Why I Plan To Vote Down Ballot Only in 2020

I’ll get straight to the point. The 2020 Democratic primary sucks. In a little more than a year, the Democratic field went from being the most diverse and gender-balanced in United States history to being almost exclusively populated by white people. All of the participants in Wednesday’s Democratic debate were white and all but two were men. The fact that all but two of these white people are septuagenarians is even more depressing.

To make matters worse, the remaining candidates aren’t particularly good. Klobuchar’s appeal is limited to the Midwest. Klobuchar also seems unable to make inroads with black voters; her campaign will most likely flame out on Super Tuesday. Buttigieg, who is also struggling with diverse voters, doesn’t have nearly enough experience. Bloomberg has a troubling history of racism and misogynistic behavior. He is also seventy-eight years old — just like Bernie Sanders, the oldest candidate in the field. Sanders is a little more than a year older than Joe Biden, the former Vice President whose deluge of gaffes often leave prospective voters cringing with embarrassment. And Elizabeth Warren? She has a history of misrepresenting or obfuscating things (her ethnicity, her political affiliation, her family circumstances, etc.) and her many of her plans are unworkable.

If I lived in a swing state, I would be resigning myself to choosing the least problematic member of this particular bunch of candidates. But I don’t. I have lived in New York State — a state that no Republican presidential…