The Gathering - By David Pratt
The driving thought in the minds of most American voters anywhere left of fascist these days is defeating Donald Trump in the 2020 Presidential election. Ridding the White House of him and his administration means more than just the removal of a dangerously unqualified demagogue. It also means the corruption of his appointees will finally end. No more broadband company shill leading the FCC, no more energy advisors opening up land for oil drilling before going to join foreign oil companies, no more Trade Secretaries who run import businesses. Keyboards could be ground into dust typing out a comprehensive list of the unethical, outwardly corrupt, or morally outrageous acts performed by the President and his ilk — which is one of the reasons why the field of Democrats lining up to take him on is unprecedented.
Is that, however, a good thing?
The pool of candidates has gone down from its high of 27 to a still inflated 19, though with debate qualifying restrictions growing ever tighter in an attempt to narrow the field. What began as 20 candidates across two nights was narrowed to just 10 qualifiers; Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Andrew Yang, Amy Klobucher, Julian Castro, and Beto O'Rourke. However, they are already set to be joined next month by Tom Steyer and Tulsi Gabbard. Some people are of a mind that the larger pool of candidates is good, and means that we'll get more diversity and representation for a wider range of viewpoints. There is also another factor to consider: while pitted against one another, each candidate must find a way to stand out from a crowd that is, for the most part, not widely disparate in political approach. As candidates drop out, those still in the game are free to cannibalize their successful policies to attract their voters, such as we've already seen with Elizabeth Warren immediately adopting Jay Inslee's aggressive climate change goals as soon as he was officially gone.
Of course, that comes with its own set of issues. When Bernie Sanders finally conceded the race to Hillary Clinton, she was quick to begin including some of his more popular policy proposals in her own platform. It did little to sway voters who had decided to vote for Sanders or no one, preferring the candidate to the goals. While it is unlikely low-polling candidates such as Cory Booker or Amy Klobucher will inspire similarly adamant followings, can the same be said of those who are returning for another attempt at sitting Sanders in the White House? Or of Joe Biden, who is overwhelmingly winning early polling among minorities? Elizabeth Warren is the only candidate whose polls have remained consistently trending upward, but what if she is unable to break through the ceiling set by Biden before primary voting begins, or overcome his entrenched voting blocs? Will her swelling support willingly switch over to the winning candidate, or are there a significant number among them who will only vote for the Senator?
The strength of a crowded primary for voters is the opportunity to, ideally, have the candidate who can synergize the widest array of desirable platforms into their own by taking from their fallen opponents, like a political Highlander drawing the Quickening from a decapitated foe. For the sake of this metaphor, the Quickening represents Beto O'Rourke's mandatory gun buybacks, Jay Inslee's climate plan, and a health care plan that covers all Americans while vigorously combating the costs of health care, an amalgamation of several plans currently in the wild. What recent history has shown us, however, is that there may be some people out there who say "you know what, I really loved the Kurgan, I'm going to pause the movie right before Connor Macleod beats him every time."
We live in a country where it is your right to do so. You may vote, or not vote, and face the repercussions of each choice of your own free will.
However, if I may, I give you something to consider.
Donald Trump won against Hillary Clinton in 2016, who, at that time, had the greatest and most well-funded political machine of all time at her back. Trump had no experience, no incumbency, a solid group of Republicans who had pledged never to vote for him, and lost by nearly three million votes against a superior opponent, but he still won. He got the right number of votes in the right places because the right demographics went for him where it mattered. Now, whoever his 2020 opponent is will face a Trump with the uncontested backing and financing of the Republican party with its whole entrenchment, the weight of which he has not even begun to slightly bring to bear. He also isn't blind to how he got where he is, and will focus on making sure the same battleground states swing his way again. It doesn't matter if it's by one vote or ten thousand. If Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Florida, Michigan, and Ohio truck with him again he will win that second term, and all it took for those states to break red was enough people deciding they would rather not vote at all, or go with him because he was promising something different.
Any Democratic candidate hoping to topple Trump, even with his historically low popularity, will need every single Democratic voter behind them. If you are a traditional Democrat, a neoliberal, a progressive, or a radical socialist, it hardly matters - there is no choice you can make for President from the current Democratic ticket that will not align closer to your own position, regardless of what it is, than the current occupant of the Oval Office. The strength of the Republican party has long been its monolithic nature when it comes to casting ballots. Democrats tend to stay more true to their hearts and are less likely to hold their noses and vote, but in this instance literally every choice will have a more pleasing aroma to a Democratic voter than sitting out and risking maintaining the current status quo.
The power of a truly competitive primary is that the candidate emerges, molded into something all voters can get behind. The task before anyone who wants to achieve what will be the monumental task of getting Donald Trump out of office is trusting that process and committing to vote for whomever survives the primary. Because here's the thing - your candidate, should you be attached to someone who ultimately does not make it all the way, was not the right choice. They were, for whatever love you might bear them, just one of many Highlanders set along the path.
The 2020 Democratic National Convention is going to name the next Connor, and Donald Trump is the Kurgan. And if every single person who can in every single place they can do it doesn't get out there and vote, make no mistake, this VHS tape will remain paused on our least favorite scene for another four years.
