Endorsing

It has been a source of some irritation to me that no matter how often my church says that we don't endorse any political candidate or party, so many members are certain that only Republicans can be righteous.

Despite that, I have felt like the policy of not endorsing is good. Usually even though you have to choose a candidate, and there may be clear superiority between candidates, how many people who seek public office deserve a religious endorsement?

That being said, there may be a point to endorsing whoever is running against evil.

Again, this is where the inability to deal meaningfully with racism is a problem. We should not have been so vulnerable to Russia. We wouldn't have been if we had already dealt with the fact that our history is built on slavery and genocide, and that settler colonialism is not superior to the other kinds.

As long as we don't deal with that, we will not get it right. We will devalue people, and it won't just be people of color and and women and people with disabilities, because just like no amount of money is enough to satisfy greed, no amount of tyranny can ever be enough to satisfy a lust for power. If you don't deal with that, the other things you do to try and deal with the environment or economics or health care won't be enough.

That can be explored in much greater depth, but I am not doing it now.

What I mainly want to say is that the most important thing to me in any candidate is how they are on equality. Castro was head and shoulders above the rest.

I had previously written that Castro's support of Warren makes sense, but I did not actually say that she is my choice. I am saying that now.

And she is not good enough on race.

But she is better than the others. She is more thorough at policy, she has a more diverse staff, and I believe Castro can be a good influence.

Sanders cannot move beyond economic equality solving everything (it won't), and his us-versus-them populism feels comfortable for people who vote based on their racism, which he keeps excusing as economic anxiety. I wrote a fair amount about things that were wrong with him last time around, and I have seen no signs of improvement.

Biden still clearly believes every stereotype about Black people. If serving for eight years with Barack Obama hasn't enlightened him, I have no hope for him.

Buttigieg seems steeped in the same traditional racism as Biden, but less amiable. 

Yang is specifically attractive to white nationalists. I don't think it's intentional, but it's a problem.

I admit I have not spent enough time looking into Klobuchar; the main thing that sticks out are stories of mistreating employees. Some of that failure to research is due to doubt about her viability. Castro had similar viability issues, but he was so exemplary it was worth the fight.

I would vote for any of them over Trump. I would vote for Bloomberg or Steyer over Trump. But of what's left, I think Warren is the best.

Is that a ringing endorsement? Am I thrilled? No, but that's politics.

Especially when we fail to deal with structural racism.


Related posts: 

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2020/01/odds-and-ends-on-mlk-day.html