Ego vs. Country

If the 2020 election is going to be decided by who has the biggest ego, well, that, of course, will be no contest. The solipsist-in-chief would win that match even if it was against Caligula. But, ego will play a big part in the next election for another reason and it will be the egos of other people – the egos of the Democratic candidates.

As this is written, Sanders has just won the Nevada primary.  The gasbags and talking heads of the media have anointed him as the “front runner” which, in the way they say it, means “winner.” They make this pronouncement as if they don’t completely understand its practical impact (which they clearly do). When the media says you’ve won, you are much more likely to win. In Sanders case, this is now true even though his victories are among such “representative” places as Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada. If New Hampshire was an American city, it’s population would only barely be in the top ten.  All three states combined have only about one-third of the people of Florida, one-fifth of California. It would be like deciding the winner of the World Series based on the results of Spring Training.

The other media accepted wisdom is that Sanders can’t win and that his candidacy will drag down the chances of Democrats down the ballot.  That media truth has more validity to it. So, let’s get back to the question of ego. If Sanders is the candidate, he has a much better chance of being the winner than is now anticipated if the other Democratic candidates sublimate their egos and bring their constituencies along.

Now, anyone who runs for President has to have a gargantuan ego. Who would think that  they, among all other human beings, deserve to be the most powerful person in the world? The egos of the candidates is a given. 

But, all of them say how much they care about the country; how much they are running to do good; how, to them, the public interest overwhelms any private interest they may have. So, if Biden and Buttigieg and Klobuchar and Warren and the rest (and maybe especially, Bloomberg), drop their egos and get fully behind candidate Sanders and the rest of the down ballot Democrats, there is little reason why they couldn’t bring most of their supporters with them.

There is an easy way to get this done.  I previously suggested that the Democratic candidate name his or her cabinet during the campaign and include the other candidates. If Sanders did this, it would surely incentivize the supporters of the other candidates to come out and vote. Those voters would be assured that their candidate’s participation would be a part of the new Administration.  It would also take the edge off of the “Socialist” label that Sanders is given. Suppose Mike Bloomberg was offered up as the next Secretary of the Treasury. It is as hard to call Mike Bloomberg a Marxist as it is to call Jared Kushner qualified for his job (whatever that job is).

How about Joe Biden as Secretary of State? Amy Klobuchar as Attorney General? Pete Buttigieg as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development? You get the idea. Of course, Bernie would have to sublimate his ego as well. He would have to include in his government people with somewhat different views than his. Trump would never do that.  Abraham Lincoln, though, did.  Which of those two models should Bernie follow?