When was the last time a commoner was elected?
Mr. Peanut is the closest I can recall and he still had bucks. You'd have to go back before Ike to find one.
Both the Roosevelts -- Teddy the GOP progressive and Franklin the "Socialist" -- were upper crust. Truman was a haberdasher turned politician, and managed to get us through early post-war era, although he had a bigoted side and was influenced by a congressman with bad ideas. Both parties wanted to run Eisenhower, but he only made himself available to the GOP. He gave us the interstate highway system and supported a landmark integration of black students at a public high-school -- opposed by Governor Faubus. Eisenhower was key to the students' enrollment by taking state National Guard troops under federal control. Ike had been a Texas-born, Kansas-raised farm boy before his military career. He bore the weight of grief for 500,000 Americans who died under his command in defeating Hitler's Reich. He gave us NASA and the space program.
The Kennedys were part of another east coast elite; Joe Kennedy had experience under Roosevelt as ambassador to Britain, and continued to influence politics while dabbling in the Hollywood movie industry. So Jack and Robert had good government and leadership commitments as the center of their lives.
Nixon, with some severe personal flaws and his downfall of criminality in Watergate, was the son of Quakers who owned "the poorest little lemon grove in California." He saw his older brother die of tuberculosis. So one would categorize him by his modest origins.
Both of the Clintons as well as Barack and Michelle came from lower middle-class circumstances. Bill Clinton grew up in a broken home; Hillary's father had a small business making draperies; Barack owed much to his mother -- a female vanguard in academia expanded by world travel; his grandmother worked her way up the ladder to be a bank vice-president.
These are the kinds of people we want for a presidency. Even Nixon gave superior service to Trump's, promoting the idea of an EPA. But we don't need another Nixon, and we desperately pray for relief from the Trump Scourge. The man is a virus in human form.
So despite his enormous financial success that vastly overshadows that of the con-man and criminal Trump, Bloomberg's origins seem more like those of the Clintons, the Obamas, perhaps Eisenhower whose path of success was different but not totally incomparable. He's not just "from Wall Street" -- he saw an opportunity to build a fortune providing a general service to investment and trading firms. He was able to build that business with both technical expertise and business acumen -- which Trump simply doesn't have.
The real issue is whether or not Bloomberg sees the world like many of us do, as opposed to being raised in a lap of luxury, given to Trump's gambling driven as much by delusion and ego without calculation or common sense.
It's one thing for an office-holder to use his position for self-enrichment, like Trump. It's another if a candidate provides tremendous resources to either secure his nomination or support someone else more successful in the primary. There's little doubt that Bloomberg would eagerly show his taxes to public scrutiny, and he has an obvious caliber and track record suggesting he would divest himself of his business in a proper way.
In the case of Bloomberg or Steyer, an argument parallel to things suggested by Sanders that disqualifies the candidate just because he has been enormously successful might be unwise. Sanders can inspire; he has noble ideas; but he's branded himself to an ideology rather than discussing it as a toolbox for solving some public problems. Sanders had success as a mayor like Bloomberg, but Bloomberg would make the better administrator. He would be more flexible.
All of these candidates appear to be fine people. Some of them may have enduring historical fame, whether they win the nomination or not. Biden could lose and still be valuable in his continued support. We have a major opportunity when you take all the candidates -- including Harris and Booker -- as administration resources. For instance, would you not be blessed with Kamala Harris as AG? And in the end, if a Senator merely returns or continues to be a Senator,, then we will still be well-served.
We need to focus on winning senatorial races to turn the tables and oust McConnell. Bloomberg might allow the Dems to free up other resources to do just that. And time is of the essence.
