The Democratic Party’s Choice for President: The Digest’s endorsement

January 22, 2020 |

The first votes of the 2020 Presidential election season are due to be cast in Iowa in less than two weeks, and it is fitting that this farm state is where the journey towards Decision 2020 begins. Iowa touches all of us, as the epicenter of the world’s bioeconomy.

The bioeconomy is the source of every morsel we eat, is a part of almost every gallon of our fuel, a good portion of our electricity. It is the source of therapies for our health, a major portion of our building materials, feed for our animals, and an increasing amount of our packaging and clothing as the world turns towards sustainable solutions. Many of us live in rural or semi-rural areas, or visit for recreation or to see the natural wonders of our Republic.

Whether we live in a “fly-over state” or not, we all participate and depend on the bioeconomy for the materials of our lives. Sensibly using and protecting our natural resources and wonders makes dollars and makes sense.

No one left behind

In the bioeconomy, no one is left behind because we are all in it together, as producers, distributors, researchers, watchdogs, financiers, residents, visitors, or customers. And we are better together.

In the campaign so far, we have heard a stream of laudable ideals and aspirations, and now it is the people’s turn to decide which of these ideals will be prioritized, and how we will organize our legislature and government to translate ideals into actual laws, regulations and programs — or the rollback of any of those already in place that no longer fit our national agenda.

Consensus, after a season of words and a decade of conflict

We need “idealism without illusion”, as President John F. Kennedy once defined it. Where we need fundamental reform, let us have it; where we need continuation and stability, let us continue; where we need advancement, let us advance. But let us have consensus, after a season of words and a decade of conflict.

Leaders who advance our societies, when advancement is required — and Americans broadly agree on the need to advance, though the direction is often in question — are bold pragmatists. Which is to say, builders of consensus to do bold things well, and thoroughly. Not only to talk about where we might go, but to actually build the consensus that will take us there, and keep us there.

Senator Amy Klobuchar

For that task, there is no better leader we’ve seen on the Democratic side this season than Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who was the runaway winner in our most recent Digest Presidential Poll for 2020, and almost certainly, as we heard from readers, for that reason. She is an accomplisher, a winner.

Senator Amy Klobuchar

And, she’s someone who is going to spend her time translating our national goals into action, through good governance, shepherding good ideas through the legislative process, and protecting our nation in all the ways that count.

Over the past 10 years we have experienced government by the pen, and then the sword. One President signs a raft of decrees with the pen, the next President cuts down those decrees with the sword. And the cycle is repeated, because of a lack on consensus and compromise. Instead of stable legislation for the long term, administered fairly and in the spirit it was adopted, we have the search for loopholes, government by lurching, and an economy based on the scratching of heads and guessing as to what the government will do next. There is no Deeper State than the state which dominates the economy through the uncertainty imposed under government by decree and deeds without warning.

Senator Amy Klobuchar has been “the most productive senator among the Democratic field in terms of bills passed with bipartisan support’ according to the New York Times.

Her pragmatic proposals on health-care and infrastructure, her steadfast record in national defense, crime and immigration, are second to none. And, above all, her steadfast support for the bioeconomy, which binds all Americans together as stewards and users of our nation’s natural and renewable resources, is as impressive as it is convincing.

Something for all, as opposed to “everything for some”, or “everything for everyone”

She has the experience and a record that assures us that we know what we are getting, and what we will get is consensus and progress, and something for all. As opposed to “everything for some”, or “everything for everyone”, as we have heard too much in this political season.

The Democratic nominee will face President Trump in the fall. November is a long way away, and this autumn the voters must choose between two parties, rather than amongst candidates from a single party. That’s for then, this is now.

She has demonstrated her ability to win independents in the Midwest and to unite Democrats of all philosophies in a string of smashing electoral victories in her political career, Senator Klobuchar has shown that she is a winner, and for reasons that should be important to Democrats.

In the keynote address of the 1968 Republican Convention, Governor Dan Evans of Washington said:

“The first priority of the United States is the resolution of our internal conflict — the recognition that if we can’t unite our own nation, then we can’t preserve the hope of others. It is time now to reach inward — to reach down and touch the troubled spirit of America.”

“We have a long and serious agenda before us and no easy road to its accomplishment. The problems of environment, of congestion, of urban decay and rural stagnation did not suddenly occur; they are the residue of years — even of decades — in which we devoted too much of ourselves to size and quantity and too little to shape and quality.”

These words could have been written today.

Measured by this test, we believe that is one candidate running in the Democratic field that stands head and shoulders above the rest, to ensure that action is taken on the people’s program, action that is right, action that endures.

For the Democratic nomination for the Presidency, with great respect for the many candidates in the field and their experience and proposals, we endorse Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, and recommend her candidacy to our readers.

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