If the greatest nation in the history can only produce Sanders, Biden and Trump as Presidential candidates, then America’s democracy is seriously flawed.
Presumably the Democrats won’t be mad enough to cause a Trumpian landslide by selecting unelectable Bernie.
That leaves boring Biden whose sole credential is not being Trump. That’s not without merit but one must marvel that it’s come to this. In fairness, we make the same complaint here in New Zealand, especially about our local government candidates.
The explanation is simple. In the pre-market economy age everyone enjoyed more leisure time thus competent people put their hand up for public office. But the opportunities the market economy offer goers are so compelling, such folk are fully pre-occupied. Add the pressures of competition forcing the goers to stay focused to succeed.
So the pursuit of public office is increasingly the domain of non-descripts, opportunistically filling the void.
A further deterring factor is the contemporary no-holds barred raucous media, and social media in particular, relentless personal abuse and criticism. Trivial harmless remarks are blown out of proportion and misinterpreted while candidates are viewed as fair game by all and sundry to be insulted and vilified.
So we end up with the likes of Biden and Trump, neither who could win the mayoralty of say, Masterton if they were eligible.
Absurd though it is, given his emptiness, Biden could win as sensible Republican voters would feel comfortable knowing a Biden Presidency would be a bureaucrats administration and unlike Trump, he’d bow to their expertise.
Trump’s intuition evidently tells him that thus his disgraceful Ukrainian endeavours and speaking up for Sanders.
In short, if utterly innocuous, Biden may be the man for the main task, namely restoring dignity to the world’s most powerful public office. It was that rationale that saw otherwise dull Jimmy Carter gain the Presidency.