Arturo Samaniego
Managing Editor
Like an all you can eat buffet, the Democratic primary has provided voters with a variety of options; but like a patron of a buffet, you may find yourself asking — are any of these options actually good?
The answer will vary depending on your political ideology, but for the most part voters can expect to find a candidate that suits their particular taste. With that said, some candidates outshine others in regards to policy, authenticity, and ideology, while others fall flat on all fronts.
Like any buffet, there are certain dishes that will catch your eye over others, and in this Democratic primary, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Bernie Sanders, and former Vice President Joe Biden are the crème of the crop. So which one is the best?
Warren, without a doubt, is the best candidate to emerge out of this crowded primary field. She has received a lot of flak concerning the feasibility of her plans. Still, she is the candidate that has best expressed a vision to restore the middle class in America and has provided detailed plans on how she would go about doing it.
To start off, Warren has provided a detailed plan to address the disparity between the richest American households and average income households when it comes to paying taxes.
As stated on her website, “the families in the top 0.1% are projected to owe 3.2% of their wealth in federal, state, and local taxes this year, while the bottom 99% are projected to owe 7.2%.”
To address this issue, Warren has proposed an Ultra-Millionaire Tax that would tax individuals two percent on every dollar of net worth above $50 million, and three percent on every dollar above $1 billion.
This is just one example of Warren’s meticulous policy proposals that seeks to transform the nation for the better of middle and lower income Americans.
In concerns to authenticity many will ride off Warren as a phony, especially for her use of DNA testing to claims of having Native American ancestry. This without a doubt was a drastic misstep on Warren’s part, but she has since gone on to apologize for the incident.
The next best option on the table if Warren is not to your liking is Senator Sanders. The Senator has proven his worthiness to lead the Democratic Party to victory in 2020, just by the fact that he has radically transformed the party in the last few years.
Where once Democrats triangulated on policy and legislation, being overtly ready to compromise liberal and progressive values for the sake of reaching deals with conservatives. Now, thanks to Sanders, they are waging hard press battles on a variety of issues from climate change to DACA.
The hard turn towards progressive and liberal values the party has undergone in the past few years should be credited to Sanders, and his 2016 presidential campaign that showed what were once thought to be fringe liberal policy positions as actually quite popular with the public.
Already this primary cycle, Sanders has gotten his opponents to adopt his stances or mimic them. This is seen in how an assortment of candidates now support Medicare for All, or have gone on to craft similar plans. Sanders has shown that progressivism and liberalism is not yet dead in this nation, and for that deserves some consideration for the democratic nomination.
Of the top tier candidates, the least worthy of consideration is Biden. Biden does deserve praise for the years he faithfully spent serving as Obama’s V.P. He helped get important legislation and reforms passed and implemented, such as pushing college campuses to implement stronger policies regarding Title IX.
At the same time a look at his overall record from his years in public service casts doubt if he is the right person to hold the presidency. From his early years in the Senate where he opposed busing as a means of desegregating schools to his later support for the Iraq war, Biden has often supported positions that were popular at the time, but proved short-sighted in the long term.
Democrats need a nominee who is willing to advocate for positions not because they are popular, but because they are right.
Though there are still many democratic candidates voters can choose from, these three at the moment are the most likely to face off against Trump in 2020. When choosing a candidate to support for 2020, you should not just consider electability, but also what vision and policies they will provide for the country over the next four years.