Before long we are going to be bombarded with an obscene amount of campaigning from the democratic and republican parties. 2020 is almost here and several Democrats have already thrown their hats into the ring to become our next president. We've seen announcements from Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Amy Klobuchar, Kamala Harris, Corey Booker, and Kirsten Gillibrand to name a few, but who is the right fit to become the next president of the United States? Personally, I believe any one of the senators stated above has what it takes to run this country, but being qualified to be president is no longer going to cut it.
Hillary Clinton ran a great campaign, but even with a majority of voters nationally, it wasn't enough to win the electoral college. And it was able to make a significant crack within that glass ceiling. Clinton proved two things during her campaign that the Democrats need to be mindful of. First, women are a force when it comes to politics. We've already witnessed this during the last primary elections. There was an increase in the number of women who ran campaigns during the 2018 primary elections, and a record number of them won. For the first time in our nation's history, there are over one hundred women in Congress.
Secondly, that appealing to your own base is not going to be enough to win. Clinton was able to appeal to her base of supporters, but failed to reach some key groups that helped Donald Trump get elected. Failing to appeal to blue-collar workers and central parts of the Bernie Sanders campaign was detrimental to the Clinton campaign. Clinton caused a rift within the Democratic party, between the progressives and more traditional Democrats. She also isolated a lot of rural areas and failed to appeal to a lot of everyday workers.
What does this mean to you?
What this means, is that we need to be careful about who we are going to throw our support behind. If we truly want Donald Trump out of office, then a fiercely progressive liberal may not be the best candidate. We need a nominee who is going to appeal to all kinds of people. Distaste for President Trump is not going to be enough to sway some voters to vote for a candidate they are not comfortable with. Better the devil you know, right? Legalizing marijuana, free college and Medicare for all, are great ideas, but these can scare off some of those on the fence voters. As a party, we cannot afford to lose any potential voters, regardless of their party affiliation.
We need a nominee who is going to bridge the divides within the Democratic party; between the younger and older generations, the progressives and the moderates. Someone who is not only going to appeal to the average Democratic voter, but to moderate Republicans, and independents. Is Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren the right choice for 2020 or should we look to nominate someone who has a more bipartisan history of working with Republicans and independents, like Joe Biden or Amy Klobuchar? Now, I'm not saying that Sanders or Warren should not receive the nomination, I'm only trying to offer an alternative. Sometimes we get caught up in the poetry or dreams of politics. Unfortunately, these don't always bring forth a winner.
2020 is going to be here sooner than we might think and its time that we think strategically about who we are going to support. We as young voters have so much power and we need to learn how to use it. Always vote with your conscious, but before you throw all your support behind someone, ask yourself, can this person win? Will they be able to gather enough support to put a Democrat back in the White House? Losing the next election isn't an option, and I don't know about you, but I want to support a winner.
