Bernie: the Best Candidate for a Diverse, Progressive America, DESPITE Being an Old White Man
As the field of Democratic Primary contenders has been whittled from far too many to fewer but still too many, it hasn’t been lost on anyone that what started out as a superficially diverse (meaning some diversity of gender and skin pigment, if not a broad a margin in terms of policy and beliefs) range of candidates has come down to just a handful of white people, with two or three white men leading in most polls. Pundits have speculated on the reasons for this, citing lack of funding for the non-white male candidates, and discussing the possible role of racism and sexism in the electoral process.
Racism and sexism are definitely problems, in national politics, as well as damn near every other facet of life in this country, this world. But they cannot be blamed entirely, or even in substantial part, for why campaigns like Kamala Harris’s and Cory Booker’s failed.
Kamala Harris and Cory Booker, as example, were both poor candidates. One needn’t dig far into either of their records to find failures in their leadership and histories of anti-progressive and pro-business policies. Harris’s history as a prosecutor and district attorney, is one of her working on behalf of the police, the criminal justice system, the reactionary establishment to more aggressively prosecute and imprison people, particularly poor people and people of color, in larger numbers. Her claim of being a “progressive prosecutor” was a lie that couldn’t be sold however hard she pushed it. Similarly, however he tried to improve his image and distance himself from pharmaceutical executive, law firm, and investment banking donations late in the game, Booker couldn’t shake his history. Beyond that, he simply didn’t have much to offer.
That’s been the trend for the majority of Democratic Primary contenders, across ethnic and gender lines: a lack of anything substantive to offer. For the excess quantity of them, there was a dearth of variety in progressive policy, or any real policy. All that most of them have been able to say has been that Trump is horrible and that they’d do better.
Such a low fucking bar.
Biden, the anointed “frontrunner” from the start but perhaps no longer, has been among the most lacking of anything to offer, other than not being Trump, and making the dubious promise of returning things to the way they were prior to four years ago. As if things were great then. As if there was some utopic, cordial near-past era where racism and sexism, and a catastrophic wealth gap born of capitalism, didn’t exist. Biden is where he is, in life and in the polls, thanks in good part to being an old white man. Beyond that, his whole campaign is based on name recognition and a ride on Obama’s coattails.
That the contender currently topping the polls is also an elderly white man can’t be written off altogether as coincidence, but it is not why Bernie Sanders is currently leading. Bernie Sanders appeals to so many people despite his elderly white maleness. He is the only candidate who has consistently promoted an agenda and policies to help the marginalized and disenfranchised, be they non-white, non-male, young, poor, and essentially everyone who isn’t a rich, elitist prick.
Sanders has been the best presidential candidate since at least the time he came to national prominence in the 2016 Primary. However much the corporate media, right-wing con artists, the Democratic establishment, and detestable conservative assholes in liberal guise like Hillary Clinton or Chuck Todd attempt write him off or force him out of the race and out of public conversation, Sanders has only grown in popularity.
I wish that Sanders was not an old white man. I wish that he were a legitimate socialist, and more radical. Partly for personal preference, but also to highlight the ignorance, dishonesty, and general idiocy of those attempting to harm him by referring to him thusly. If nothing else, I hope that the diverse coalition of supporters Sanders has inspired goes on to be politically influential.
As for this election, I wish that I could vote for a progressive woman of color. Sadly, there were none in this contest. Until someone like Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayana Pressley or whoever builds clout and throws themself into a presidential campaign, and the progressive base grows strong enough to elect them, the best we can hope for is Bernie.