I like something about every Democratic candidate running for President. Biden is enjoyable in the debates, and has pretty much always been a good speaker. Clinton is a fierce, disciplined campaigner who will do what is necessary to win and doesn't put up with bullshit from the Noise Machine. Dodd has taken leadership on a number of key fights, and has also clearly had a hand in writing some good legislation in the past. Edwards seems to have genuinely transformed from a DLC-nexus Dem into a much more progressive one. Kucinich takes stands on important issues that no other candidate will, like single-payer health care and reducing the size of the national security state. Obama has the potential for a transformative coalition, strikes me as very thoughtful, and would promote a more progressive segment of the professional policy class into power. Richardson is absolutely right on Iraq, and seems to easily have the best grasp of foreign policy of any candidate currently in the race.
At the same time, when the nomination is decided, I don't think I will lament the loss of any of the six candidates who don't win. Even leaving specific issues aside, this is because, at some fundamental level, I don't really trust any of them. Biden has always struck me as someone who talks a good game, but mostly seems to enjoy having the spotlight on himself and gets little done policy-wise for progressives. Clinton seems to vote well, but I can't shake the feeling that on many issues she has her finger in the wind, and will turn to the right as soon as it is politically advantageous to do so. Where was Dodd on these big fights before he started running for President? Edwards has changed so much over the past ten years that I have to wonder how complete or how permanent his progressive transformation is. Kucinich seems self-aggrandizing, occasionally loopy, and uninterested in doing what it takes to change a national campaign. Obama doesn't seem to actually like the activists who are supporting him, and he strikes me as more of a technocrat than a progressive. Richardson has a serious gaffe problem, and also has a real libertarian streak on things like taxes and government spending. While I can see good things coming from any of them winning the nomination and the presidency, I can just as clearly see moments when I will feel betrayed by all of them.
To be elliptical for a moment, let me relay an amusing anecdote from my holiday travels. Yesterday afternoon, back up in Liverpool, New York, along with my brother Andy and his girlfriend Amy, I helped clean out Andy's car before taking it for a thorough, inside and out, car wash. During the cleaning, Andy and I decided that, at long last, it was time to dispose of the Howard Dean sign that had been in the car over the past four years (see the picture on the right). It may seem strange, even pathetic, to just be removing a Dean for America placard from the back window of a car now, but it is actually quite normal for me. I like my presidential candidates the way I like the other relationships in my life: deep and intense. When I date someone, I am always monogamous, and don't wander around. Even aside from romantic relationships, I am something of an anti-connector, preferring a small number of very close relationships to a large group of friends. I am not embarrassed to say that I am pretty shy, that I find unfamiliar social situations uncomfortable, and that it is unusual for me to trust someone enough to really open up.
It goes the same way for presidential candidates. I've helped out quite a few candidates who I don't really trust that much, because I can see that candidate's election as helping achieve my desired political ends in some way. Basically, if they are going to use my support for their ends, I can support them as long as their election can be used to achieve mine. However, for Presidential candidates in primaries, I need a lot more than that. As something of a public figure in progressive politics, I simply am not going to fight hard for a candidate in a primary election, I mean really try to make a positive difference on that candidate's behalf, unless I feel as though I can really trust that person on a deep level. I am not going to publicly lay myself out for someone if I believe that person will, once in office, do things I find abhorrent in a crisis, or a difficult political situation (such as mounting public pressure to invade Iraq, pass a bad trade agreement, attack immigrants, attacks the GLBT community, engage in a major corporate giveaway, etc). I am not going to lay myself for someone, and really work hard to elect that candidate, if I believe that candidate will throw me and my friends under the bus in order to improve his or her political position (by, say positioning oneself against left-wing strawmen). Although I don't want to be too dramatic, I would do that just as soon date someone who I was convinced would cheat on me.
While I can see arguments for why one candidate would be better, or at least less worse than others, the only candidate I have really ever felt that way about was Howard Dean. Notably, I also felt that way about Russ Feingold, and worked quietly behind the scenes to support him during much of 2005 and 2006, but he didn't run. When it comes to both Dean and Feingold, there are issues on which we disagree. However, I never had the sense that supporting them and working hard for them would make me feel used. When I have disagreed with Dean or Feingold, I never felt that it was because either was fundamentally conservative in any way, that they were elitists, that they valued power more than treating their supporters and allies decently, or that they were following a politically expedient path instead of sticking to their guns. It always felt compatible, open, and honest. It felt like they would have my back. Even when they made mistakes, they would never do so for underhanded reasons or because of bad motives. Dean even sometimes reminded me of my father, I trusted him so much.
This post is a bit confessional, but I felt a need to say it nonetheless. Yesterday, when I was removed a four-year old Howard Dean sign from the back of my brother's car, I felt there had to be a good reason, apart from just policy, that was keeping me from making up my mind in the 2008 primary campaign. I think, in the end, it comes down to a question of trust. If I am going to really put myself on the line for a candidate, I have to trust that person even when I disagree with him or her. When it comes to the current crop of Democratic candidates, I just don't trust any of them strongly enough to volunteer for them during the primary. With only a few weeks to go, it is hard for me to see that change now. |
