Howard Schultz is the answer no one is looking for



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"He should stick to the cafe," Republican Pramila Jayapal, who represents most of Seattle, told reporters on Tuesday – including CNN's Ashley Killough.

"as a democrat," added the co-chair of the Progressive Caucus of Congress. "I do not understand why he stands as an independent."

Democratic Representative Marc Pocan, the other co-chair of the caucus, said Mr. Schultz "was making his way down the dead-end." 19659002] "He seems to criticize everything," said Pocan. "He wants to find his own way to make his way, but it does not seem, for a billionaire, to be particularly advised of politics."

Where are the votes?

And for the moment, no one (except perhaps Schultz) really thinks they can win the White House, given the strength of the two-party system.
It could very possibly be a spoiler. For who?

Who is Elector Schultz? Is this the kind of voter who supported Green Party candidate Jill Stein in 2016, possibly taking votes out of Hillary Clinton? Or is it the kind of voter who supported the libertarian Party candidate, Gary Johnson, in 2016, possibly removing votes from Hillary Clinton? Or did Johnson take votes in Trump?

President Donald Trump clearly buys the argument that Schultz, a democrat for life, would take votes away from the Democrat. On Twitter, he said Schultz did not have the guts to take part in the race. Please, enter the race and help me in 2020.

Up to now, Schultz's tests on political waters have not been pushed as far.

"Not helping to elect Trump, egotistical billionaire, a hole **," launched a protester at a party devoted to Schultz's book in New York City on Monday night. "Go back to Meditabilization on Twitter Come back to Davos with the other billionaire elites who think they know how to manage the world This is not what democracy is."

This heckler suggests some dynamics at play that shape Schultz's political fortunes.

People really like or really hate Trump. It's not that the middle is silent, it's just not really there.

While the number of people qualifying as independents is at its highest level, partisanship among these independents is also at its highest level. The independents turn to one or the other party and, although they have negative feelings towards the party to which they are addressing, they really hate the opposing party, according to a poll from Pew.

Speaking of hate … the class of people who are not really loved? Billionaires! Yes, Trump is a billionaire, but he's touted as a conservative culture, a billionaire of "blue-collar workers," who did not guarantee any reduction in health insurance or social security. He ran as the "king of debt" … as a Republican.

Schultz bets that there is a group of voters ready to be fired and removed from the party with which they identify – concerned about the cost of government programs and debt and deficits – and that they see a billionaire centrist coffee maker as just the person to fix it.
This does not sound like Stein, Johnson or Ralph Nader voters. In fact, they look more like Republican voters who, at least according to the polls, still hold very high on Trump and who, in theory, want to cut public spending.

What are the policies?

  How Howard Schultz Directed Starbucks Tells Us How He Could Lead America

But Schultz is not at all dissuaded. (Were rich businessmen ever dissuaded from the idea that their skills are transferable?)

On ABC's "The View," Schultz directly criticized Democratic Senator Kamala Harris and, by extension, all the Medicare-for-all democrats, declaring: that he did not agree with this "kind of extreme policy". (No word on the policy with which he agrees.)

"When he comes up against a very progressive person far, who suggests tax increases of 60 to 70% on the rich and a health system that we can not pay, President Trump will be reelected, "said Schultz, citing a fiscal idea suggested by the representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, who did not age required to run for the presidency.
A recent Fox News poll shows widespread support for tax increases for families earning over $ 1 million a year – a rate of increase of 65 to 70 percent in this group's tax rate .
Schultz should also look at the recent survey of the Kaiser Family Foundation on Medicare for All. A majority of Democrats and Independents support various versions of this idea. And even a majority of Republicans are in favor of people over the age of 50 subscribing to Medicare. The warning on the ballot: Not all Medicare expansion plans are the same and there is more support for some than for others, notes Grace Sparks of CNN.

Pressed by Poppy Harlow of CNN about her claim, Medicare- For-all is "un-American," Schultz proposed: "It's not that it's not American – it's unaffordable." 19659008] US political campaigns are littered with media-savvy candidates, who have little success with voters because their base is not real, it has just been evoked by television's heads of speech. . Wesley Clark, Mitch Daniels, Jon Huntsman and Bill Bradley come to mind.

The ticket for two is a similar fantasy. In reality, membership in a political party is very often an expression of their identity – what they like and just as importantly what they do not like.

Schultz's ni-here-and-there approach to the party system and the policies they represent seem good in theory, but in reality, voters are attached to the system. Ideology, leaders and party labels, even if they do not like to admit it. he.

CNN's Ashley Killough and Grace Sparks contributed to this report. [ad_2]
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