Thought: the Democrat candidate in 2020 will be judged more by the process used to select her or him than their personal qualities. Hillary suffered from a perception of being presumptive anointed candidate of hidden crony powers.
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The democratic nomination *process* will be up against incumbent GOP *product*. If it’s not seen to have more legitimacy both inside/outside party than 2016 GOP primaries, they’ll lose. In 2016, GOP process was perceived as more honest since it rejected Jeb, the GOP’s Clinton.
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So if the process is seen as a cleansing reform, sweeping away Clinton-Obama cronyism, just about any of them could beat Trump. If it’s seen as ye olde party machine, none of them can. Even if saintly at a personal level.
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Americans are deontologists, not consequentialists. They’d rather go to hell by a process they see as ethical/fair than have their lives saved by a process they see as corrupt. Process utopians.
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This is why has emerged as queen maker. If she doesn’t declare the process suitably party-soul cleansing with not just due process audit but with signs of grace almost, it’ll be judged corrupt.
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