[Benjamin F. Alexander]

I just got an email from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) where recipients were asked to vote for who should be Biden’s running mate. Now there’s nothing scientific about this method of data gathering, of course, and one might ask why it’s the DSCC that’s conducting this “poll,” but what’s most interesting to me is that the mailing includes a photo gallery of ten women, which gives me the distinct impression that Biden has it narrowed down to the ones on this list. (He’s made it clear that his running mate will be a woman.)

As a service to you, I’ve hammered out the list along with a few descriptive words on each of them. It wasn’t in alphabetical order in the email, but I have alphabetized them. Also, for no reason other than that race is prominent in all discussion of who Biden’s running mate should be (especially when Amy Klobuchar withdrew from consideration on the grounds that she thinks the choice should be a woman of color), I’m including the racial classifications. You can, of course, Google all of these names for more information, and please let me know if you find inaccuracies that I need to correct, as I did hammer this out in a hurry.

Here’s the list. Your thoughts, if you feel like sharing?

STACEY ABRAMS: Former speaker of the Georgia state house, ran for governor of Georgia, voting rights activist. She’s black.

TAMMY BALDWIN: U.S. senator from Wisconsin. Openly lesbian. She’s white.

VAL DEMINGS: U.S. representative from Florida, former law enforcement officer. She’s black.

TAMMY DUCKWORTH: U.S. senator from Illinois, former lieutenant colonel, served in Iraq where she lost both of her legs. She’s Asian American.

MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM: Governor of New Mexico. She’s Latinex.

KAMALA HARRIS: U.S. senator from California, former attorney general of California, ran for president in this year’s primary. She’s black.

KEISHA LANCE-BOTTOMS: Mayor of Atlanta, gained national prominence in responding to protests over the killing of George Floyd. She’s black.

SUSAN RICE: Served as national security advisor and ambassador to the UN under President Obama. She’s black.

ELIZABETH WARREN: U.S. senator from Massachusetts, ran for president in this year’s primary. She’s white.

GRETCHEN WHITMER: Governor of Michigan, delivered Democratic response to Trump’s 2020 State of the Union address, in the news this year for defending her stay-at-home order in the state. She’s white.

P.S. In recent days, I’ve gotten the sense that Biden is leaning toward Kamala Harris and is using the media to test-market the idea. Previously, it seemed as if the choice was likely to be Stacey Abrams–and it still might very well be.

[Aaron Arroyo]

You know, this is actually playing to some conservative conspiracy theory (which I do not believe, by the way). I’ll share it.

So, a while ago, Conservative Radio c̶o̶m̶e̶d̶i̶a̶n̶ host Alex Jones peddled a conspiracy theory that Biden was going to select (or rather, be given) a female to be his Vice President. The conspiracy that Mr. Jones said was that, IF Biden won, the administration would invoke the 25th amendment, arguing that Biden is too unfit to hold the highest office in the land (In my personal opinion, he is unfit as I believe he has dementia). Mr. Jones argued that this was done for the sake of social justice, and to put a woman – no matter how competent or qualified – in the highest office in the land, making her the first Female President. He then went on to rant about how this would lead to a “New World Order”, and you know, the usual conspiracy thing. It’s also worth mentioning that this was during a time where many believed that Biden’s vice president was going to be none other than Hillary Rodham Clinton. As someone who listens to Alex Jones (only ironically, for laughs), one would be very familiar with Alex Jones’ infinite rage against her, going so far as to calling her a demon, witch, etc.

Now, that being said, I have no issue with a female VP or president for that matter. So long as the person in charge has the qualifications to do so, I could care less for who they are physically. They could be a giraffe for all I care.

[Benjamin F. Alexander]

This is interesting, Mr. Arroyo, and it’s good to hear from you. I appreciate the insights, since I don’t have the endurance to inflict Alex Jones’s big mouth on myself; I can barely force myself to listen to Trump, and when it’s for any length of time I need some good red wine to be flowing copiously into my system. Be that as it may, for a number of reasons the market for conspiracy theories seems to have expanded during the last few decades, and otherwise intelligent and rational people seem to get drawn in. Believing certain narratives seems to fill profound psychological needs in people; they seem to need to feel that everything they hold sacred is under siege and that they themselves are members of a righteous crusade to defend their country and their society against it. And they use the language of this crusade to fight against political opinions that they might, under other circumstances, have some willingness to find partial common ground with.

What I find most significant about the narrative you describe here is that it’s all about bringing America under a world dictatorship. I would point out that a lot of what we’re seeing today in the Trump era is the exaggerated version of what we have when things are normal. When things are normal, Republicans accuse Democrats of being socialists, and socialism in this narrative means dictatorial socialism, or communism. But a lot of people take that rhetoric more seriously in the present era than they do when things are normal. What’s more, Trump himself plays to it in his rallies. In his current rallies (which I daresay would not be happening at all if Trump were anything resembling a responsible adult), he gets his base fired up about how the Democrats are really the “radical left” who have all kinds of despotic designs that he alone can keep them safe from. Trump doesn’t limit himself to the Alex Jones crowd, by any means, but he certainly includes them under his tent.