Wednesday, February 12, 2020

Why Dems Should Avoid Bloomberg Like the Plague That He Is

Caveat: Any non-Gabbard Dem is better than Trump.

I see friends on Facebook thinking that Bloomberg is a viable and even attractive candidate, and I am flummoxed.  Haven't we seen what happens with a billionaire with autocratic tendencies becomes President?  So, I have decided to enumerate why Bloomberg is a bad choice for the Democrats even if he is feisty about being anti-Trump (hint: anyone competing in the primary except for Gabbard is going to be feisty in their anti-Trumpness once they get beyond the primaries):
  1. The biggest threat to the Dems winning is having a candidate who alienates a chunk of the base.  Guess who is most likely to do so?  The stop&frisk dude with plenty of racist audio.  We need African-Americans to turn out and vote Dem.  Bloomberg is most likely to alienate that vital part of the Democratic base.  
  2. Maybe not all billionaire presidential candidates are misogynists, but Bloomberg has more in common with Trump than not on this score.
  3. He's great on gun control, but, guess what, other than Bernie, I am pretty sure most of the Dems in the race are good on gun control too.  So, not much of a comparative advantage.
  4. Taxes?  Hmmm.  He is against a wealth tax because... he is wealthy.  
  5. His stances on health care are also more conservative than what most Democrats want.
  6. He is a fan of charter schools, which, in my mind, has always been a way to suck money away from public education.  A Republican stance.
  7. Those autocratic tendencies--the rules don't apply to him.  Whether it is getting a third term as NYC mayor despite the rules or avoiding the early primaries, Bloomberg thinks he is above the rules that others have to follow.  Haven't we had enough of that over the past three years?
  8. If income inequality is a core problem, how does making a billionaire president who has gamed the primaries by spending way more money help?
  9. While people view DC folks as being tainted, having experience in and near Congress is pretty useful for being president.  Having yet another amateur-in-chief (tis one reason why I am not a fan of Mayor Pete as well) seems like a dumb thing to do after the Trump era.
 In short, Bloomberg may seem like the best anti-Trump candidate now, but Biden was seen as being most electable three weeks ago.  The best anti-Trump candidate is (a) someone who is different from Trump; (b) someone who can unify the party; (c) someone who is not above the law.

So, yeah, if it comes down to it, I will vote for Bloomberg rather than Trump, but I sincerely hope that the Dems don't become the second party taken in by a billionaire who thinks he can do things his own way.

1 comment:

Erik Bruvold said...

I think that is correct. Flip side - he can spend literally unlimited amounts of his own money - POSSIBLY freeing up funds to be deployed to win the Senate/preserve the House. I fear either Bloomberg or Bernie mean 4 more years - Bloomberg for the reasons you note and Bernie because he probably means we lose suburban women in places like the Mainline and Wisconsin that can't be made up by college kids who may (or may not) be registered in the battle ground states. ON pure "who gives the best chance to win" you would say Amy, Pete and then Warren in about that order. Joe is in zombie campaign mode.