Pictured above are some of the people hoping to gain the Democratic Party nomination for the Presidential election in November 2020. Primary elections throughout the country, followed by a national Democratic convention beginning July 13 in Wisconsin, will determine which of them actually runs against the Republican candidate. Presumably that will be Donald Trump again, but who really knows.
I read two national newspapers every day, The New York Times and the Washington Post. Each one has comprehensive coverage of the various campaigns and reserves its own positions for the editorial page. Despite being maligned as “fake news,” each adheres to what I have known throughout my life as journalistic standards. They are a refreshing change from cable news programs which are designed to entertain as much as to inform.
I have always tried to keep informed on the candidates and the issues. As a lifelong Democrat, I have much to consider. I thought I was veering towards one particular candidate. But the Washington Post ran an interesting quiz yesterday with ten questions about where I stood on issues ranging from health care to trade agreements. After answering the queries, the paper told me which candidates must closely matched my views.
And it turns out that I, like so many other Americans, had been choosing with my emotions not my positions. I have a near match with two candidates and am far removed from a couple I was leaning towards. In our very heated and partisan political scene, I had been swept along with image, photo ops and slogans. I owe it to myself and to my citizenship to pay more attention to what really matters. The issues, not the personalities.
Saved By Words 
I no longer trust any of our newspapers to tell the whole truth, or to be impartial.
Sadly the BBC, always a bastion of impartial reporting, is rapidly going downhill.
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That is very disappointing to hear.
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Good luck on the new election Elizabeth. Here we have until 2022, hopefully by that time, Filipinos have already realized that the present administration is not even worth reconsidering at all 😦
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I hope the election can be more honest for you in 2022.
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Praying on it Elizabeth🙏🙏🙏
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Over here, it has been reported that it will be either Warren or Biden. Because of the Clinton fiasco in 2016, it seems doubtful that they will choose a female candidate. So it will likely be Biden, and he is equally likely to lose against Trump.
I don’t know enough to know if that speculation is accurate.
Good luck, Elizabeth. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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No one really knows at this point. Sadly I think Biden’s name has been dragged through the mud by Trump even though he didn’t do anything wrong.
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I agree that issues are important but I tend to vote based on the integrity, intelligence, heart and leadership that I see in a candidate. It will be interesting to see how things progress in the next year.
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I agree with those values, but this year it seemed that many passed those tests for me. That was why I explored the issues more fully.
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Makes sense. As the election draws closer I will delve more deeply into the issues. Thanks for your thoughtful post.
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You are welcome. I am trying to stay away from screaming and turning to thoughtful reflections instead.
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Well said.
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I got two candidates – was not surprised by one of them but a little more surprised by the other.
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My husband said that I had always liked the two that came up. I guess I had been distracted in the meantime.
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Tonight was the first debate I watched from start to finish. I thought that several of the candidates did well, although it must be frustrating for them when there are ten candidates and not much time to get your message out.
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We have great choices. I am sad that we won’t know the final candidate until a few months before the general election. Trump gets quite a head start.
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Here many vote for the party . They do not mind who the candidate is. But I cannot do that. I vote for independent candidates. I don’t know how it is in your country. Here some candidates do not belong to any party. Usually they do not win. But I don’t want to waste my vote. But if I think a candidate is good I don’t mind to which party they belong. But at the end of the day all politicians are the same.
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Here there are several parties, but mainly just two big ones Republican and Democrat. I agree with you on voting for the candidate. In this case, however, I will vote for whoever the Democratic Party puts forward to beat Trump. Some politicians are more corrupt than others in my opinion.
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I consider myself an independent as well, voting for the candidate rather than the party.
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