- 16 Nov 2017 22:08
#14863298
As they say, life comes at you fast.
Once minute, you are grandstanding and condemning the president of the US while the media establishment is propping you up as a potential presidential candidate. The next minute you are being reminded of your degenerate behavior in the most public of ways.
Will he be forced to step down?
Making the Case for a Al Franken-Kamela Harris 2020 Presidential Ticket
Once minute, you are grandstanding and condemning the president of the US while the media establishment is propping you up as a potential presidential candidate. The next minute you are being reminded of your degenerate behavior in the most public of ways.
Will he be forced to step down?
Making the Case for a Al Franken-Kamela Harris 2020 Presidential Ticket
With American democracy firmly under assault, Democrats need to stop their infighting and start thinking about putting together a winning ticket in 2020.
Current presidents have the not-insignificant power of incumbency, so Democrats closely watching every tick in the poll numbers and just assuming Trump will go down automatically are engaging in wishful thinking. Americans vote for people who inspire them – think Obama over McCain – or for people they hate less – think many men voting for Trump over Clinton. The Democrats will need to find the ticket of the moment: candidates who inspire, who reflect the party’s values and authentically articulate its beliefs, and who people don’t hate.
That’s why Franken-Harris would be the perfect ticket for 2020.
Franken is the perfect choice for the first goal. Harris is the perfect goal for the second.
Al Franken – despite decades in New York – oozes a general Midwestern-ness that folks from that region – myself included – instantly recognize. He isn’t flashy, and he is funny in a self-deprecating, non-bombastic way that evokes That 70s Show far more than The Apprentice. He is the type of person millions of Midwesterners instantly like.
Equally important, he’s clean, and he evokes clean in a very midwestern way. He has been married to his wife, Franni, for decades, and freely admits they had challenging years, but a very happy marriage overall. He is wealthy, but hardly showy about it. He hasn’t had any scandals despite a decade as a senator and decades as a writer and comedian. He is famous – but in an almost unpretentious way that makes you forget he is famous.
He is also a midwestern liberal in the Minnesota mold. Midwestern progressives tend to be less vocal about it – less tweet prone you might say – but Franken absolutely has the bona fides. He’s been a progressive – on air and on record – for decades, dating back to SNL beginning in 1975 and his radio shows in the early 1990s. He was one of the first famous figures to really call out the radical right. He has the closest level of true progressive credibility to Bernie Sanders – but without the baggage.
Perhaps most importantly, almost nobody hates Al Franken. In American politics, this is crucial. Great American politicians that win multiple elections – Clinton, Reagan, Kennedy, FDR – have an affable, inherent likeability that they are born with and helps them in the voting booth. Failing politicians – Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney, John Kerry, Al Gore, Walter Mondale – are often the opposite; they give off a distance, a statuesque iciness, that inspires many to dislike them at a visceral level and vote against them, even when they are the more qualified and better option. Whereas millions of Americans – rightly or not it can’t be denied – hated Hillary Clinton for decades dating back to 1992, and probably wouldn’t have voted her in office if hell froze over, almost no one will look at the themselves in the ballot box and think of Al Franken, “I hate that guy and won’t let him be president.”
Cont
Last edited by maz on 16 Nov 2017 23:08, edited 1 time in total.