Not Bloomberg

Bloomberg is Wrong for Wisconsin

Votes here are not for sale.

Former Republican New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently announced that he is running for President of the United States in 2020……….. as a Democrat. 

Bloomberg is a self-made billionaire who has championed some liberal causes and many conservative ones throughout his political and business careers. He believes that he is the only one tough enough to take on Donald Trump in next year’s election. He is willing to spend millions of his own money to try and convince Democrats and disaffected Republicans that he is correct. 

Whether you agree with Bloomberg’s politics and policies or not, he is correct about one thing. The path to the presidency has to run through Wisconsin, a state Trump won in 2016. To solidify the point, Bloomberg rented office space in downtown Milwaukee and recently opened his first Wisconsin campaign office in the space. He plans to hire staff and spend lots of his money on television ads here to tell voters why they should vote for him. No mention yet on the scope and depth of a ground game to reach actual voters with his still undefined platform.

Moderate Republicans welcome Bloomberg to the field. He is one of their own or, at least, one they feel comfortable with, as he avoids the popular themes and plans put forth by many in the progressive wing of the Democratic party like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. He won’t seriously come after accumulated wealth to level the tax burden on working people if elected. 

Bloomberg has a lot of ground to make up on those who have been on the campaign trail longer. His massive TV ad buys here and across the nation have barely budged the Wisconsin polls. The best of the bunch gives him just about a 3 percent approval rating, placing him well back from those taking part in the televised debates and running grass-roots supported and funded campaigns.

Progressive Democrats here and across the nation have roundly criticized Bloomberg for trying to buy the election with his massive personal wealth and fear he will take moderate votes away from the populists running more grass roots efforts. I suspect he will hurt more moderate, centrist Democrats like former Vice-President Joe Biden, U. S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (Minn.) and Pete Buttigieg, Mayor of South Bend, Indiana. The best we can hope for is that a Bloomberg campaign will doom those closer to the center, clearing the way for a populist progressive to take the primaries and win the nomination at the DNC convention in Milwaukee this summer.

Progressive and even moderate Democrats take issue with Bloomberg’s controversial “stop and frisk” policy that turned New York City police officers loose to harass and detain “suspicious looking” people who just happened to be people whose skin tones were more than off-white. Even though Bloomberg has told the media his policy was a mistake in hindsight, he pushed it hard against all detractors while he was the Mayor of New York City and continued to defend it long after he left office. 

Bloomberg’s wealth and position conveniently allow him to avoid the cauldron of the debates where ideas, policies and positions get the scrutiny they deserve and candidate’s ability to defend their proposals is publicly tested. A self-funded campaign does not have to measure success like a grass-roots campaign with millions of supporters does. Bloomberg only has to answer to himself, not the people whose money supports the policies and proposals of the progressives. 

We have already witnessed what so-called “self-made” wealthy people do when elected in rigged elections bought and paid for with personal wealth. We don’t need a Democratic Donald Trump who says things people want to hear in order to secure their votes and then does just what he pleases afterwards. We don’t need another wealthy politician whose wealth and claimed business acumen are pushed as the solution to the problems facing our government and a deeply divided country.

Michael Bloomberg demonstrates the fear and arrogance driving many of those who have amassed great personal wealth. They took advantage of the trickle down, continually lower taxes political strategies championed by the GOP politicans they help to maintain power in Washington and Wisconsin. They fear their gravy train will be stopped by a reformist progressive led government and believe that only they have the right to hold the keys to the city. 

I’m not one to make New Year’s resolutions, but this New Year I will make an exception. My resolution is to work to sweep these old guard folks from the halls of government and put working people and a vibrant middle class first by electing a progressive, grass roots supported candidate with a proven track record of standing up for them.