A Modern Team of Rivals

If you haven’t read the excellent Doris Kearns Goodwin book (“A Team of Rivals”) about Lincoln and his cabinet, there are some great lessons and even a little hope for our next election cycle in 2020. Add it to your list now, I’ll wait.

At it’s core is the rather quaint notion that instead of using cabinet nominations as a means of repaying political debt, to actually fill those roles with the best people for the job — whether they want to serve or not! I’m not advocating for dragging Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Tim Cook and Elon Musk (hell, no!) to Washington, but if you’ve declared yourself as a Presidential candidate in 2020 you are fair game. (My game, my rules)

With apologies to everyone mentioned, here’s an incomplete, poorly-conceived list of names:

Simply because he has drawn the most ($$) support to date, I’m going to give Bernie the big seat in the White House in 2020. (Also because he needs to be here, I’m not sure where else to slot him in, and the idea of having a “President Bernie” at least once in our history tickles me)

I’ve got to slot Beto in the VP role — I know, 2 white males seems very “we always do this”, but his relative youth and inexperience can help balance this out. (I also don’t want to waste someone else on a largely ineffective position) Let him learn on the job, and 16 years from now it’s his for the asking.

Kamala Harris as Attorney General? Just imagine her summary and subsequent release of the Mueller report instead of the performance piece we actually witnessed? ‘nuff said here…(Although Secretary of State is probably a better fit, with the added benefit of prepping for her successful presidential bid a term or 2 later)

Andrew Yang as Secretary of Labor? Seriously, he was made for this and might be able to do more good from this office than the big one with the (much) nicer carpeting. (I’m truly guessing here. I have no hard evidence that the carpet in the oval office is any nicer than what the secretary of labor has under his/her feet)

I’d pay money to watch Elizabeth Warren as Treasury Secretary. Every one of her hearings is must-see-tv just to watch folks squirm when the spotlight is turned on them. I’ll bet the rest of the 99% would also, even if some would take some time to warm up to the idea.

See how much fun this could be? (Imagine how much more palatable Hillary would have been if she’d announced her cabinet ahead of time and it included, oh shit, never mind, I just googled the list of candidates in 2016 and remembered I couldn’t tell the difference between all the old white guys)

Look, if Andrew Yang is your guy and he doesn’t make the final cut, wouldn’t you still vote for the democratic candidate if you knew he was involved and positioned to enact some of his jobs policies? Is Kamala Harris for President the hill you are willing to die on? Are you going to add Mickey Mouse as a write-in if she’s not on the ballot? (And didn’t we learn this lesson a couple of long years ago?) How about if she’s in a position to do what she does best and gain more national exposure for her (slightly delayed) presidential run?

I am embarrassed to admit I had to google Tim Kaine to remember who Hillary’s running mate was. It would be much harder to forget a partial list like the one proposed above. I also find it much easier to support someone for President when their rivals don’t just say “I endorse Bernie Sanders for President” and then go back to whatever they were doing before. “I believe in the United States and [insert preferred candidate here] so much, that I want to work with him/her as a part of this administration to make things better for all Americans”.

I’d vote for that.

(and please feel free to edit this list. it’s meant to be a moderately-reasoned conversation starter only)