With Joe Biden in the race, the presidential candidate field is more or less complete. I promise I have something a bit more substantive on the way. For now, let’s get on with ranking the Democratic candidates! Who’s deserving of a vote?
I’ve written previously about how I vote. But it’s easy enough to summarize. I vote for candidates who have a chance to win and won’t leave the world worse off than they found it. In practice, the decision for President is usually pretty easy. Almost all presidential candidates would harm the world. Usually Democrats harm it less, and Republicans harm it more. But both cause harm. Therefore, in presidential elections, I usually face a decision between voting third party or not voting at all.
Local elections are less bleak, as lower ranking officials have less potential to cause harm.
But here we are, ready for yet more voting in 2020. Should the left support Bernie again? Support someone else? Should we support no one at all?
Let’s think about this. Right now, I’m just giving the presidential candidates a quick first look. I’ll have more to say later about the three or four best.
Candidates I’ll Definitely Vote For
No one! And this isn’t a late April Fools’ joke.
If we’re looking for a candidate who would make the world a better place and has a shot at winning, there’s no completely clear choice here. Sorry. The Democratic Party still sucks. None of the candidates has shown a totally different path.
Candidates I’ll Probably Vote For
Bernie Sanders
He’ll struggle to win primaries in 2020, especially in a cycle when voters have additional options to Hillary Clinton’s left. And he’s not a great candidate. Just a candidate who wouldn’t make the world worse. He’s the best candidate in the race by a fair bit. What Sanders has that no one else has is a commitment to a social democratic vision, a base of support that can (potentially) push for that vision, and a decent track record of holding to that vision in the face of electoral pressures. If Sanders can manage to win the nomination, he’s probably worth a vote.
Candidates Worth Considering
Elizabeth Warren
The basic line on Warren is that she wants to regulate capitalism to make the system fairer. Sure, it’s what everyone says. But Warren, as far as I can tell, really means it. Certainly to a greater extent than Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and others repeating the message. I’ll have a bit more to say about Warren later, but we can think of her as capitalism’s heart surgeon. Bernie’s not great, and Warren’s not Bernie. As Jacobin loves to remind us. Warren also has problems on racial issues. But she made some good, and encouraging, moves on foreign policy. And her policy parade is impressive. Will I vote for her if she wins the nomination? Maybe. I’m still listening and evaluating.
Julián Castro
If evaluating Warren is challenging, evaluating Castro is even more so. He’s sort of one foot in this category and one foot in the next. He’s embraced much of the Sandersista Trinity, and deserves credit for that. But the real highlight of his platform is that he’s the only candidate with a vision for decriminalizing basic elements of the immigration system. That’s the good. The bad is that it’s not clear how strongly he holds the social democratic positions, and his background as a politician is further to the right and not particularly effective. He’s got a long way to go to get my vote, but I’m open to his candidacy. And it’s totally plausible that I’d vote for him if he’s the nominee.
Candidates I Probably Won’t Vote For
Kamala Harris
The left made it a bit of a refrain that ‘Kamala Harris is a cop.’ She takes photos with Border Patrol. And so on. Lest one dismiss this as merely symbolic, it’s worth noting that her record as a prosecutor wasn’t so great. As plenty of others document. But, to be fair, I think we can probably distinguish Harris from the candidates below. There’s enough potential here that I haven’t already ruled out voting for her.
Candidates I Definitely Won’t Vote For
Joe Biden (even more articles)
Cory Booker
Pete Buttigieg
Kirsten Gillibrand
Amy Klobuchar
Beto O’Rourke
Tim Ryan
There’s not much to say here. All of these candidates would harm the world if elected. They’re politically too far to the right, take corporate donations and support corporatist policies, are fully right-wing on foreign policy, etc. Even if they change their views at the last minute, no one should believe them.
People Who Have Little Chance of Winning the Nomination
John Delaney
Tulsi Gabbard
John Hickenlooper
Jay Inslee
Wayne Messam
Seth Moulton
Eric Swalwell
Marianne Williamson
Andrew Yang
None of these people are going to win the Democratic nomination for the presidency. They’re best not discussed at all. I probably missed a few candidates on this list, but whatever.
