Presidential Cocktails

Cory Booker, the candidate: Democratic New Jersey Senator Cory Booker has a fascinating biography and progressive credentials to spare. His campaign website is  here.  Before he was Senator, Booker was mayor of Newark, during which time he became famous for being the kinds of hands-on politician who shoveled snow off his constituents' driveways and once, amazingly,  rescued a woman from a burning building.  As a senator, Booker is renowned for his lofty, impassioned speeches and morality-based worldview. Given all of this, it's probably not surprising that the New Jersey Senator has a reputation for being something of a superman. Policy Positions Common sense criminal justice reform (Introduced as a piece of legislation called  The Next Step Act ): This is a sweeping proposal that would include such things as banning solitary confinement for juvenile offenders in federal facilities, sentencing reform, and prohibiting federal employers from asking...

Andrew Yang, the candidate: Like Marianne Williamson, Andrew Yang is not a politician. Yang has worked as a corporate lawyer and entrepreneur, and that, he argues, has provided him a unique vantage point to study and understand the economy. From his campaign  website: I’m Andrew Yang, and I’m running for President as a Democrat in 2020 because I fear for the future of our country. New technologies – robots, software, artificial intelligence – have already destroyed more than 4 million US jobs, and in the next 5-10 years, they will eliminate millions more. A third of all American workers are at risk of permanent unemployment. And this time, the jobs will not come back. Yang's fear for our economic future forms the basis for his big policy proposal: Universal Basic Income  (UBI) . Yang has positions on a large variety of other political and economic policies, but he is only truly running on UBI. He is proposing to give every American over the age of 18 ...

Bernie Sanders, the candidate: Yes, the Independent Senator from Vermont is once again running to be the Democratic nominee for President. . No, Senator Sanders is not a Democrat, but he has signed a pledge to govern as a Democrat should he win the nomination, and subsequent general election. Does his party affiliation matter? Well, yes and no. Sanders is an unapologetic progressive, and many of his policy positions mirror those of other candidates in the Democratic field. (Indeed, he is a cosponsor on some of their pieces of legislation, as they are on his.) However, I don't think the importance of party affiliation and party loyalty can be overstated in these hyper-partisan times.  All of this is to say, Bernie's running for president again, on the Democratic ticket.  Bernie Sanders was politically active as a young person in college, and after. He marched on Washington with Dr. King and fought for civil rights in Chicago and elsewhere. And the Independent Sena...

To begin, a non-comprehensive list of the people President Trump has engaged in Twitter feuds with since the 2016 election: Hillary Clinton Senator Ted Cruz Snoop Lion (then) Senator Jeff Flake Congressman Adam Schiff Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un Former FBI Director James Comey Former Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III The National Football League Various NFL football players Congresswoman Ilhan Omar Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Special Counsel Robert Mueller Former FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page The cast and crew of Saturday Night Live Arnold Schwarzenegger I could go on, but you get the point, right? POTUS has anger management issues, clearly, and, equally clearly, a Twitter problem. Honestly, if you had told me, back in April of 2010 when I joined Twitter (follow me:  @LiteraryGrrrl ) that the social media site would one day be a space of contention for Presidential politics AND a force fo...

Marianne Williamson, the candidate: Marianne Williamson is not a politician. Her background is in comparative religion, writing, and speaking on spirituality. She is therefore, as of the time that I write this, the least likely candidate among the large-and-growing field of Democratic 2020 hopefuls. But she doesn't shy away from telling you why she thinks she deserves your vote. Her campaign website gives you  the who, what, and why  of her candidacy. From the "why"section: What we most need now is a political visionary -- someone with a deep understanding of where we have been and where we need to be going. While car mechanics are important, they aren't necessarily the ones who know how to drive you to where you want to go. It is unreasonable to expect the mindset that drove us into the ditch, to be able to pull us out of it. It's not enough now to just know what's happening inside Washington; we need someone who also knows what's happening in...

Wayne Messam, the candidate: Meet Wayne Messam, democratic mayor of Miramar, Florida. Mayor Messam's presidential campaign can be summed up in one word: urgency. Like his slogan states, Messam believes change (political, cultural, ecological, economic) just cannot wait. From his  campaign website: The lack of urgency to plan for the future and take action on the crises we can see coming is the biggest threat facing our nation. As you read this note, the gun violence epidemic continues to take far too many lives, climate change damages more homes and devastates more communities each year, skyrocketing healthcare costs cut off many Americans from the possibility of their American Dream, and crippling student loan debt leaves people of all ages with little hope for the future. Washington is not working for the American people, and these big issues need fresh eyes and bold ideas from someone closer to the people, so our voice can be heard. Together, we can fundamentally...