Biden is Democrats’ best bet to prevent Trump’s 2nd term
January 1, 2020, marked the beginning of a presidential election year, the 58th such year since George Washington was elected in 1788. But this year will go down as one of the most important American elections in our nation’s history. When Donald J. Trump was elected in 2016, it was with the hope — even the expectation — that he would “rise to the occasion” of the presidency.
We now know that did not happen. To protect and preserve our great country, we Democrats must nominate a presidential candidate who can beat Trump. There is no plan B.
I’ve been a Democrat since the womb, but those who know me know that I am not a strident partisan. In fact, I am deeply concerned about the tribal nature of our politics today on both sides.
During my gubernatorial campaign I was criticized for not hewing to a certain Democratic line. I was proud to be identified as the most bipartisan Democratic congressional representative in the Florida delegation (and the ninth most bipartisan nationally of both parties) but was criticized as a traitor by members of my own party.
Gerrymandering and closed primaries have given extreme candidates of both parties the chance to choose their voters, rather than the voters choosing the candidates. Donald Trump exploited this national tribalism to win in 2016 and is doubling down on that strategy for 2020: he believes he wins when Americans are pitted against Americans.
So, back to my statement that this is a historic year. I don’t believe it is an exaggeration to say that defeating Trump on Nov. 3 is vital to the preservation of our country. Re-electing the most unfit individual to ever occupy the White House will unleash all of his worst inclinations and further reduce America’s standing in the world. The stakes for our democracy have never been higher.
Though we have an abundance of riches in our Democratic field, we do not have the luxury to lose. Many of the candidates have admirable qualities and all of them would be immeasurably preferable to a second Trump term. The key question for my fellow Democrats is who has the best chance to win in November? Electability is the holy grail this election season.
When former Vice President Joe Biden announced his candidacy for president, I immediately proclaimed my full support for him. My support for him is extremely pragmatic: he knows how to do the job and, most importantly, he can win.
Is he perfect? No. He would not claim perfection for himself. But in the 2020 election puzzle, the Vice President is the only Democrat who can assemble the Electoral College pieces necessary to win the presidency. We all know all too painfully that it is about electoral votes not the popular vote that matters.
The path this election season is to win back folks who voted for Obama in 2008
HOME DELIVERY RATES and 2012 but flipped to Trump in 2016. They are salt-of-theearth people who are embarrassed by Trump but could not bring themselves to vote for many of the Democratic candidates this cycle. In what will be an election oriented around values such as the rule of law, equality of women, and America’s moral authority in the world, Biden represents wisdom, deliberation, and competency — all of the things Trump lacks.
Florida is a must-win state for Democrats this year. The Sunshine State is a microcosm of the nation in that it is the largest purple state in the union. A general-election Democratic candidate must win big in the blue strongholds of southeast Florida, hold their own along the I-4 corridor and minimize losing margins north of Orlando and into the Panhandle. Do that and you win Florida. Fail in any of those components and you lose. We saw that again in 2018 when Republicans won all but one statewide office in a strong, national Democratic wave year.
Along the I-4 corridor, it is truly a game of margins. All of our new residents from the Midwest who are offended by Trump will find a comfortable place to land with the vice president. Orlando has trended towards the Democrats and the vice president is doing well with Hispanics. There are several bellwether counties such as Pasco, Polk and Volusia that have recently trended Republican but, again, the vice president appeals to many folks there who have moved to Florida from the Midwest.
Ronald Reagan once said the person who agrees with you 80 percent of the time is a friend and an ally — not a 20 percent traitor. Fellow Democrats, the time for falling in love only with a candidate who agrees with you 100 percent has long since passed. We must fall in love with I am supporting Vice President Biden because of his long service to this country, his ability on day one to start restoring integrity and competency to our government, and the immediate improvement he will bring to our nation’s standing worldwide. And most importantly: he can win. That be our primary focus, Democrats. He can win Florida. And as goes Florida, so goes the nation. Now, let’s do this.
SOMETHING ON YOUR MIND? Ideal letters to the editor are brief and to the point. Letters may be edited for clarity, accuracy or length. Submissions require the writer’s name, address and phone number.
633 N. Orange Ave., Orlando, FL 32801