Originally published Oct, 2021
There is a strong case to be made for a new type of political candidate on the Left
I think there is a strong case to be made for a new type of political candidate on the left. The upset, annoyed, intelligent, arrogant, passionate intellectual who doesn’t care what you think. The Angry Democrat.
Bernie Sanders fit that bill but Black Americans didn’t buy into it. They didn’t believe that white America would vote for the angry Jew from Vermont with the crazy ideas, and he got taken out in the primaries. Hillary Clinton could have been that candidate but she made the mistake of listening to people who said she needed to be more likable. She ran a focus group campaign when she could have mopped the floor with the competition. She could have run circles around anyone else running, but instead, she was told to concern herself with not being bitchy. What we needed was a bitch on wheels.
Politics in America is a popularity contest, in the extreme. But we’re a funny bunch of idiots. We don’t actually know what we want, and we don’t understand the choices we make. But one thing that Americans consistently like is a fighter.
There are those who will argue that promoting a combative candidate will only give the right something to fight about but this is ridiculous. You only have to look at how they respond to everything. It doesn’t matter what the Democrats do, the Republicans are going to fight it. You might as well fight back.
There was an episode of the West Wing, the Aaron Sorkin drama about the White House, where the Democratic incumbent was prepping for a debate with a folksy, good-looking, Reaganesque Texan.
The staff had determined that President Jed Bartlett, played by Martin Sheen, was going to be seen as an effete, northeast, intellectual elite no matter what they did, so they might as well lean into it. If he was going to be slapped with the nerd label, he might as well be the smartest person in the room. He went on to wipe the floor with the guy, calling him a .22 caliber mind in a .45 caliber world.
That’s what we need. If Democrats are going to be the smartest kid in class, they need to start acting like it.
America has done this weird thing in the last fifty years where we decided that we want our President to be an everyman. The guy we want to have a beer with. It’s why these morons show up to Iowa in pressed dad jeans, a tucked-in flannel shirt, and a $350 belt. This is also why we’ve had trouble electing a woman to that office. There are no appropriate clothing choices. Vice President Harris came close but that was only after she’d gotten the nomination. That alone should tell you something.
We don’t need the douchebag next door. We need heroes. We need people who are brilliant and way out of our league.
There is a scene in the chess movie “Searching For Bobby Fisher” where Ben Kingsley is telling the young Josh Waitkins that he has to have contempt for his opponent in order to beat him. Josh refuses and wins anyway, but it’s a fairy tale ending, a Hollywood morality play. In reality, Sir Kingsley was right. We should welcome the disdain, and cheer the contempt. They are deplorable and no one should have ever said differently.
The comedian Bob Newhart said, “I don’t like country music and I don’t mean to denigrate people who do. For people who like country music, denigrate means put down.”
It’s time to stop with the Sunday School theatrics and start fighting to win. We need candidates who are smart, pissed off, and capable of running you over.
You don’t bring a pillow to a gunfight.