Page V2

PoliticsThe Town VoiceBalanced 

 

The Making of a Candidate:  Cory Booker

By Arlon Staywell
RICHMOND — April 2025  —   After briefly leading Donald Trump in polls Ron DeSantis proved to be too young and unprepared to run an effective presidential campaign.  People often complain that neither party is providing them a good candidate for president.  What they probably should do is make their own.  There was enough time to polish the DeSantis image, make corrections and adjustments that would make him a realistic choice for president.  Instead people just took what they could get without working on it.

Another opportunity to make the candidate of your choice is Cory Booker.  Maybe do not miss this one.  Polls taken today might not indicate much Republican support for Booker.  There are about three and a half years to sculpt Booker into a candidate who can be the "good" choice you have needed for so many election cycles.

It should serve here to review what each party is doing wrong currently.

The Trump base does appear to be dominated by the people, relatives, and friends whose worldview was formed in the lower ranks of the military during the Vietnam Conflict era.  They did not like the Beatles.  They somehow managed to associate Beatles' haircuts with communism despite the fact men in communist countries had short hair and still do.  They did not have to understand any economics.  They did not have to understand any science or religion.  All they had to do is fight for whatever the commander-in-chief said.  All they had to do fight for whatever their leaders told them.  They were only fighters, not thinkers.  Their nationalism became blind nationalism.

The problem with Democrats is similar.  They too are fighters, not thinkers.  They fight for what they believe is science.  They have no talent for science themselves and often fight for the wrong things.  Although solar panels can make a lot of sense, driving around in electric vehicles whose charge comes from fossil fuels, as in most of the country, does not make sense.  It is not possible to measure the temperature of 2.3 billion cubic miles of atmosphere to within 2°C because of the margin of error.  They have quite many other errors.

What is needed are voters who have read at least one book all the way through in their lives.  Reading more than one book would be even better.  It might be best if you do not wait for Cory Booker to tell you what he thinks.  It might be better to actually read some books then tell him what you think.