The Democrats : CANDIDATES FOR THE US PRESIDENCY IN 2024 PART 2

by Vijaya Chandrasoma

As a postscript to last week’s essay about potential Republican candidates for the 2024 presidency, many others, including Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis, Senator Tim Scott, the only Republican African-American in the US Senate and former Vice President Mike Pence have thrown their hats in the ring. Hopefully, this portents a loosening of the grip Trump and the extreme MAGA right of the Republican Party have been wielding over the years. Especially because they are trying to take the country in a direction most Americans repudiate, where they dictate what we read, whom we love and our sexual identity, whom we can worship.

Also, their intransigent opposition to a significant response to the threat of climate change; their refusal to enact effective legislation to alleviate the epidemic of gun violence; their interference in women’s reproductive freedom; and the continuing sexual, income and wealth inequality. All hot button issues which demand action by a majority of Americans, they will almost certainly seal their defeat in 2024. After which the Republican Party finally will wake up in the 21st century, with monstrous memories of the nightmare that constituted the Trump years.

The announced and likely candidates for the 2024 Democratic nomination for the 2024 presidency are:

President Joe Biden (80 years)

President Biden has announced his decision to run for re-election in 2026, stressing that his decision was based on his accomplishments in the first two years of his presidency. These bi-partisan legislative accomplishments are substantial, and include the American Rescue Plan, which gave financial assistance to those affected by Covid, a long-overdue $1.1 trillion infrastructure bill, and the Inflation Reduction Act, landmark legislation aimed at curbing inflation, lowering the deficit by reducing prescription drug and other prices, while making a significant response to the climate crisis. The economy under Biden has added a record 12.6 million jobs as at April 2023, exceeding the pre-pandemic totals by 3.2 million jobs. Biden passed the first, though minimal and largely impotent gun regulations in 30 years; too little too late, nevertheless a welcome start. He also appointed Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first African-American woman, to the Supreme Court.

Globally, Biden has rallied a coalition of over 40 nations behind Ukraine in response to Russia’s invasion. An act of illegal aggression generally recognized as not only a threat to the sovereignty and independence of Ukraine, but an attempt by President Putin to dismantle NATO and achieve his dream of restoring the glory days of the old Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

While Biden’s policies have been generally popular, he has failed to get the credit he deserves, mainly because of his handling of the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan. His decision to withdraw did succeed in finally ending America’s longest war, though at substantial cost because of a lack of a well-planned exit strategy. Republicans also criticize his handling of the immigration crisis at the southern border, inflation and the economy.

His Achilles heel remains his age. He will be 82 in November 2026 and 86 at the end of his second term. He is dogged by low approval ratings, in spite of his stellar legislative performance, because of concerns about his advanced age. His wisest course of action would be to continue with his impressive presidential performance, and retire with great honor and fanfare in 2024. The only way the Democrats can lose the most vitally important election in the history of the USA would be to field Biden as its candidate.

Although Biden’s approval is running in the low 40s, Democrats will vote for him if he is the nominee. If the Republicans are equally stupid and field Trump as their nominee, then Biden will win by a large margin, again. Trump’s political career is on the wane, and his prison career may have begun by November 24.

Biden’s chances against a moderate Republican candidate will however not be as rosy, especially if that rival is a fresh, younger face, skeptical of radical right conspiracy theories currently popular with Trump and his MAGA cult.

The raising of the debt ceiling has always been a formality, and has never been denied. It simply authorizes the settlement of payments which have already been spent. 25% of the current debt represents the expenditure on Trump’s tax cuts in 2017, designed to favor the billionaires and corporations. The failure to increase the debt ceiling will force the US to default on its financial obligations, and will, according to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, trigger an “unprecedented economic and financial storm….and cause irreparable harm to the US economy, the livelihoods of all Americans (in the middle and lower classes) and global financial stability”.

The chief negotiator for the Republican Party, Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a tool of the extreme Maga Trumpian tribe, is playing political brinkmanship. They refuse to negotiate on the Draconian conditions already submitted, which favor the super-wealthy at the expense of the poor and the vulnerable.

The Republican strategy is aimed at bringing the economy to its knees, imposing immense hardship to the poorer classes and causing a global recession. As long as they will have Biden to blame for the crises, and so increase their chances of winning the 2024 election, they care zilch about the plight of anyone or anything else. A short-sighted strategy which is doomed to failure.

Biden has been cornered in a “damned if I do, damned if I don’t” situation. He has to get bi-partisan support to raise the debt ceiling by June 1. And he has to do so without any contribution from the super-wealthy and only the rejection or reduction of entitlement programs for the needy, which form the basis of Democratic ideology. A Herculean task, indeed.

Only two other Democrats have so far announced their candidature for the 2024 Democratic nomination.

Robert F. Kennedy. Jnr. (69 years)

By far the more interesting of the two Democrats who have already announced their candidatures is Robert F. Kennedy, Jnr., son of Attorney General Bobby Kennedy and nephew of JFK. Junior is an environmental lawyer noted for championing environmental issues. But of late, he has antagonized both his family and many Democrats by espousing conspiracy theories about vaccines, which have been embraced by extreme right Trump supporters like convicted felons, Steve Bannon and Alex Jones.

Marianne Williamson (70 years)

Ms. Williamson, a long time social-activist, “self-help guru” and best-selling author, participated at two Democratic primaries in 2020, where she declared that the only way to defeat Trump was to “harness love for political purposes”. Her 2024 platform backs government-run healthcare, free childcare, at least $1 trillion in slavery reparations to black Americans and a federal agency named the Department of Peace. Her approval ratings are in the low single digits, but she has gained the attention of millions of young voters with her Tik Tok content. Perfect presidential material, perhaps 30 years ahead of her time.

There are many eminently qualified and competent Democrats who may decide announce their candidature in due time.

Vice President Kamala Harris (58 years)

As second-in-command, Harris would be a natural candidate in 2024, only if Biden retires; it is unlikely that she will challenge her current boss if he runs. Her performance in her role as Vice President has been held to a more intense scrutiny as President Biden’s potential successor, whether imminently, in 2024 or 2028. Her identity as the first woman of both black and South Asian descent has also led to an unprecedented focus on her eligibility for the presidency by racist elements.

The Vice President’s role is necessarily underplayed and understated, but her performance so far makes her a viable candidate to succeed Biden, as does her lifetime of public service as District Attorney of San Francisco, California’s Attorney General and United States Senator.

Gavin Newsom (55 years)

Newsom, Governor of California, is one of the more credible alternatives to Joe Biden, whether he retires or not.Newsom has repeatedly said that he does not intend to run for the presidency in 2024. He is halfway through his term as Governor of California, which he would have to abandon with a job largely unfinished. However, he has been on the offense against the Republicans in recent times, and it is unlikely that he would be able to resist the lure of a run for the presidency.

Gretchen Whitmer (51 years)

Michigan Governor, Whitmer has said that she wouldn’t run even if Biden retires, but there will be plenty of voter pressure on her to run, after winning two elections in a swing state by over 10 points, and taking over both chambers of the state legislature for the first time in 40 years. In addition to her popularity with voters, she passed legislation which enshrined reproductive rights in Michigan’s Constitution before Roe v. Wade was overturned. Legislation applauded by not only voters in Michigan, but nationwide.

Pete Buttigieg (41 years)

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg ran for the presidency in 2020, even leading in early primaries. In a recent New Hampshire poll, he is the top choice of Democratic voters for the upcoming primaries in the Granite State, the first of such Democratic primaries in the 2024 election season cycle. However, he has faced criticism about his handling of crisis upon crisis on air travel during the holiday season in 2022. His handling of the train disaster in East Palestine, Ohio in February, when 38 railcars, 20 carrying hazardous materials, derailed, contaminating the air which necessitated the evacuation of residents within a one-mile radius, has also come under intense criticism.

Staunch conservative Liz Cheney was a leading member of the Republican Party until she was fired for her defiance of Trump after the Trump-incited January 6 insurrection. She has earned lavish praise from the Democrats for her stance against Trump, and has stated that she will campaign with the Democrats in the 2024 elections.

There are many extremely qualified candidates who may come into prominence before November 2024; political satirist, Jon Stewart ((60), Senators Amy Klobuchar (65), Elizabeth Warren (73), even old Bernie Sanders (81), to name a few. My favorite longshot for 2024 and beyond is New York Congressman, Daniel Goldman (47), who served as lead counsel in both impeachment trials against Donald Trump. A brilliant prosecutor, he has recently broken into media prominence with his relentless questioning of radical Republicans on various MAGA conspiracy lies in the House, with devastating success.

Michelle Obama? Well-nigh impossible she will run, but we can dream.

And my ever-optimistic opinion, that New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez should be anyone’s pick for Vice President, if she’s considered too young for the presidency (she will be 35 in October 2024). AOC, as she is popularly known, represents our future and the “Woke” progressive direction towards which the country is headed. With Senator Bernie Sanders, AOC has been leading the movement of the richest nation in the world playing catch up with the compassionate economic and societal policies of all other advanced nations.

The Republican Party will also wake up to this fact when they realize that they haven’t won an election since 2016. They have run out options, especially if their beloved leader has been forcibly “retired”.

My predictions for the candidates for the US presidency are based on today’s conditions. These probably will be totally outdated by November 2024. A host of variables can – and will – change in 15 months. This crucial election may be ultimately contested and decided by presidential protagonists who are not even in the political limelight today.