See page 7 of the official voter information guide for the California Presidential Primary Election, March 3, 2020.

Some of you may already have voted in the primary election. Some may think that the primary is not that important because the California Democratic Party splits its primary support in accordance with the vote, as opposed to a winner take all. Nevertheless it is still important to back the candidate that will be able to beat Trump by the widest margin in both the popular and electoral vote that will follow in November.

Some may feel that three-time Minnesota elected Senator Klobuchar lacks name recognition such as Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders. Any candidate will gain name recognition if he or she starts getting double digit percentage backing in the early state primaries, such as Iowa and New Hampshire. In the latter, recent polls show her tied for second. Any candidate still in the running near the time of the Democratic National Convention will have name recognition.

Those who listened to Trump’s State of the Union speech recognize that Trump has lied about “socialism” being incompatible with democracy. He would repeatedly do so again if Bernie were to become the Democrat’s choice for president. Of course countries like Denmark and Finland, both with very high living standards, are certainly democratic as well as socialist. But as the Nazi minister of communication, Joseph Goebbles admitted after Germany’s defeat in World War II, any lie often enough repeated will be believed by a significant portion of the populace. Guess what Trump would be doing?

Sen. Klobuchar is widely known as formulating proposed critical legislation so as to ensure its passage by both major parties, rather than leaving a deadlock which guarantees the critical issue remains unresolved.

Bernie shares with Biden the problem of age. The job of a president is a very tough one. There are multitudes of issues with important details that should be thoroughly understood by a president who wants to do the best for the USA.

The Democratic Party presidential candidate should be one who can attract many Republican and independent voters. Sen. Klobuchar is widely known as formulating proposed critical legislation so as to ensure its passage by both major parties, rather than leaving a deadlock which guarantees the critical issue remains unresolved. The soon-to-retire Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander recently went out of his way to state how pleasant it had been working with Sen. Klobuchar on such issues.

It can also be expected that there will be many such issues due to the fact that the Trump budget has resulted in a huge national debt, despite plentiful issues that are still very important.

Of course it would certainly be expected that none of the extended family of the recently died older President Bush would be backing Trump in November. Trump has certainly changed the Republican Party from what it was during the Bush era. Mitt Romney is another prominent Republican who cannot stomach Trump. Not to speak of the family of former Republican presidential choice John McCain, hero in the Vietnam war when shot down, and becoming a prisoner and protecting fellow prisoners of the Viet Cong but vilified by Trump.

Therefore, don’t pick a Democratic candidate that many Republicans might not wish to vote for in November.

Thomas Straus lives in Nevada County.