Election 2020: Who's the Best Choice?

​Determining the Best 2020 Presidential Candidate

By Rachel Rivenbark

Saying that the upcoming primaries for the 2020 presidential election are going to be hectic seems like a little bit of an understatement. Perhaps “bonkers” might be a more appropriate word, given that there is now an utterly ground-breaking twenty-seven primary candidates in total currently in the running - twenty-five of whom are Democrats, and only two of whom are Republicans. This beats out the last historical records for the highest number of primary candidates by almost ten, with the last records having been broken in 1976 with sixteen Democratic primary candidates, and again in 2016 with seventeen Republican candidates. 

With this many Democratic candidates to choose from, it’s easy to see why people might feel overwhelmed at the idea of trying to whittle the vast list down to one single, perfect candidate to support. So that’s what this piece is for. To give an answer to this seemingly impossible, nationwide answer.

Only, the fact is… I can’t.

I could very well try to tell you which one stands above the rest as being decidedly, inarguably the best. But I’m not going to do that. Not only because the concept of doing a case-by-case analysis of every single candidate - delving into histories and platforms and transgressions and viewpoints and supporters, all while trying to formulate a concise argument as to why this one in particular is better than the others, in a way that everyone in our audience will understand and agree with - sounds frankly hellish, if not outright impossible… but also because the truth of the matter is that there is no such thing as a perfect candidate. No one person - either on this list, or anywhere in the world - is ever going to be without enough flaws to quality them as being “the best.”

What those perceived flaws are, and how much they’re going to affect whether we vote for them or not will vary far too greatly for any persuasive article to make much difference in the grand scheme of things. Electability, much like beauty, rests entirely within the eye of the beholder. There are a lot of reasons why I like Kamala Harris, or Elizabeth Warren, or Bernie Sanders, or many of the other Democratic nominees. There are even reasons why I see - even if I’m not necessarily persuaded by - the appeal in former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld, who is running as the other Republican candidate besides Trump. But what I see that is good in them might not matter as much to the person reading this article. Or they might see it more clearly in a different candidate altogether. But ultimately, no matter what this article or that article says on the Internet, we’re all going to vote for whoever speaks the most to us and to our individual values as Americans. 

The primaries are the best time to most closely evaluate what we individually prioritize - or perhaps, should prioritize - as voters. To educate ourselves on crucial matters such as healthcare, and job availability, and living wages, and inequality, and gun reform, and foreign policy, and a hundred other issues which will be affected by who we do or don’t choose to support in the upcoming elections. This is also the time for candidates and voters alike to stop focusing so heavily on all the nastiness being flung around like monkey shit from the moment the political ads start airing, and to instead focus in on what each candidate does promise to do. On how they swear to support the matters that will affect us all, and to practice the most basic compassion and humanity in governing and protecting the people that they are sworn to serve. Not to rule, not to oppress, but to serve and uplift in the positions of power which they have been granted by we, the people, the heart and the backbone of this nation.

There is no answer right now as to who is the perfect candidate to win this election. There are simply too many options and too many conflicting priorities which we all hold for there to be any one single answer. Now is the time for debate, and education, and opinion, and argument. Now is the time to get out on the streets and show support, and to give grassroots assistance in helping people learn about these issues, and know their voting rights, and get to the polls in order to enact their civic duty.

But later, once the list has gotten a little bit smaller, and eventually been narrowed down to the final candidates, as determined by the people?

That’s when it’ll be time to get the fuck over ourselves, and to do what we have to, to protect this country. 

That is when the perfect candidate to win this election will present themselves, because the one and only perfect candidate - no matter their individual flaws as a human or as a politician - will be the one who will take this country out of an age of tyranny and dictatorship from a blustering buffoon who delights in subjugation. Who will halt this backward sliding into a time where women had no control over what was done with and to their bodies. Who won’t support the presence of concentration camps for women and children in this country which not so long ago fought to destroy the very same practice in Germany. Who will uphold rather than reject the Constitution, and bring honor rather than mockery to the office and to this country. In short, whether we like the eventual presidential nominees or not, the perfect candidate will be the one to get Donald J. Trump the fuck out of our politics forever.