Will Tom Steyer Be a Contender in the Democratic Presidential Primaries?
Last October, Tom Steyer launched his personal campaign to impeach President Donald Trump. Steyer has made billions as a hedge fund manager at Farallon Capital Management, LLC. But like many billionaires–perhaps out of a sense of guilt at their sensational and senseless wealth?–he has caught the do-gooder bug. Billionaires who engage in social martyrdom often have overinflated egos to match their bank accounts.
Senator Bernie Sanders remains the most popular politician in the United States, but he’s unlikely to run again. Senators Elizabeth Warren, Corry Booker, and Kamala Harris are all possible nominees and contenders in 2020. Still, to challenge Trump, the Democrats may want to repeat the Republican experiment of bringing in a candidate that has built a reputation outside politics. That’s especially the case as voters might consider Democratic Party insiders complicit in the actions that favored Hillary Clinton at the expense of Bernie Sanders in the 2016 primaries. So Steyer, as an outsider, could have a shot at winning the primaries, were he to run.
Their money buys them access to “poorer” but more politically powerful people, who need the funds for campaigns and are known to flatter the billionaires. It’s not long before the same billionaires start thinking they might give politics the good, old-fashioned college try. They might even engage in the ultimate exercise in self love: running for the presidency. The lost of potential Democratic Party candidates for the 2020 Presidential primaries might include Hillary Clinton–she hasn’t given up yet, after all–and Tulsi Gabbard.
It may well include Tom Steyer. He stands in favor of everything that Trump opposes. Steyer has donated enthusiastically to various Democratic Party fundraisers and had good odds of becoming Secretary of the Treasury for the first of former President Barack Obama’s two terms in 2008. He’s a major proponent of alternative or “green” energy, holding a fervent belief in man-made climate change. Not surprisingly, he lives in California rather than the Mid-West or Northeast, which would have given him reason to doubt his climatic faith in the last week of 2017. (Source: “Tom Steyer,” Wikipedia, last accessed January 2, 2018.)
Steyer Has Been the Democratic Party’s Answer to the Koch Brothers
Some have likened Steyer to a Democratic/Progressive version of the Koch Brothers. The fact that Steyer spent some $10.0 million in an advertising campaign against Trump brings back memories of Ross Perot in 1992. This is why he may decide to run for the highest office in the land. This is a man who has grown accustomed to getting a return on investment. He’s not putting $10.0 million behind an ad campaign without the expectation of results. (Source: “‘This Administration Doesn’t Have a Clue.’ Meet the California Billionaire Spending Millions to Impeach Trump,” Time, October 28, 2017.)
After all, billionaire or not, Steyer is a civilian. He may have the financial cachet to be invited and to host big-bucks political fundraisers, but he has no authority. For Steyer to call for Trump’s impeachment has the same effect than if he had demanded the sun stop shining on California to bring some respite against the drought. But should Robert Mueller issue more indictments and start arresting people in connection to Russiagate allegations, then Steyer will stand out, and his potential campaign could even gain traction.
Steyer is ideally suited to present himself as the anti-Trump. Moreover, while at Farallon Capital, Steyer became an expert in predicting events, capable of producing substantial and disruptive breakthroughs. Let’s say he has developed a reputation for identifying what some people describe as “black swan” events.
Steyer may have been betting on a disastrous outcome for Trump, short-selling the current president’s very ability to finish his first term. The billionaire hedge fund guru has accused Trump of leading the U.S. on the edge of a thermonuclear disaster (without noting that the Democrats have done much of the damage in relations with Russia).