Since he announced his all-but-certain intention to run for president, former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has on the receiving end of a bit of backlash, to say the least. So much backlash, in fact, that Starbucks issued a memo to all its baristas instructing them on what to do if a customer tried to engage them on the subject of Schultz 2020. Democrats, both in elected office and in the media, have been thoroughly alarmed by the potential political fallout for the party that an independent Schultz bid in 2020 could cause, but their concerns are just the tip of the iceberg.
It's easy when looking at Howard Schultz's wild-goose chase of a presidential run and misses the forest for the trees. The primary danger in this candidacy isn't the possibility that an independent run could act as a spoiler and throw the presidency to Donald Trump (although this is a distinct possibility and one that we should all be concerned about)—the real danger is the reason why Schultz is running in the first place.
Let me explain. Schultz stated in an interview with CNBC that his decision to run as an independent (despite having endorsed Hillary Clinton and 2016 and previously identifying as a "lifelong Democrat") was driven by the likes of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Elizabeth Warren, who have in recent weeks called for a 70 percent top marginal tax rate on incomes above $10 million and a 2 percent tax on wealth above $50 million, respectively.
Take a moment to unpack that statement. In other words, Schultz is essentially saying that he's running for president because he doesn't want his taxes to go up. To anyone who purports to stand in favor of a vibrant and healthy democracy without barriers to participation for any of its citizens, this should be extremely chilling.
The average American can't afford to just up and run for president if they feel dissatisfied with the government or their taxes. Sure, anyone can technically run for president who meets the constitutional requirements of age, residency, and citizenship, but there is a big difference between being a candidate for president and being seen as a serious candidate for president.
Why is Schultz, who isn't even running within one of the major parties and who until recently had almost no name recognition in most circles, seen as any less of a gadfly candidate than the recently-withdrawn and equally-unknown Richard Ojeda—who, having actually held elected office as a West Virginia State Senator, is arguably more qualified for the presidency from a political standpoint? The answer, of course, is obvious—Ojeda is a working-class military veteran, while Schultz is a billionaire with the ability to command media and public attention with the snap of a finger by virtue of the money he has in the bank.
When he suspended his campaign for the presidency, Ojeda wrote to his supporters: "When I was a child my grade school teachers told us all that anyone in America could grow up and become president. I now realize that this is not the case. Unless someone has extreme wealth or holds influence and power it just isn't true." While any reasonable political commentator—myself included—will agree that Ojeda would have been better off angling for the governorship or Congress in 2020, his words in this case ring heartbreakingly true.
Howard Schultz knows that if he were an ordinary American rather than a self-funding billionaire, he would never in a million years get thirty seconds of cable-news airtime, let alone be taken seriously by anyone as a presidential candidate. By embarking on this fool's errand he calls a campaign, Schultz has made clear that he's not trying to win the presidency—he's trying to buy it.
We can't afford to let this happen. Poll after poll shows that on almost every political issue of significance, Americans are decidedly progressive—in many cases, even considerably to the left of the mainstream Democratic Party. Schultz's call for a "centrist independent" candidate in the 2020 race is woefully out of step with the American electorate and is little more than the death rattle of centrist corporatism that should have faded out years ago. Not to mention, as Robert Schlesinger notes in NBC's opinion section, "we already have a delusional rich guy in the White House".
What America needs in 2020 is a bold progressive who has the courage to stand up to the powers that be and fight for policies that directly improve the material conditions of everyday Americans. Howard, I hate to break it to you, but you're not going to be that candidate. You've already developed a reputation for burning your coffee beans—there's no need to burn the country, too.
