Considering how little real news the Trump administration has generated, President Donald Trump has done little to nothing about the mainstream media besides calling mainstream media sources the “enemies of the people” and holding a circus-like press conference. Therefore, I would like to directly address all news sources about their coverage of the future 2020 presidential race.
Just stop. I honestly cannot even fathom why you are wasting your time and resources on a race that is four years away. Even the less interesting 2018 midterm election is too far away to begin covering. I frequently see articles about the crumbling Democratic party and who will unite the party when the presidential race begins. There are already polls being conducted about the 2020 election. Stop forecasting a race that is four years away when you couldn’t even predict an election a day away — do some soul searching.
Consider this — if you told someone in 2004 that Barack Obama would beat Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary, they would have laughed at you. If you told someone in 2012 that Clinton would lose to Trump in the general election, they would have institutionalized you. So please, just stop.
An article from Politico titled “Hillary Clinton Is Running Again” caused me to cringe. I was a Clinton primary voter (yes, some millennials did not vote for Bernie Sanders), but Clinton needs to escape from national politics. Run for governor, mayor or president of a Bingo club. I don’t care which, just not the president of the United States. But I’m pretty sure Clinton already knows this.
It does not help that Trump has already held a campaign rally for the 2020 election. But while it technically was one, it was really more of a pick-me-up rally. His ego has been a bit damaged, so he needed some people to cheer for him. Poor Donald.
Business Insider even published an article about the opposition research Trump has begun on potential Democratic challengers. The article posts odds on Paddy Power about who will win that election. Trump has 6:4 odds, Joe Biden 18:1 and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson 100:1. My money is on The Rock. He was my favorite fake wrestler when I was six years old.
Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post, an astute political observer, wrote a column in which he agrees with the National Journal’s Josh Kraushaar that Al Franken would be the best candidate against Trump. Franken is a two-term senator from the blue-collar state of Minnesota. He has a celebrity/comedic status because he was on “Saturday Night Live,” so he has an outsider feel. He is the perfect person if you threw an algorithm together to determine who should be the Democratic nominee. However, using algorithms to get votes is exactly the problem.
No one knows where the populace will be in regards to Trump in four years, two years, one year or even next week. Trump is the most unstable, dynamic president ever with a Congress that is ready to back at least part of his agenda. Articles about whether the Democratic party should move to the left, the center or Canada are ridiculous. Democrats need a clearer, fresher message. It really doesn’t matter what part of the left spectrum it belongs to. People don’t vote based on cold-hard facts learned through 500-word policy briefs. People vote based on whether they think if the candidate will fight for their pocketbooks and values.
The press needs to focus on issues; their job isn’t in the forecasting field. Explain the Affordable Care Act to people, explain tax policy but don’t explain why Elizabeth Warren shouldn’t run in 2020.
