Democratic Candidates for the Presidency

One of the topics that was suggested I write about was the idea of who was running on the Left. Here's what I found out.

Joe Biden

He's the sitting president. I'm not a fan. I firmly and sincerely believe that he has some form of dementia, and that his current use by others as a puppet amounts to elder abuse. I'm not joking, and it's not snickering. While I didn't like him before, I thought he was relatively well spoken and somewhat amusing. Today, I am concerned that having him as a sitting president makes me an abuser. For real. Whatever platform he's running on, Biden is not actually actively a part of it. He's a figurehead, and at this point, not even really that. I could outline that platform, but I don't feel the need. It's more of the same that we've already had, and we all know it's not a good plan.

Marianne Williamson

She ran in 2020, but didn't get far. She's far Left in her words. She specifically wants "free" college, "free" healthcare, "free" childcare. She also wants a "living" minimum wage. I know that's a lot of quotation marks, but I really don't think she understands what the word "free" means. None of those things are OR CAN be free. The people providing the services have to be paid. That money has to come from somewhere. And a minimum wage that is country wide will never work because of the economic disparity between the various states (for instance, $9 an hour is enough to live on in many parts of the South, but isn't even enough to get a nice box for under the motorway in New York). She talks much about "...ending the unjust system..." (from her video on her website). She does have a handful of decent ideas, such as giving corporations less power, but they're so scattered that they simply are not viable.

Dean Phillips

He appears to be Biden Mark II. His big statement is he agrees with most of Biden's policies, but Biden said he'd be a "transitional president" and step down after one term. Since Biden hasn't done that, he's standing up. He spends most of his videos talking about how other Dems don't like him for rocking the boat or challenging Biden. Like all Dems, he wants universal health care and a minimum wage that pays well. He wants to "fix" the cost of living (but has no definitive plan on how to actually do that). He wants to cut military overreach, though I'm not really sure what that means. Basically he wants to audit them, and says that fixing the military is "simple." He wants to reform education, but thinks that doing so is achieved by paying more to teachers. He doesn't talk about any other ideas for reforming education; it's all just because teachers are underpaid.

That's it. That's the whole Democratic field. Biden, who we already have ample experience with to know he's bad for the country. Williamson, who is even more Left than Biden, and is also 74 years old. And Phillips, who is all pumped up and younger (54), but really has no idea about things. If I had to vote for someone on the Left, I'd vote for Phillips, only because he's not as extreme as Williamson, and hopefully his handlers would be able to talk some sense into him.

I wish there was a strong Left candidate. I really do. I am firmly of the opinion that Trump, while not the demon the Dems would paint him as, would do more harm than good to the country if he were re-elected. I don't think it's the right thing to do for the United States of America, even if my beliefs aligned perfectly with his. He's too polarizing, and I fear that it would cause an even larger schism. Because of the cult of personality that's developed around him (both positive AND negative, btw), he cannot effectively lead. He would be stymied at every turn. When I look at the Left field, though, there is no one who could carry the country right now.

It's been a while since I looked at Left runners for President. The last decent runner was Hilary Clinton. Not because I like her, because I do not, but because she'd at least have been effective. That's part of what scared me so much about her, quite frankly. She would have made a difference, and it probably would have been a horrendously bad difference. But she'd at least have done it on purpose, and with her intellect intact. Biden doesn't have that. If he wins, it'll be only a micron less divisive than if Trump won, and the country will go down the shitter.

So there you have it. A "more left" view of the Left candidates.

TLDR: They all suck.