Well, now that Kamala Harris is out of the race, Michael Bloomberg is technically “in the top 5” of Democratic candidates…and a deal is a deal, I’ll now talk a little bit about what an extremely-unlikely Michael Bloomberg Presidency would look like…
–No surprise, the “Great Bi-Partisan Dream” Does Not Materialize. The single biggest selling point of a Michael Bloomberg presidency—that as a former Republican turned independent turned Democrat, he is uniquely poised to get Bi-Partisan consensus on things—is also it’s biggest delusion. I’ve been looking at the comments in Trumpland (conservative twitter, Breitbart comments section, YAHOO comments section) and it doesn’t appear they’re making any distinction between Michael Bloomberg and Bernie Sanders. In their mind, anyone running as a Democrat is a full-blown Communist. Hell, anyone running besides Trump is the second coming of Fidel Castro–ironic, since Trump personally has a very cozy relationship with Communist leaders.
Their brains seem to be short-circuiting to only two options “What is good for Trump,” and “what is bad for Trump.” So they’re treating Bloomberg’s arrival as a good thing for Trump–since they believe he’ll split the Joe Biden vote, and make Warren the nominee. And since Bloomberg has already spent more than 120 million dollars just to get to a distant 5th place, that may reveal that the most hated place in America is the political center. After all, the only thing both parties agreed on in 2019 was that Howard Schultz should most definitely not run as an independent.
—American foreign policy stays largely as is. Bloomberg will not rock the boat with American allies like Saudi Arabia or Israel (something Bernie wants to do) nor pull out of the Middle East completely (something Warren wants to do) nor build a warmer relationship with Iran (something most Democrats want to do) nor hammer China on anything (as recently as September he said Xi Jinping isn’t a dictator and “listens to people” on issues) nor go after Russia (something most Democrats want to do) nor personally blow Vladimir Putin (something Trump wants to do).
When you go to Bloomberg’s website, it says nothing about what he would like to do on foreign policy (a recurring theme on most issues) and only what he’s already done: which focuses on passing climate change legislation in some of the world’s biggest cities. …I mean, if he has foreign policy priorities he’s hoping for other than climate change agreements (like the Paris Climate Accord), maybe he’d like to share them at some point?
–Guns and Climate would get top priority. On Bloomberg’s website, it’s very light on specifics for most major issues (and he’s shown no interest in wanting to participate in debates to clarify some of his stances), but I do think it’s safe to say climate change and gun control are his top priorities. Climate change is hugely important and gun control less so. To me, the amount of attention Bloomberg and people like Beto (who’s already had to drop out of the race) have put on gun control is Quixotic at a time when America is facing so many bigger challenges. “Well, it’s estimated that a third of the country has unclean drinking water and is being slowly poisoned to death with ‘forever chemicals’ that will also poison their genes so their kids will have health problems–BUT guns scare me! Let’s prioritize 10,000 gun murders a year over 100 million slow-moving chemical deaths that will have ripple effects for generations.”
–Don’t expect big changes on income inequality, healthcare, unaffordable housing, student loans, unaffordable colleges, or really anything economically progressive. It’s exciting that Bloomberg seems interested in data and using pragmatic solutions, but I’m increasingly skeptical that all that data he seems hell-bent on using isn’t pointing him towards a gigantic red neon sign that says “Income Inequality and a completely unregulated corporate sphere is causing most problems in America, including the pollution that exacerbates climate change.”
Supposedly, Bloomberg is only running for President because he’s terrified Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders will be the nominee. And if you believe Donald Trump is a dangerous lunatic (as he’s said many times) but Elizabeth Warren is equally bad for wanting to tax his wealth at 2%…then you kind-of are the problem. The amount of money Bloomberg will spend to become President will likely be less than the 2% Warren would tax him, but to guys like Bloomberg taxes are intolerable whereas becoming President is something he wants to do. Either way, Bloomberg wasn’t an economically progressive mayor at all, and NYC income inequality grew to staggering proportions under him–making Manhattan nearly unaffordable for anyone making less than six figures.
Overall: A Bloomberg Presidency’s most exciting features (data-driven solutions, and bi-partisan pragmatism) also seem like things that aren’t actually happening, as Bloomberg’s personal ideology may be clouding what his actual data is telling him. It’s tough to actually get excited about this when Pete Buttigieg is younger, poorer, more electable, and possibly more sincere in actually helping people, and definitely understands foreign policy better. [Not only is Bloomberg too soft on China, he was an adamant backer of the Iraq War; too soft on China and too focused on the Middle East sounds exactly like what’s NOT working with American foreign policy]. Excitement Level For a Bloomberg Presidency: C-