Remember that film “No Country for Old Men”? Well, this isn’t that.
Just when you thought Bernie Sanders was the second coming of, well, Bernie Sanders, “Uncle Joe” — as one of my sisters calls former Vice President Joe Biden — came roaring back. Now no matter who gets the Democratic presidential nomination, the presidential contest will be between two old white guys and, if it’s between Sanders and President Donald J. Trump, two grumpy old men with an enormous sense of grievance and my-way-or-the-highway entitlement. (They’re like the relatives you have to tolerate on holidays and then pray they don’t say anything politically incorrect.)
And what of the not-so-grumpy, younger women in the race? Sen. Kamala Harris’ campaign was a hot mess, and reports of the uncharismatic Sen Amy Klobuchar’s suggested she treats her staff with less than the affability she shows to the world. But Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s withdrawal from the presidential race hurt. Here was someone who was passionate and knowledgeable — progressive, yes, but pragmatic. Sure, she made mistakes — the Indian heritage thing, the Medicare flip-flop — but these were nothing compared to what the strongmen who are running the world are doing. They are destroying this planet.
Syria’s Bashar Hafez al-Assad? He’s killing his people. Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro? He’s starving his. Iran’s leaders? Their people distrust them so much that they’re skeptical of everything they say, a disaster as the coronavirus riddles their country. Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan? He’s only interested in getting the Syrian refugees out of his country and into Europe. The neighboring Greeks? They’re beating back the refugees. Meanwhile, in the U.S., Trump has taken his usual narcissistic approach to the coronavirus crisis, more concerned with its effect on his presidency and the stock market than he is with the havoc it will wreak on public health.
This is what men have wrought. But I guess the country and the world isn’t bad enough to give a woman a chance at running the free world. (Why is that? Why can’t America elect a woman at the top of the ticket? Is it because they’re not good enough? Because we’re acclimated to think of women in support? Or is it because women themselves are unwilling to embrace the risk-taking and single-mindedness that have gotten men to the top?)
Whether it’s Biden or Sanders — and please, God, let it be Biden — he’s going to have to pick a woman for a running mate. Sanders, who doesn’t have the black vote, should consider Georgia’s capable, dynamic Stacey Abrams. Biden would do well to shore up the progressives with Warren as his second.
This may not be what many women wanted. But we’ve always been good at taking progress one step at a time.