This primary season, Democrats are worried that whether the nominee is Bernie, a Centrist or a Billionaire, the party will be fractured and unable to compete against Trump. They ask, which of the candidates can unite the party? But this question reflects a viewpoint that is out of touch with the country and if Democrats do not change their focus, they will continue to lose races.
America is a union. The United States united to defend life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They united because they believed all men are created equal and have inalienable rights. They united because they rejected the notion that any one person, whether he be a king, a celebrity or a politician is more worthy than any other person.
Democrats focus on removing Trump from the White House. After Trump and McConnell blocked them and rocked them for four years, Democrats have bought into the belief that they are impotent and have taken a strategy focus on anti-Trump instead of fight their policies.
While Democrats really hate Trump and some really like Trump, they lose focus that there is a middle that don’t really like Trump, but don’t really like the Democrats either. The Democrats that really hate Trump over estimate how much other Americans dislike Trump and underestimate how much they dislike the Democrats.
Instead of asking, who is going to unite the Democrats, the Democrats should be asking, who is going to unite America? Who can bring Americans together?
In 2016, Democrats nominated a divisive candidate through a process that was viewed as unfairly weighted to give her the nomination. She was viewed as not one of the people, but a privileged, entitled, and not subject to the rules that apply to everyone else. Despite the excitement of being the first woman nominee, she was not able to draw overwhelming support needed to win an electoral college.
The Democrats can unite the country by running on the values that unite us: democracy, equality and justice. Americans fought, die and are defined by these core principles.
Bernie Sanders is running on a platform that says we are all entitled to health care, education, housing and a living wage; he has a message the we, the American people, are strong and are worthy of better. These are principles of equality. He says that the economy is rigged and the criminal justice system is racist. This is justice. And he is winning his place by 40 years of talking to Americans with the same message, hosting rallies and town halls, relying on donations from individuals rather than SuperPAC money, and taking on powerful corporations and the politically connected not from his own wealth or connections, but from the power of millions of volunteers. This is Democracy.
Bernie will unite the country because America will united around democracy, equality and justice. After four years, Trump these will be Trump’s Achilles heal.
Bloomberg, on the other hand, is running on a platform of fear of another four years of Trump with the argument that his wealth will allow him to outspend Trump. A platform of “fear” will unite the Democrats who hate Trump and feel impotent. This message will win the ‘Blue no matter who‘ voters, which dominate in the primaries. But it will not unite Americans who dislike but tolerate Trump.
Bloomberg will win the nomination by buying the election (spending vast wealth on advertisements, hiring any available election consultant, and buying endorsements from community names). He didn’t even give Iowa, NH, Nevada and SC a chance to vote on him. He holds no rallies, gets no turn out, has no volunteers and and has no suburban moms donating to his campaign. This is undemocratic, and reminds us of Trump’s attempt to extort damaging political information from Ukraine.
Bloomberg didn’t go through the years-long primary process and convinced the DNC to change the debate rules (after large donations to the Party), because Bloomberg is not like the rest of us. This is not equality.
And each step of the way, Bloomberg is proving that his wealth and power give him privileges and is above accountability. An example of this is how willing so many “Blue no matter who” Democrats are willing to abandon their core values by overlooking Bloomberg’s sexism (more sexual harassment complaints than against Trump), racism (notorious and unconstitutional Stop and Frisk) and class-ism (he is Wall Street’s choice). This is unjust and will terrifies American as much as King George did during the time of the original Union and as much as King Donald does now.
Bloomberg is the candidate least likely to unite America. He offers only anti-Trump sentiment. That might be enough, but any of the Democrats. And Bloomberg will not be able to unit America on values of democracy, equality, and justice – and once again Democrats will cede those to Trump.
This is crazy, but “Blue no matter who” Democrats have to get realistic about how the rest of the country feels.