The Best Candidate To Defeat Trump

The Democrats see themselves as a modern, young, open and, most of all, ethnically diverse party. However, in the presidential election campaign, old white men are taking the lead once again. That’s a shame, but it is necessary.

A few days ago, Kamala Harris gave up on trying to become the next Democratic presidential candidate. Bad poll results, too little money – there was nothing left to do for the senator from California except to capitulate.

On the one hand, primaries, which are held by U.S. political parties every four years in order to find their presidential candidate, work exactly like this: Numerous contenders line up and party members decide who will become their presidential candidate. It is necessary for other contenders to fail along the way.

On the other hand, there is a lot of bluster and hand-wringing right now. The party is complaining that out of all people, why does it have to be Harris? This is because, in fact, the Democrats are proud of not being a party of frequently maligned old white men, unlike the Republicans. Their self-perception is that of a modern, young, open and, most of all, ethnically diverse party. When campaigning began, the Democrats were very excited because more women and members of minority groups than ever before had lined up for the election. One of them was Harris, the 55-year-old daughter of immigrants from India and Jamaica.

Where do we go from here? Among the four most promising contenders that remain, three are men. The only woman, Elizabeth Warren, is 70 years old. Two of the men, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, are approaching 80. Jumping around in between them is Pete Buttigieg, who at 37 is only two years older than the U.S. Constitution requires the president to be. But most notably, all of them are white.

For many Democratic voters, this is a bitter disappointment. Especially because it is their own fault. The allegedly sexist and racist Republicans were not the ones who filtered women and “people of color” from the list of contenders. Instead, this was done by the Democrats themselves. Harris did not score well in the polls either in her leftist home state of California nor in South Carolina, where black people dominate as voters in the primary campaign. What the Democrats want to be and what they really are, apparently are two very different things.

A positive interpretation for this might be that Democratic voters have only one goal. They want to defeat Donald Trump next year. Therefore, they are gathering around the candidate who, after what can be predicted about the election campaign at this point, might be the most capable of doing so. Age, gender, skin color and ideology are irrelevant or at least secondary to most Democrats. This could explain why Biden has taken a strong lead in nationwide polls.

A negative interpretation might be that the Democrats are a party which has been disrupted, and is without course or guidance. They are messing around, and if they keep on doing so, they might mess up the election against Trump. Like many center-left parties, the Democrats don’t know where they actually want to go, to the left or to the center. That could explain why socialist Sanders as well as social democrat Warren, Mr. Average from the center Biden and whippersnapper Buttigieg each have noteworthy voter support within the party. And it is even fitting in this setting that a small group within the party’s establishment thinks the best candidate would be East Coast billionaire Michael Bloomberg.

We have to hope for America and the world that the first interpretation is the right one. But whoever knows the Democrats certainly fears that the second one might be true.