Howard Schultz is driving the Democrats crazy
Third-party candidates just about always strike fear into one party more than the other, and it’s the party that figures it stands most to lose. In the case of candidate Howard Schultz, that’s the Democrats.
Schultz is (or was) basically a Democrat, although he knows they won’t nominate him and that has caused him to run as an Independent. Although until now he’s not been a politician, he reminds me in many ways of the sort of Democrat that used to be relatively common in my youth and early adulthood: a mostly moderate one who appreciates America and capitalism’s achievements. And although he’s not especially moderate on social issues, he’s moderate compared to much of the rest of the Democratic Party.
In more recent (although not so recent) years, Bill Clinton took a more moderate tack than much of the rest of the Party when he ran for president as a Democrat. That was part of his political genius; he realized that a Democrat candidate that was too far left wasn’t going to win back then. And he won, big time, although that was at least partly due to his considerable charm (you may disagree about the charm, but a lot of people were susceptible to in, and not just women whose pants he wanted to get into), and partly due to failings of the GOP candidates opposing him.
Steven Hayward of Powerline says this about Schultz’s candidacy and the Democrats:
But even if he can’t win, he might pull the Democratic nominee, whoever z/he is, toward the center. This might seem to risk losing progressive voters, but I’m guessing not much: the progressive left that is agitating for full socialism hates Trump so much that they’ll likely turn out no matter how weak they think the Democratic nominee is.
It is worth noting further just why Schultz is so unacceptable to today’s Democratic Party, with his plain and sensible talk about the debt, deficits, and the fantasy of Medicare-for-All. (By the way, how come nobody ever advocates Medicaid-for-All? Someone ought to ask. . .) Hang around a college campus as I do (so that you don’t have to), you soon discover that the au courant left doesn’t just hate Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and the ideas of Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek—they also hate Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. Say what?
Will Schultz pull the eventual Democratic nominee to the center? I don’t think so. I think the Democratic nominee will pull to the center in the general, however, but that’s because it always happens. Obama certainly did it, and not just in the general, because most extreme candidates want to hide their extremism until they are safely in office.
What passes for “center” to the Democrats these days, however, is a lot more left than it used to be. I don’t think that certain Democratic contenders can successfully do it, unlike Bill Clinton. Nor do I think most of them will even want to do it, because the Democratic Party has gone so far to the left and their extreme wing is so large and so extreme that pulling to the center really does risk having that large wing stay home.
[NOTE: By the way, Schultz (like Trump) is a New Yorker. Unlike Trump he’s Jewish, which is unusual for major candidates for president. The only one who comes to mind in recent years is Joe Lieberman. And we know what happened to him. Also, in the intervening years, the Democratic Party has become a home for a lot more anti-Semitic politicians that used to be the case.]
I’ll tell you one thing is he hated in Seattle. Which on first blush seems odd because he and Starbucks have created a lot of jobs and taxes and the like here but now he is not only hated by the left wing nuts because of his race and wealth but he also had a very bad run as owner of the Seattle NBA team and then sold it to out of town buyers who moved it to Oklahoma City. And then he lied and obfuscated about the whole thing for the last decade until he offered a half hearted apology in his new book.
Guess he’s going to be protested tonight here by people from all sides. I suppose you could call him uniter in some way for that.
He is far too sane for Democrats this year. He seemed pretty much a squish over the homeless/bathroom issue but he sounds better. I still think Harris will be the nominee and she will lose big unless the economy crashes, which Democrats will be trying to do.
Remember Bill Clinton would be an asterisk without Perot. Trump resembles Perot a lot in my opinion. He is just not crazy.
Yep, he’s way, way too sane.
Loves his country too much.
Is a very wealthy, self-made person…with less-than-desirable gender and racial characteristics.
Is respectful.
And grateful.
Oh, and he’s an unabashed Zionist. That is, he believes Israel should be able to exist. And defend itself.
To be sure, some may be forgiven having such, um, traits; but not most. And certainly not Schultz. He has far too much against him.
Sorry Howie. Don’t particularly like yer coffee but you sound like a terrific guy. (Of course—disclaimer—I’m not, and never was, a Sonics fan.)
[NOTE: By the way, Schultz (like Trump) is a New Yorker. Unlike Trump he’s Jewish, which is unusual for major candidates for president. The only one who comes to mind in recent years is Joe Lieberman. And we know what happened to him. Also, in the intervening years, the Democratic Party has become a home for a lot more anti-Semitic politicians that used to be the case.]
The German Jewish migration stream had a large contingent of affluent people by 1895 if not earlier and the Russian / Hapsburg stream had such as well by 1925. The first Jew to hold a cabinet position and the first to sit on the Supreme Court were appointed over a century ago. The first Jewish governor was elected in 1932. IIRC, there was a point a generation ago when Jews made up 9% of the U.S. Congress.
And, yet, there’s never been a consequential Jewish candidate for President. There have been precious few inconsequential candidates. (Joseph Lieberman, Arlen Specter, and Milton Shapp set up campaign committees and what not, but were ignored by voters).
(The closest you get to a Jewish presidential candidate would be John Kerry. See Andrew Greeley on people whose parentage is somewhat incongruous: the usual result is that the cultural influences are not mixed, but that one side dominates. In Kerry’s case, that would be his maternal-side (shabby blueblood) relations. Kerry’s paternal grandparents and great-uncle changed the family name ca. 1902 and it appears their children always used the name ‘Kerry’; it’s not clear anyone in John Kerry’s generation knew what the original family names were growing up).
Question? Why don’t Jewish politicians want this job?
Remember Bill Clinton would be an asterisk without Perot.
Cannot find the reference right now. Have seen social survey research which indicated that Perot drew about equally off the other candidates. About 65% of his support would have to have been drawn off Bush voters for his candidacy to have had a decisive effect on the outcome.
I still think that when there are more than 3 candidates under any one party banner, at least ONE of the debates should be a physical contest.
Wood-splitting. Arm-wrestling. WWE Cage match. Cook-off. Drag race. Something just for the cameras.
The way things are going with the Ds…might have to do that anyway.
Can you just see Biden & Warren in the octagon?
I do hope Schultz sticks around long enough to spend a bunch of his money & make trouble for the Ds…and bother the President a bit. It’ll be good blog fodder.
Speaking of Seattle and sports, I visited an old friend and his extended family there a few years ago, and I have never seen such a large group of people go completely bonkers over a sports team. In this case the Seahawks.
I was going to say, that Ross Perot was the spoiler in the 1992 election. Remember what killed his chances? A dirty tricks campaign against Ross’ daughter and nobody uncovered the trickster. Will Schultz play the Perot role in 2020?
Clinton didn’t just move to the center out of the blue. He lost and won campaigns in generally conservative Arkansas, then connected up with the Democrat Leadership Council which was the brainchild of Jewish moderate Dem. Al From.
Before Clinton’s election in ’92 and up through his inauguration, he strenuously promised a big middle class tax cut. A few weeks into his term he proposed a big middle class tax increase. Oops! I had no idea, he proclaimed. As if his people were unable to look up the budget stats at BLS.gov.
Some of what I’ve heard from Schultz sounds OK. He is against lavish new give-away programs. I was disappointed to hear him hammer Trump over the corp. tax cut, which I think is one of Trump’s signature achievements. Though in the world of edited sound bites, I haven’t heard why Schultz hated it. Maybe he’s a balance-the-budget guy.
The other shoe about to drop is whether Mike Bloomberg will enter the race as a Democrat. Kamala should be worried. Schultz has much more liquid cash than Trump, but Bloomberg maybe has much more than Schultz. Part of Bloomberg’s empire is a hard news network and some have speculated he may feel forced to sell it to avoid conflicts of interest.
Imagine a race with Bloomberg, Schultz, and Trump. Two Jewish guys and a third with a large Jewish footprint. The anti-Semite left would likely become unhinged.
January is not quite over, so it’s rather early for this sort of thing, the more usual announcements coming in the summer. But Mr. Schultz seems sincere enough, not the type who might be running just for vanity.
And it’s good for the system to have a variety of candidates, including outsiders to politics. As the former head of Starbucks, Howard Schultz is certainly qualified. Hopefully he can get an endorsement from pop singer Ariana Grande.
By the way, Schultz (like Trump) is a New Yorker. Unlike Trump he’s Jewish, which is unusual for major candidates for president.
im sure Trump has had more kosher meals than Schultz
“The only one who comes to mind in recent years is Joe Lieberman.”
Um, Bernie Sanders? Remember him? He’s not a religious or practicing Jew, but he’s Jewish, from Brooklyn originally
Imagine a race with Bloomberg, Schultz, and Trump. Two Jewish guys and a third with a large Jewish footprint. The anti-Semite left would likely become unhinged.
and guess who is the only one with Jewish grandchildren
I’m assuming Schultz actually does like America as it is & doesn’t want it to go off a cliff culturally & financially, which is where it’s going if Harris should win. He likely knows that the Dems will never be persuaded to move to the center, so his plan may be to play the spoiler to deny them the Oval Office.
My read of him is that he’s more of a liberal, than a leftist, and has more in common with Alan Dershowitz than he does Harris. There’s honor in taking one for the team (the team being America, not the Dems). Given his common sense remarks about the economy & his own background, he is likely to think that Prez Trump is performing his job pretty responsibly & may not be disappointed in helping him get a second term.
Dan D:
Good point. I had a feeling I was forgetting somebody.
Sanders is culturally Jewish but not observant, which is the case with many American Jews.
I think Magnus might just have the right of it.
Given Schultz and Bloomberg’s politics, i.e. lack of an resonating message with wide enough appeal, I don’t see either having any chance at all.
I know that was said of Trump but he did have a message that deeply resonated with the majority of Americans that were appalled at the idea of a Marxist Pres. Clinton. Appalled at the GOP’s broken promises…
I think the term is “Bat Shit Crazy”.
Art Deco on January 31, 2019 at 5:20 pm at 5:20 pm said:
Remember Bill Clinton would be an asterisk without Perot.
Cannot find the reference right now. Have seen social survey research which indicated that Perot drew about equally off the other candidates. About 65% of his support would have to have been drawn off Bush voters for his candidacy to have had a decisive effect on the outcome.
* * *
What matters is not the total vote Perot took from each candidate, but how much in each state.
He won no electoral votes, and only one state would have shifted (maybe) from Democrat to Republican if he hadn’t run.
I voted for Perot in Texas because I knew Bush would win there, and I wanted to demonstrate my displeasure with GHWB, but knew there was no danger that Clinton would carry the state.
Until we change the rules in the Constitution (or the “my state goes with the total popular vote” frenzy meets their triggering threshhold), each third-party challenger has to win on a state-by-state basis to make a difference.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/11/08/perot-seen-not-affecting-vote-outcome/27500538-cee8-4f4f-8e7f-f3ee9f2325d1/?utm_term=.712a5b874212
PEROT SEEN NOT AFFECTING VOTE OUTCOME
By E.J. Dionne Jr. November 8, 1992
I might have voted for Liebermann (I was not a solid Republican back in the day), but I couldn’t stand his running mate.
“In August 2000, Lieberman was selected as the nominee for Vice President of the United States by Al Gore, the Democratic Party nominee for President.”
I finally found the Schultz quote I had heard,
Well, he didn’t call them either liars or imbeciles, but suggested their proposals are something between unrealistic and ridiculous.
Um, Bernie Sanders? Remember him? He’s not a religious or practicing Jew, but he’s Jewish, from Brooklyn originally
Facepalm. Of course. My regrets.
Bernie is an outlier in all kinds of ways. His entire political career prior to 2015 was spent outside the two major parties. He was 74 years old in 2015. Other than Ron Paul, no one in the post-war period has succeeded at building a notable presidential candidacy at such an advanced age. (Paul was 76 in 2011 and 72 in 2007; Ronald Reagan was 73 in 1984, as was Robert Dole in 1996; John McCain was 72 in 2008; Donald Trump was 70 in 2016). He was 40 years old ‘ere he drew a salary from a political office; that’s not unusual among working politicians; what is unusual is that his entire work history prior to that was in hourly jobs. Bernie was the odd leftist who actually was of the working class.
You had the rag trade 3 generations back, but for some time It’s been quite unusual for Jews past a certain age to be found in hourly jobs, at least outside of New York and Miami. (He was also intergenerationally downwardly mobile, atypical among Jews of his vintage). He’s a man from the most urban ethnos, but has lived his adult life in Vermont, the most rural state, and one with few Jews when he arrived there in 1965. He was nearly 50 when he was first married. His wife is a gentile (atypical for a Jewish man of the 1941 cohort, though not rare), as is the mother of his only child.
The Dems were already crazy.