My ‘battle plan’

I have been asked to write a post for Daily Kos about how the Democrats can defeat Donald Trump.

“This is no joke, Steve, and we need your energy to fight back,” the e-mail said, as if I would ever question their desire for my input.

First, before you’re actually impressed, I’m rather certain it was a mass-mailing and not an indication I’m anything special. Plus, I’ve never written anything for Daily Kos, which is essentially a community blog that supports the Democratic Party.

However, since they asked, here you go.

I don’t think the Democrats should worry about Donald Trump just yet. Why? Because I still have faith in Americans. To put it another way, I think America is still great enough to not get sucked in to his fear and hate parade. Many have, for sure, but I’m confident nothing near a voting majority. Call me an optimist, but I even hope many currently supporting him will fall by the wayside as they tire of his childish antics.

Plus, why should Democrats be doing the job of the other Republican candidates? That’s a rhetorical question, of course, but one could say it’s because Cruz, Rubio, et al are doing a very poor job upstaging Trump. The reason they’re failing to stop him at the primary level is because none of the candidates are any better. Instead of picking the lesser of several evils, GOP voters are opting to support the loudest and most obnoxious.

Regardless, Democrats should continue to let the Republican wound fester. Meanwhile, they should prepare their best candidate to lance the boil this fall.

So, what should Democrats be doing now if not battling Trump?

Right, that’s where my real interest lies.

 The plan

A disclaimer: I am not really a Democrat but someone who looks for the best candidate. To be honest, however, I have not seen many Republican candidates recently who display the type of leadership I feel we need. That has become overwhelmingly true as the party’s massive fear campaign has mounted the last few years. Should any of their end-of-life-as-we-know-it warnings ever pan out, I might have to reconsider.

My interest in this presidential race, however, is in getting what I believe to be the correct candidate nominated by the Democrats.

You see, I’ve totally bought in on the need to radically shake things up, to bring forth the revolution Bernie Sanders speaks of. My position has been brought on by the long, slow slide we’ve made into consolidating wealth among so few people, enlarging our prison populations on ridiculous charges and even more astounding sentences, intensifying racial strife, militarizing police departments and allowing a minority of renegade cops to gun down undeserving adults and children, standing by as growing numbers of civilians kill each other and lawmen, giving away money to the military-industrial complex, allowing large segments of our population to go without access to affordable health care while insurance companies and health-related corporations soak up the money, letting our young people pawn their future livelihood for a chance at an advanced education, expecting the ultra-rich to milk the system for tax breaks and not pay their fair share even after making their wealth on the strength of our society, watching our nation’s infrastructure crumble, and, certainly not least, ignoring the fact that humans are willfully damaging the planet.

On a personal level, as I noted in my endorsement a month ago, I find my Christian beliefs comfortably aligned with Bernie Sanders’ policies.

I look through my list of concerns above and I don’t see many where I expect Clinton to make much progress, none where I would expect her to do better than Sanders. That being said, I suspect I’ll vote for Clinton over anyone the GOP is currently considering. My hope would be that she would at least hold the gains Barack Obama has made until the nation is ready to take additional steps to better take care of its people and to properly respect its role in the world.

The shame I have in not being able to whole-heartedly support Hillary Clinton is that I am aching for our nation to put a woman into the White House. I believe our country can best reach its potential with more women in leadership positions. Alas, I do not see Clinton being the right person. However, I fully expect Bernie Sanders to make every effort to enlist a woman as his running mate and I hope she will prove to be the next president we need.

For a thorough examination of why Hillary Clinton is not the best choice for Democrats, try “The Definitive, Encyclopedic Case For Why Hillary Clinton is the Wrong Choice” by Mass Southpaw. Or “The case against Hillary Clinton: This is the disaster Democrats must avoid,” by P.J. Podesta.

So, yes, I think the best thing the Democratic Party can do for itself and for our country is to line up in support of Bernie Sanders for president and to do so with the immediacy and force that will send a message up and down the ballot that we need like-minded people (of any party) serving to create an American society that values all members and that wants each to live up to his or her potential, without fear of persecution or warfare.

Want more information on Sanders? Check out “I’m a conservative who supports Bernie Sanders; here’s why” by Bill Norman. Maybe you’ve heard plenty about Sanders but worry about some of the negatives you’ve heard. I highly recommend this short video, “Bernie skeptics,” by Robert Reich.

 

In summation of my plan to defeat Donald Trump or whoever Republicans nominate, I believe Democrats, independents and Republicans who are dismayed by their party’s current direction need to turn this primary around, the sooner the better. Super Tuesday kicks off in a matter of hours and more than a dozen more contests follow in the next couple of weeks. This could well be make-or-break time for several campaigns and one revolution.