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How fortunes have turned!

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Many Americans have fallen in love with billionaires.  I don't know if it is because they like to believe some of that enormous fortune will trickle down to them, or if they imagine themselves rich one day and want the same tax breaks and other favors these billionaires get to live essentially rent-free in the state of their choice.

The number of politicians and pundits endorsing Bloomberg has continued to grow.  The former mayor of the Big Apple is joining Stacey Abrams at a voting rights event in Georgia, where one presumes he will formally receive her endorsement.  She is a rising star in the Democratic Party after her hard-fought campaign for governor of the state in 2018, which she narrowly lost.  Many wanted her to run against David Perdue for a Senate seat, but she deferred.  Bloomberg also recently picked up Sam Donaldson's vote of confidence, whatever that's worth these days.

Super Tuesday is shaping up to be boom or bust for Mike Bloomberg.  He has placed all his money on a big showing the first Tuesday in March, where 14 states, the territory of American Samoa and Democrats Abroad go to the polls to vote.  The biggest prizes are California and Texas, but a lot of Southern states will be voting where Bloomberg expects to do well.  He received the endorsement of the Alabama Democratic Party, led by Joe Reed.

It seems Black Democratic leaders, who initially favored Biden as the man who could beat Trump, are now laying their bets on Mayor Bloom.  It largely appears to be a case of pragmatics, as it is hard to believe there is much enthusiasm in supporting a guy who promoted the notorious stop and frisk law as Mayor of New York.  The same law that led to the death of Eric Garner in 2014 by strangulation.  The former mayor has since apologized, but this is very much akin to Clinton apologizing for his notorious crime bill, which Hillary had to pay the price for during her 2016 presidential run.  You can expect a very low Black voter turnout come next November if Mayor Bloomberg is the Democratic nominee for President.

You can probably expect a low Black and Hispanic voter turnout regardless, as none of the candidates have appealed very much to minorities in this country.  It's not like they haven't tried, but there is nothing in their political records to suggest any close affinity, as there was for Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.  This election will largely come down to white voters, unless somehow Bernie, Pete or Amy find a way to tap into this deeply frustrated minority electorate.

Even among white voters, you are not likely to see a huge turnout among Millennials if it is Bloom v. Trump on the ballot in November.  So far, the only candidate Millennials have really warmed up to is Bernie.  Some are beginning to look at Pete more closely, but for the most part it has been meh.  This means this election strongly favors Trump if the vote comes down to white people born before 1980.

What had seemed like a very promising election is devolving rapidly into one that looks very much like 2004.  With all this deflating energy, Democrats will have a hard time holding onto the House of Representatives, much less win the Senate despite the high number of Republican Senators up for re-election.  They need to do something quick to re-ignite the fire among their voting base, lest they find themselves stuck with a billionaire con man of their own to go up against the Man of Teflon.

I guess I will have to learn to play Plutocracy: The Game, as that appears to be where we are headed if Democrats actually think this pint-sized billionaire is the answer to Donald Trump.


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