Just want to say, I had this idea first. I may not be as smart as Thomas L. Friedman, frankly I think three Pulitzers is a bit of overdoing it. But some truths are so self-evident, you wonder what the hell took so many others so much time.
I am not a member of any political party, of any kind. But I am a sentient adult human being with a modicum of compassion for my fellow man. And woman.
And I believe at the very least that’s the type of person we should have serving in the White House.
So, sure, send me $40 US and I’ll send you a HellYa, Anybody Else 2020 momento. – JDW
Dems, You Can Defeat Trump in a Landslide
You can promise voters something our narrow-minded president won’t.
By Thomas L. Friedman for the New York Times
If this election turns out to be just between a self-proclaimed socialist and an undiagnosed sociopath, we will be in a terrible, terrible place as a country. How do we prevent that?
That’s all I am thinking about right now. My short answer is that the Democrats have to do something extraordinary — forge a national unity ticket the likes of which they have never forged before. And that’s true even if Democrats nominate someone other than Bernie Sanders.
What would this super ticket look like? Well, I suggest Sanders — and Michael Bloomberg, who seems to be his most viable long-term challenger — lay it out this way:
“I want people to know that if I am the Democratic nominee these will be my cabinet choices — my team of rivals. I want Amy Klobuchar as my vice president. Her decency, experience and moderation will be greatly appreciated across America and particularly in the Midwest. I want Mike Bloomberg (or Bernie Sanders) as my secretary of the Treasury. Our plans for addressing income inequality are actually not that far apart, and if we can blend them together it will be great for the country and reassure markets. I want Joe Biden as my secretary of state. No one in our party knows the world better or has more credibility with our allies than Joe. I will ask Elizabeth Warren to serve as health and human services secretary. No one could bring more energy and intellect to the task of expanding health care for more Americans than Senator Warren.
“I want Kamala Harris for attorney general. She has the toughness and integrity needed to clean up the corrupt mess Donald Trump has created in our Justice Department. I would like Mayor Pete as homeland security secretary; his intelligence and military background would make him a quick study in that job. I would like Tom Steyer to head a new cabinet position: secretary of national infrastructure. We’re going to rebuild America, not just build a wall on the border with Mexico. And I am asking Cory Booker, the former mayor of Newark, to become secretary of housing and urban development. Who would bring more passion to the task of revitalizing our inner cities than Cory?
“I am asking Mitt Romney to be my commerce secretary. He is the best person to promote American business and technology abroad — and it is vital that the public understands that my government will be representing all Americans, including Republicans. I would like Andrew Yang to be energy secretary, overseeing our nuclear stockpile and renewable energy innovation. He’d be awesome.
“I am asking Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to serve as our U.N. ambassador. Can you imagine how our international standing would improve with youth worldwide with her representing next-gen America? And I want Senator Michael Bennet, the former superintendent of the Denver Public Schools, to be my secretary of education. No one understands education reform better than he does. Silicon Valley Congressman Ro Khanna would be an ideal secretary of labor, balancing robots and workers to create “new collar” jobs.
“Finally, I am asking William H. McRaven, the retired Navy admiral who commanded the U.S. Special Operations Command from 2011 to 2014 and oversaw the 2011 Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden, to be my defense secretary. Admiral McRaven, more than any other retired military officer, has had the courage and integrity to speak out against the way President Trump has politicized our intelligence agencies.
Only last week, McRaven wrote an essay in The Washington Post decrying Trump’s firing of Joe Maguire as acting director of national intelligence — the nation’s top intelligence officer — for doing his job when he had an aide brief a bipartisan committee of Congress on Russia’s renewed efforts to tilt our election toward Trump.
“Edmund Burke,” wrote McRaven, “the Irish statesman and philosopher, once said: ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.’”
If Bernie or Bloomberg or whoever emerges to head the Democratic ticket brings together such a team of rivals, I am confident it will defeat Trump in a landslide. But if progressives think they can win without the moderates — or the moderates without the progressives — they are crazy. And they’d be taking a huge risk with the future of the country by trying.
And I mean a huge risk. Back in May 2018, the former House speaker John Boehner declared: “There is no Republican Party. There’s a Trump party. The Republican Party is kind of taking a nap somewhere.”
It’s actually not napping anymore. It’s dead.
And I will tell you the day it died. It was just last week, when Trump sacked Maguire for advancing the truth and replaced him with a loyalist, an incompetent political hack, Richard Grenell. Grenell is the widely disliked U.S. ambassador to Germany, a post for which he is also unfit. Grenell is now purging the intelligence service of Trump critics. How are we going to get unvarnished, nonpolitical intelligence analysis when the message goes out that if your expert conclusions disagree with Trump’s wishes, you’re gone?
I don’t accept, but can vaguely understand, Republicans’ rallying around Trump on impeachment. But when Republicans, the self-proclaimed national security party — folks like Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio and Tom Cotton — don’t lift a finger to stop Trump’s politicization of our first line of defense — the national intelligence directorate set up after 9/11 — then the Republican Party is not asleep. It’s dead and buried.
And that is why a respected, nonpartisan military intelligence professional like Bill McRaven felt compelled to warn what happens when good people are silent in the face of evil. Our retired generals don’t go public like that very often. But he was practically screaming, “This is a four-alarm fire, a category 5 hurricane.” And the G.O.P. response? Silence.
Veteran political analyst E.J. Dionne, in his valuable new book, “Code Red: How Progressives and Moderates Can Unite to Save Our Country,” got this exactly right: We have no responsible Republican Party anymore. It is a deformed Trump personality cult. If the country is going to be governed responsibly, that leadership can come only from Democrats and disaffected Republicans courageous enough to stand up to Trump. It is crucial, therefore, argues Dionne, that moderate and progressive Democrats find a way to build a governing coalition together.
Neither can defeat the other. Neither can win without the other. Neither can govern without the other.
If they don’t join together — if the Democrats opt for a circular firing squad — you can kiss the America you grew up in goodbye.
The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.
Thomas L. Friedman is the foreign affairs Op-Ed columnist. He joined the paper in 1981, and has won three Pulitzer Prizes. He is the author of seven books, including “From Beirut to Jerusalem,” which won the National Book Award
A ‘Team of Rivals’ for the Democrats?
Readers discuss Thomas L. Friedman’s idea for a “national unity” ticket that includes many of the contenders as well as Mitt Romney and AOC in cabinet posts. Feb. 27, 2020
To the Editor:
Re “Dems, You Can Defeat Trump in a Landslide,” by Thomas L. Friedman (column, Feb. 26):
The only way I could get to sleep after Tuesday night’s acrimonious debate was by taking an antacid followed by an Ambien. So it was a great relief to wake up Wednesday morning to Mr. Friedman’s column.
What a brilliant suggestion — making a place for everyone at the table. Putting one another down isn’t helping Democrats defeat President Trump. If anything, it’s just giving him more Twitter fodder to energize his troops.
Yes, the candidates are in competition for who is going to lead the party in November against the bully in the White House. But victory won’t come when there’s only one left standing and all who should be allies lie wounded on the battlefield. The fight is not progressive versus moderate, but rather the Democratic Party and all that it stands for united against Mr. Trump and his enablers in the Senate.
I think Mr. Friedman has the right answer. Put aside the rancor and the winner-take-all mentality. Form a unified effort. Create a team of rivals to make sure that all the voices are heard. When everyone’s candidate has a role, everyone is a winner.
Arthur C. Benedict
Peaks Island, Me.
To the Editor:
Thomas Friedman may be right — Democratic candidates need to form a unity ticket, a team of rivals. But who can persuade them to bury their egos and do so? Only former President Barack Obama. How much longer will he stay silent?
Martha Jablow
Philadelphia
To the Editor:
Thomas Friedman was able to put into words thoughts that have been circulating in my head for a few weeks. My only concern is whether the cabinet members would be approved — which, of course, reminds me of how important our Senate elections are.
Lynne Burke
Darien, Conn.
To the Editor:
Thomas Friedman has the right idea. The Democratic Party should have a “big tent,” and the nominee should promise to include in his or her cabinet the entire spectrum of the party. Unfortunately, it seems that there is an ideological test in the extreme left wing of the party that would make this idea unfeasible.
When Elizabeth Warren depicts Michael Bloomberg as a racist, when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says Joe Biden shouldn’t be in her party, when Bernie Sanders labels the very wealthy as the enemy for no other reason than that they are rich, then it is hard to see them joining together. And that will lead to the re-election of Donald Trump.
Jay Stonehill
Sarasota, Fla.
To the Editor:
Yes, we need a national unity ticket. But can we afford to take all those strong leaders out of the Senate? Or is Thomas Friedman suggesting that such a ticket will bring some of the members of the “dead” Republican Party back to life?
Anthony Wight
Branford, Conn.
To the Editor:
Thomas Friedman has a very exciting group of proposed cabinet members to make a Bernie Sanders candidacy very compelling — with one glaring exception. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for ambassador to the United Nations? Really! What was he thinking?
She is a young, inexperienced woman with little understanding of foreign affairs and diplomacy. What is most terrifying is that after Nikki Haley made significant inroads against constant Israel bashing at the U.N., AOC would only encourage a resurgence of such anti-Israel bias.
Mendy Kwestel
Fair Lawn, N.J.
To the Editor:
Thomas Friedman’s brilliant idea for the Democratic Party — announcing a ticket that includes prospective cabinet choices — might go one step further. Imagine a coordinated campaign of messages that show split-screen images. The well-chosen, well-qualified and well-intentioned Democratic choices on the left and the current stable of inexperienced, obsequious and sycophantic Trump administration cabinet members on the right.
For example, Mike Bloomberg or Bernie Sanders vs. Steven Mnuchin, Cory Booker vs. Ben Carson, Michael Bennet vs. Betsy DeVos.
Steve Cony
Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y.
To the Editor:
Thomas Friedman has a good idea for candidates to announce their cabinet picks early, and he makes some fabulous suggestions. But his pronouncement of the death of the Republican Party might be premature. A Republican V.P. running with a Democratic presidential candidate would make it a true “unity ticket.” I propose either Mitt Romney or John Kasich.
Todd Buchanan
Eldora, Colo.
To the Editor:
At first I thought Thomas Friedman’s column offered an amusing “pie in the sky” idea, but the current times are so insane that perhaps an out-of-left-field idea is just what we need. I pray that all the candidates have read it.
Baxter Holland
Rutland, Vt.
To the Editor:
Thomas Friedman has a glaring omission from his proposed “team of rivals”: Gov. Jay Inslee as the secretary of a new cabinet-level agency, the Department of Climate Change.
Wally Marzano-Lesnevich
Tenafly, N.J.
A version of this article appears in print on Feb. 28, 2020, Section A, Page 24 of the New York edition with the headline: A ‘Team of Rivals’ for the Democrats?