And Then There Were Two

Elizabeth Warren just dropped out of the democratic primary.  We are down to Bernie and Biden, two almost eighty-year-old white guys.  I have been reserving my energy on this election cycle until it really matters, out of a need for sanity and spiritual survival.  But I have to say Liz dropping out makes me sort of sad, because I have felt like she was the smartest of the bunch for quite some time.  I feel like at least some of her inability to get traction in the primaries was a result of her unabashed intelligence.  There is a strong current in American culture that despises true intelligence. Isaac Asimov described it well:

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread, winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."

I have this sneaking suspicion that that tendency becomes even more vicious when it comes to women.  At this point, I'm sort of thinking that our first female president is going to have to come from the right, ala Margaret Thatcher, because she will have to be an "iron lady" that adheres to the take no prisoners sort of political tactics that the Republicans have mastered since Reagan.  We have already seen an inveterate politician (Clinton) and a brilliant and qualified organizer (Warren) fail because the American people couldn't find them "likable" enough.  Meanwhile male candidates can be deeply flawed, even dangerously so, as is the case with Trump, and still garner wildly irrational support.
Only time will tell if it was actually Warren's extensive "plans" that scared people off.  If they end up choosing Bernie Sanders, I think that will be proven false, because Bernie has even more "socialist" ideas with less clear details than Liz.  If they choose Biden, it will just be a case of the establishment going with the "safe" bet.  I get that impulse. I saw someone on Twitter say that the best campaign slogan for any of the Democrats would be, "If I'm elected president, you won't have to think about me every day."
Which is where I have been since this whole thing started.  I just want the Trump era to be over, it makes me feel sick to my stomach far too often.  I think that Liz Warren would have been a great president, she probably would have gotten maybe a quarter of her plans to see the light of day, even if she got eight years.  Most of the wildest dreams/nightmares like Medicare for all would have been DOA, but she would have made sure to put back some of the regulations that protect us from the most rapacious aspects of capitalism.  Unlike the current chief executive, she actually knows what those regulations he has been shredding like cheese were there to do.
I don't know, out of that whole raft of plans she had, which ones would have actually gotten implemented, but I do know that when our nation confronted a crisis she would have brought that intellect and that undeniable sanity to bear upon it, instead of just tweeting out of an irresponsible level of ignorance like you know who.
Maybe it's just the desire for some semblance of peace, but I think I'm coming down on Uncle Joe's team for right now, but I can't think of another single person that would make a better VP than Liz Warren.  I mean if Joe put her in charge of pretty much anything I would feel pretty good about that.  I mean a lot better than putting Mike "I don't believe in science" Pence in charge of a global pandemic response.
I guess I have always wondered if that isn't democracy's biggest flaw: we elect popular people.  It was true in School, it was never the brains that got elected class president, it was the kids that could schmooze the best.  I guess I always hoped that, like so many other things that change in adulthood, things would be different out here.  Sorry Liz, I wish I had the chance to vote for you.