I was at a dinner, when my ears perked up at a conversation at the next booth. The two sweet old ladies were discussing the 2020 presidential campaign.
“I really like that Elizabeth Warren!” said one of them. “But she’s too defined.”
Her companion agreed with her, lamenting how Trump had “labeled her.” In the end, they decided the electable one was “that nice mayor Pete.”
Regardless of whether you agree or not on the whole Mayor Pete thing (I’ve been clear I vehemently disagree), we liberals need to stop worrying about what other people think about our candidates. Seriously, just stop it!
1) No matter who we nominate, Traitor Trump will label/define/nickname/belittle our candidate. Stop thinking any candidate is immune. This is one of Trump’s super powers, and he will successfully wield it against our nominee.
2) Stop thinking we need to nominate a man to win. If you prefer a male candidate on the merits, good for you. If you prefer a male candidate out of fear, then just look at 2016—Hillary Clinton WON THE ELECTION. Or at least she would’ve, in a rational democracy. She won 3 million more votes. So why did she lose? Because of depressed turnout in Milwaukee, Detroit, and Pennsylvania urban areas. That was both a base problem, and a voter suppression problem. We focus on that, any of our candidates can win, even the ones without a penis. (I’ll argue elsewhere that our women candidates are actually better able to appeal to the party base and swingy suburban white women, but we can table that one for now.)
If Clinton, with all her obvious negatives, could win millions more votes than Trump, why would someone think any of our awesome women candidates couldn’t do the same, if not better?
3) Stop thinking your candidate can win rural white people better than anyone else. Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and Trump will make sure to turn our nominee into the enemy of all white people. That includes Joe Biden, whose pre-pitch seems to be exactly that. The Democratic path to victory doesn’t run through Fox News territory.
Take a look at Trump’s 50-state approval ratings among white people:
The only Red state where white people don’t love Trump is Iowa, and his problem there is likely pain from his agricultural tariffs, not from the power of any individual Democrat’s message.
So no, no Democrat will convince these pro-Trump white people that their president isn’t worth their vote. They’re fully bought into everything that Trumpism symbolizes.
4) We are a highly partisanized country. Democrats will vote for Democrats. Republicans will vote for Republicans. “Independent” right-wingers (think Tea Party) who vote will vote for Republicans, “Independent” leftists (think Democratic socialists) who vote will vote Democratic. (Yes, some on both sides will bleed over to the Green or Libertarian parties, but most will vote major party.) This is a base election. The candidate who wins is the one who most successfully gets out the base.
I’m jealous of Republicans. We liberals laughed as they elected the craziest of their already crazy field, thinking it would grease our path to the White House. Instead, they nominated someone who amped up their base excitement, leading to dramatic rural turnout. They didn’t care what anyone else thought. They didn’t care what the media thought. They didn’t even care what other Republicans thought. They nominated the person that excited THEM the most.
We liberals need to start thinking the same way.
No Democrat is immune from Trump or Fox News’s demonization.
No Democrat will win back Trump’s rural base.
The one swingy demographic—suburban white women—are winnable by most (if not all) of our candidates.
So stop worrying about the other side, and focus on the candidate that excites YOU the most.
That’s our surest path to victory.