Dear Friends,
Let’s be perfectly clear about one thing: Do NOT — repeat, DO NOT — for a moment think that Donald Trump can’t win re-election.
Admit it, you probably made that mistake in 2016. Most Democratic voters presumed Hillary Clinton couldn’t possibly lose. She did. Trump won, and America’s descent into an openly corporatist state has accelerated beyond what all but the most cynical among us thought possible.
Some of you will say, “Ed, stop being negative. If you’re critical of Biden, he’ll lose.”
Wrong. Biden will lose if we’re not open and honest about his shortcomings and work to address them. Again, I remind the reader of 2016, when biting our collective tongue regarding Hillary Clinton’s enthusiasm gap proved to be a colossal error in judgement.
Biden’s flaws aren’t going away, unfortunately. It’s not enough for him to simply be the anti-Trump. For Biden to win enough swing states, some key dominoes have to fall in place.
The most important of these is Biden’s choice of a running mate. The gaping hole in Biden’s must-win electorate universe is the progressive base — Democrats, independents, and non-voters who hunger for real change. Sorry to say, I’m already hearing from way too many who say they won’t vote for Biden. The best, perhaps only, way to change that is for Biden to choose a running mate who excites progressives.
There’s only one serious VP prospect on the horizon who fills that bill, and that’s Elizabeth Warren.
Along with Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard (before the Democratic Establishment and the corporate media tanked Gabbard’s campaign), Warren truly inspired early-state progressive voters. While she might not convince all disaffected Sanders and Gabbard voters to support Biden, she could fire-up enough of them to make a difference in Iowa and other swing states.
Warren excites progressives in large part because she’s got a solid track record showing she’s with us on policy. She’s also fantastic on the stump.
So, if you’ve got Joe Biden’s ear, please put in a word for Warren as VP. And while you’re at it, remind Joe that he owes me a game of pool.
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Check out this week’s Fallon Forum program:
EXPOSING THE CRACKS IN INDUSTRIAL AG’S UNSUSTAINABLE FACADE
(01:11) Bees: Industrial, small-scale, and wild (with Ben Hoksch of Ephemeral Midwest);
(17:17) Surveillance grows in response to COVID-19 (with Dimitri Tokmetzis of The Correspondent);(33:26) New Climate Era is bad news for major dams — and those who live downstream;
(48:30) Big Egg pecks away at Backyard Chicken (with Kathy Byrnes of Birds & Bees Urban Farm).
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Ed Fallon