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Channeling Rationality and Emotion in the 2020 Election.
There’s a place for both, but balance is key.
The 2016 election was telling in a multitude of ways. Whether it be the ability of an old social democrat like Bernie Sanders to appeal to the raw frustrations of young people in particular, or the economic desperation and fear of the other that culminated in to the rise of Donald Trump, we certainly learned a lot about the pulse of the country. But perhaps the most important thing we learned from this election was the clear and ever growing divide between the more moderate wing of the Democratic Party, and the rising new blood that’s definitely further left leaning.
In my view, part of what further exacerbated this divide was what felt like almost complete and total disregard of this leftist wing of the party among Hillary Clinton’s campaign. One of the clearest indicators of this was her selection of Tim Kaine of all people as her choice for Vice President. Rather than choose someone who might be more appealing to the left, she chose to appeal to the right instead. There is absolutely no denying how deeply frustrated and discouraged people felt, and I would argue that a lot of the resentment towards the establishment that she represented was due to the constant drum beat that we needed to just bow our heads and fall in line.
