie if he got the nomination. Seventy-eight might be challenging for such a demanding job, but he’s going strong.
* 2016 possibly “would have” worked in that regard, but it wasn’t to be.
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I like Harris best, but I will, of course, vote for whichever Dem gets the nom, even if it’s an OWM.
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Me too.
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I’ve read of Trump supporters who would consider Buttigieg. I don’t know that very many would switch for Sanders. They definitely wouldn’t for anyone else. It matters because even though the Creature is unpopular to an historical degree, elections are crap shoots, and you can’t take anything for granted.
I favor Kamala because we went to the same grade schools and I feel like a woman of color who like me spent her childhood in Berkeley is just good old home folks. 😁
Tho TBH some of her idea are too “progressive” for me, but she’s gotta say what she’s gotta say. She has ideas, and will beat anyone in a debate. Like y’all, tho, I will vote for whoever they put up against T-boy.
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I favor Kamala because we went to the same grade schools and I feel like a woman of color who like me spent her childhood in Berkeley is just good old home folks. 😁
😏
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Which ideas are “too ‘progressive’?”
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You’re right. Bring on a woman for POTUS
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https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/06/democratic-debates-2020-election-1356115
The 13 candidates who can book their tickets include the race’s top figures. Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Beto O’Rourke, Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar and Julián Castro are the top-polling candidates; following a random drawing, they will be split across the two nights, with five on one night and four on the other.
But also meeting both the polling and fundraising thresholds are Tulsi Gabbard [also a veteran], Jay Inslee [who seems to mainly be running to speak on the environment] and two lesser-known figures…
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https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/2020-democratic-presidential-debates-work/story?id=63480263
Bennet joined six other contenders who qualified for the debates through only the polling threshold:
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio
Former Maryland Rep. John Delaney
New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand
Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper
Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan
California Rep. Eric Swalwell
Initially, ABC News included Bullock among the candidates who made the debate stage, after securing 1% in three polls, but the DNC publicly announced Thursday that two ABC News/Washington Post polls, one of which qualified Bullock for the first debates, would no longer be eligible polls. The ABC News/Washington Post polls were unique from the other qualifying polls because they used an open-ended format for a question about the Democratic primary…
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I agree. I love Elizabeth Warren and I’m grateful she is our senator. I don’t know how well she is appreciated elsewhere, but she is well-loved here. I still think that all the candidates who have no chance of winning should run for office — but not the presidency. How about senators? We sure could use a few more of them, too! Personally, I think it’s about damn time we had a woman in office. If India can do it, if Ireland can do it, surely so can we!
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I would revel in anyone who can take Lord Dampnut out, whether they be an old white man, a deranged rabid baboon, a stray dog, or a plastic bag. I don’t care. Whatever it is, I’ll take it!
Cory Booker has some good things going for him. Like Obama, he presents as calm and rational. That would certainly be a welcome change from Tweety and his Tantrumps.
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It’s heartwarming to see people finally acknowledge that ethnicity matters. Contrary to what modern liberal democracy tried to persuade us, politics is not about isolated individuals seeking their individualistic interests. It’s about races, ethnicities, and religious groups fighting for their collective interests. In my opinion only WASPs should be able to elect or be elected as public officials and I’m in favor of reviving the test acts but I think I have more in common with you than with radical individualists who deny the crucial role of race in partisan politics.
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“In my opinion only WASPs should be able to elect or be elected as public officials….” I assume you’re being facetious. At least I hope so, anyway.
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Sadly you’re not the first person to doubt the earnestness of a reactionary middle eastern Roman Catholic complimenting WASP politics
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If I could modify what you say I might be less doubtful. It can be argued that liberal democratic parliamentary politics, whatever you call the system we have and that some people argue arose from the way Presbyterian churches were organized four hundred years ago, is the “best” system for all its flaws, and has worked well wherever it was properly adopted. I would take away any reference to White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, because there is no shortage of people who aren’t any of those things who make the system work well, and there are plenty of people who are some or all of those things who just screw everything up. Still, while politics often is about “races, ethnicities, and religious groups fighting for their collective interests,” I put that down as a problem with people’s awareness of their true interests. A certain amount of collective consciousness serves us as individuals, but at the end of the day, individuals is what we are.
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I tried finding a clip, last night, of Neal Katyal (former Acting Solicitor General of the United States) referencing the importance of “our” Anglo-Saxon legal heritage (I don’t entirely remember for sure… he might’ve just said Anglo); I couldn’t find it (but it was in passing — not the main subject of the conversation). He didn’t include Protestantism (while it is probably related, as you indicated, to our system), nor being white. And he’s not white.
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Human institutions have certain disposition not because of the way they are made but because people who run them have those dispositions. American political landscape used to be very different before waves of Irish, Italian, and Eastern European migrants. Then it radically changed and becomes exceedingly absolutist while the constitution and almost all political institutions remained intact. I’m impressed by the American left arguing against white politicians with whom they share the same creed. They have learned from experience that if they want third world style radicalism and left wing revolutionary politics they need people of colour to participate more both as elected officials and voters. If you want a self-governing, decentralized, agrarian democracy you need anglo Protestants. If you want authoritarianism you need latinos and other Roman Catholics. If you want political radicalism or Asian/African despotism you need PoC. (I must note that I don’t think democracy is essentially a good thing or authoritarianism is essentially bad but I must admit WASP culture and history is so fabulous and exotic to me as a foreigner.)
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Neal Katyal is an example of someone with the disposition.
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Donald Trump, who is sort of Anglo-Saxon… maybe just Saxon… isn’t an example.
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As a white American, I don’t care what color, religion, gender, or national origin our leaders are as long as they lead in such a way that serves the best interest of the majority of the citizens of the country, rather than their own unenlightened self-interests.
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They would have a field day with a gay man named Booty Gig, sorry don’t intend this as offensive, just calling it like I see it. Yes, Sanders is an almost-80 white man, and no, I would prefer ANYTHING other than a white man, BUT!!!!! Sanders has the right issues identified to work on, he has great name recognition. If Hillary would have stepped aside in 2016 and the DNC hadn’t played their dirty tricks, Bernie would be POTUS right now not King Joffrey. There are issues — BIG ISSUES — with the other considerants (if that’s a word). Biden (Mr Handsy), Harris (gullible and malleable), Booker (a wimp for the DNC), Warren (caved in during 2016 and can’t be trusted). Life expectancy these days is 100, so age isn’t a considerations. Bernie Sanders is our best candidate for POTUS for 2020. #Sanders2020, #StillSanders, #FeelTheBern, #BelieveInBernie.
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Well, I can’t say that I agree with you about Bernie, but I’ll support whichever candidate ends up running against Trump.
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I agree, but should it end up an old white male in the Dem spot, he will certainly have my vote. Good post.
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Wow. God forbid that gender, skin color, or age be held against those we hire to do our bidding. You left out straight. No more of them. None of those bald people either. Or Catholic. No moderates.
What is disheartening about this is that we will never agree and if DT does not have to run again, nothing will stop/bridle him. The Senate will stay red and the house will flop back. The SCOTUS was doomed with 2016. It’s hopeless.
How I wish it was not so damn cold in the land of the maple leaf.
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Why would DT not have to run again?
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If reelected in 2020.
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I think he means when DT gets re-elected and no longer has to even pretend to care what the people think.
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I know I’m late coming to the game, but I got into a “discussion” on twitter today after reading some articles about Beto O’Rourke recently being lampooned by late night talk show hosts. There are, at this counting, 24 Dems all vying for their party’s POTUS nomination and sooner or later they’re going to start dropping out of the race.
I speculated online if O’Rourke would be one of the first and was immediately confronted with a lot of upset tweets. I looked up a recent Rolling Stone article that had all of the current candidates ranked by support (of course this will change over time) and O’Rourke is #7, which surprised me a little. I mean Biden is sort of a no brainer for #1, but Warren is coming up fast in the #2 position, and Bernie is #3.
I’m including a link to the article because I think it is a good thumbnail sketch of the candidates as things stand today. I’m sure the overriding concern in the Democratic party is which one of them has the best chance to end the Trump presidency. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/2020-democrat-candidates-771735/
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Right now my personal front runners are Warren, Harris, Buttigieg, and Castro. I’m not a Bernie or Biden fan. And the Republicans are playing their old tricks, donating lots of money to Williamson and promoting Gabbard to keep them in the hunt. And the Trump campaign is also promoting a bogus Biden website designed to pass on misinformation. They will do everything they can, including encouraging Russian interference to win. And more than half of Republican voters polled would support delaying the 2020 elections to support Trump. And if he does somehow lose the election, he’s not going to go quietly into the night, I’m afraid.
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