The Democrats Should Move To The Center And Nominate George W. Bush To Run In 2020
*Editor’s note*- Sup its PFT Commenter here. A man by the name of Tummy Sticks approached me a few month’s ago with some remarkably pragmatic solutions for how to fix various instutions of American politics and culture. And when a guy name Tummy Sticks wants to give you advice, its time to listen. I hope you all can enjoy reading his takes and maybe learn something from him about steps YOU can take to improve youre country
The era of Donald Trump has forced the Democratic Party to undergo a period of self-reflection. How could a plucky unknown like Donald Trump defeat a beloved American institution like Hillary Clinton? Some of the party leadership have attempted to place blame externally. They’ve pointed fingers at the Russians, whose interference caused a 100% turn out for Donald Trump in Brighton Beach. Others have looked within to see what they should’ve done differently. “We should have had more celebrities,” they say. “We didn’t use Rahm Emanuel enough; we could have been more racist.”
The party is at a crossroads like never before. Will Democrats, who have embraced civil rights for longer than the life-span of an average North Korean citizen, turn their backs on black voters for the white working class? Or should the party run a Steve Harvey or Bill Cosby style politician to guarantee black turn out? Should the party make Chuck Schumer dip Copenhagen on the Senate floor to appeal to rural Wisconsinites? Or should they have Cory Booker write a rap about charter schools to appeal to suburban Milwaukeeans?
What party insiders don’t realize, is that all of this Monday morning quarterbacking and infighting is a distraction from their number one priority. Right now, Democrats should be 100% focused on their next opportunity to defeat the Trump agenda, beating him in 2020. Unfortunately for the Democrats, no one has risen to the occasion and become the standard bearer for the party. Hillary Clinton has forsaken politics entirely to look for arrow heads in the woods of southern New York, and Bernie Sanders has been hosting meandering town halls focused on things like universal health care and free college education that have nothing to do with Democratic Party politics.
The younger generation of leadership within the party lacks any candidates with a viable chance of beating Trump in 2020. Too many of the party’s vocal young leaders like Tammy Duckworth, Kamala Harris, and Kirsten Gillibrand seem to care a whole lot about their own ambition, but need to wait in line until Chelsea Clinton decides she is experienced enough to run. Another young Democrat getting a lot of buzz is Keith Ellison, however, America was barely able to handle a fake Muslim candidate, a real life actual Muslim would be a bridge too far for most American voters.
Sometimes, when you have a short bench, it’s necessary to look outside your organization for solutions. In 2016, a technocratic organization relying on data to get results blew what seemed like an insurmountable lead to a grass roots movement led by a leader with bad hair and an erratic social media presence. This is, of course, a reference to the Cleveland Cavaliers coming back from a 3-1 deficit to defeat the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors knew that the way to win the next election was not to elevate talent from within, but to search elsewhere, bringing in Kevin Durant from the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Democrats would be smart to do likewise, and look outside the party for its 2020 solution. Like the Warriors, their answer may lie in a young man who made a name for himself in the state of Texas. This fresh face is of course, George W. Bush.
Though he left office under worse circumstances than any President in American history, Bush’s legacy has been rehabilitated in recent years. He has emerged as a pragmatic centrist figure and an accomplished painter who would bring some much needed decency back to the White House. With Trump hijacking the Republican Party, Bush can help Democrats recapture their centrist base and use a bipartisan coalition to take back the White House.
Bush may have been public enemy number one for many Democrats in 2004, but the world in 2016 is a much different place than it was twelve years ago. In 2004, Bush was seen as the cheerleader of an illegal and unpopular war in Iraq. In 2016, with endless war in the Middle East now the foreign policy status quo, who is more qualified to help America keep its head above water indefinitely in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and potentially Iran.
Not only can Bush help the Democrats find their political center, triangulating between differing viewpoints like Cory Booker, Mark Zuckerberg, and Benjamin Netanyahu, but his personality is the perfect antidote to Trump’s crass brutishness, which threatens to destroy the sanctity of the White House. Bush takes Trump’s tell it like it is personality and adds a measure of warmth and humility, something that is desperately needed in today’s divided political climate.
Democrats will fail if they underestimate the political sensibilities of the everyday, rural, hard-working, gritty, coach’s-son-type voters that they desperately need to win over to take back the White House. These voters know when they are being pandered to, you can’t just throw a cowboy hat on Dick Durbin and expect to fool rural voters. However, put forth a real life Texas Ranger(‘s owner) as a candidate, and rural counties that defected to Trump in 2016 are the Democrats for the taking in 2020.
Political infighting is threatening to destroy the Democratic Party at a time when it is most important that the party stay unified. Too much time is spent tossing around labels like black, white, urban, rural, socialist, and neoliberal, when in reality, there is only one label that truly matters, American. If you’re a Democrat, ask yourself, if Michelle Obama can put the past behind her and embrace a patriot like George W. Bush, why can’t you?