WHICH BEST SERVES — PRINCIPLE OR PRACTICALITY?

By Edwin Cooney

The answer to that question is simple. Both principle and practicality are essential to every successful political campaign. Just two weeks ago, I observed the following regarding the present political climate: I don't like to write this, let alone think it, but I'm almost sure that Michael Bloomberg will be the Democratic candidate. He and President Trump will ultimately square off for the big prize. That was a statement of practicality more than it was a prediction of how this election should or will come out.

Although political junkies of all stripes and levels of sophistication insist that every presidential election is both reflective of our past as well as crucial to our future, not every presidential election is a matter of practicality versus principle. Occasionally, the question of principle versus practicality is different for each party during the same election.

Like the educator Christopher Hedges, some people would insist that the spontaneous and nearly simultaneous withdrawal from the Democratic "lists" indicates oligarchical type planning, since the departure of candidates Warren, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, and Bloomberg are thought by many as indicative of oligarchical behavior. (An oligarchy exists when the rich are fully in control of a country's body politic.) I'm not convinced that we're there as yet because, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, the decisions by Warren, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, and Bloomberg were simultaneous rather than being the result of coercive political pressure. Elizabeth Warren's refusal to endorse Joe Biden is a further indication that there remains considerable viability in our free system of government.

As for Messrs Biden and Sanders, they will now be measured by their conduct and the choices they make.

I have considerable respect for the principles and even the person of Bernie Sanders. However, it is vital that his supporters keep two things in mind. Bernie Sanders is seeking the nomination of a party he has refused to join. Second, even if he were a lifelong Democrat, he would not be automatically entitled to the nomination any more than Joe Biden. There's nothing new about a party's rejection of a "Johnny come lately."

Back in the fall of 1973 when President Nixon was looking to replace the recently resigned Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, the president was warned by both Republicans and Democrats on Capital Hill not to send them the name of John B. Connally whom it was well known he favored for the vice presidency. Connally had only been a Republican since the January 22, 1973 death of former President Lyndon B. Johnson. You’ll perhaps recall that Connally was an old Lyndon B. Johnson Democratic crony who was sitting in front of President John F. Kennedy at that fateful moment on Friday, November 22nd, 1963. Connally was wounded, but survived to serve as Texas's governor through 1968. By 1970, he was Secretary of the Treasury in Richard Nixon's administration.  To 1973 Republicans, Connally was regarded as an opportunist: conservative in comparison to LBJ, but hardly a genuine Republican conservative. As for the Democrats, Mr. Connally was a "turncoat." Nor was former Republican New York City Mayor John V. Lindsay welcome a year earlier when he tried to run for the Democratic presidential nomination in the spring of 1972.

It's my understanding that in 2016, Senator Sanders insisted that a candidate with merely a plurality of the delegates was not entitled to party preferment. I'm told that in 2020, Senator Sanders has had a change of heart on that issue! However, that's just plain situational politics. Up to this point, Bernie hasn't demonstrated that he's much of a politician. That's not good news when one seeks a political office of the magnitude of the presidency.

Here's a very brief review of instances of principle verses practicality during an election year.

In 1964, the GOP was more principle than practical as the party sought to be more of a conservative western-oriented party by substituting the eastern establishment with Arizona's Senator Barry Goldwater. Their slogan was "a choice, not an echo.” Just four years later, 1968 Republicans leaned more toward the center after their 1964 drubbing by LBJ. By 1988, the Republicans again sought to move ever so slightly to the center from the Reagan right via George H. W. Bush's thousand points of enlightened conservative light. In 2008, Barack Obama's "yes we can" slogan was an appeal for principled change. As for 2016, a new era of GOP populism which was more practical than principle carried Donald Trump to an eyelash victory over the non issue-oriented Hillary Clinton candidacy. In 2016, identity politics had replaced principled public service-oriented Democratic leadership.

Due primarily to his advanced age, Joe Biden needs to clearly demonstrate that he's capable of handling the presidency. Perhaps too many voters aren't sure he can. That is a question of practicality rather than principle.

Finally, I'm convinced that the most powerful and principled Democratic tickets would be as follows: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris or Bernie Sanders and Amy Klovuchar. These tickets would nicely balance political principles and the age factor as well as geographic balance and appeal.

Back in 1936, FDR rightly asserted that he was the major issue in that campaign. In 2020, President Donald John Trump is definitely the issue. The difference, as I see it, is that FDR's persona was more about national direction and purpose, where as President Trump's persona has more to do with his personal willfulness than it does with our national well-being!

Candidates Buttigieg, Klovuchar, Warren, and Bloomberg chose public service over ego this week. By so doing, they demonstrated principle, practicality, and, even more, just good old American citizenship! 

As for the question of practicality and principle, if a candidate is impractical enough not to define his or her principles, that candidate’s opponents along with the voters are likely to define them. Once that happens, there’s little light at the end of a long political tunnel for such a candidate!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY