please, no more bern
The Democrats have started putting out candidates for the 2020 presidential election. Elizabeth Warren was among the first to announce her campaign. I was happy to hear that, because I rather like Elizabeth Warren and think she would be a great president. Those of us who had been hoping for a united front this early were disappointed, because Warren has been followed by the likes of Kamala Harris, Tulsi Gabbard, and even Jay Inslee, our revered governor, each attended by less enthusiasm than the last. Basically anyone these days who has been in the news for a day or two is likely to announce their candidacy the following week, perhaps for that reason. Or perhaps they arrange to make the news with an aim to have the perfect excuse to throw their hat in the ring. I'm not altogether thrilled that Bernie Sanders is deciding to run again. I didn't vote in the 2016 Primaries, because I was busy with MLT and whatnot at Georgia Tech, but I would have voted for Bernie Sanders in the Generals, if things had played out differently. A lot of disgruntled Bernie Bros either jumped ship and voted - absurdly - for Trump, after what they perceived to be the DNC's duplicitous treatment of their candidate, or abstained from voting altogether, thus potentially depriving Hillary of votes that may have stretched her lead over Trump in the popular vote to an amount that even the innumerate Republicans might have recognized could not be made to disappear by a victory in the electoral college. As we all know, Hillary lost, and just as Bernie Sanders supporters have not forgotten what Hillary did to their boi, so the rest of the Democratic party has not forgotten what Bernie Sanders supporters did to the party. Shortly after the election Fran Lebowitz called Bernie Sanders a "narcissistic old man who we should all stop thinking about". I thought that was a bit nasty, even for her, but I now see that she has been a keener student of Bernie Sanders than I have. The last thing we need in 2020 is for Bernie Sanders to lose in the Primaries and to have his starry-eyed followers put their support behind Fat Donald in protest. I do believe the Democrats have a good chance of retaking the White House in 2020; however, stupidity in this country has a habit of leveling up just when you think you've managed to beat it, like an annoying Bleach villain, so in the end I'm not quite as optimistic as I'd like to be.