Forget Oprah, 2020 Is Stedman's Year

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For a brief window this week, Donald Trump was not the most talked about person on the planet. After delivering a rousing speech at the Golden Globes that encapsulated the feelings and aspirations of the #MeToo movement, Oprah Winfrey took the media world by storm and set off a wave of support encouraging her to run for President in 2020.

Oprah has consistently been ranked as one of the most popular figures in American public life, a space usually reserved for religious figures or transcendent political leaders. Her popularity has spanned decades and has allowed her to accumulate a net worth numbering in the billions. She has a louder voice in the public arena than almost anyone on the planet.

But isn’t the #MeToo movement about bringing attention to those who have not had a voice? Isn’t the whole purpose of this phenomenon to make sure those who have been silenced can be heard? If we truly want to live up to the values of the #MeToo movement, we must elevate those who have toiled in obscurity, and typically been voiceless. That’s why, if the Democrats want to harness the energy of #MeToo, they must look past Oprah, to the quiet mustachioed gentleman carrying her bags, and run Stedman in 2020.

Donald Trump was able to win the Presidency largely because he spoke to that forgotten class of Americans who have been ignored by the media, unless they have a cool job that warrants a reality television series like being an ice road trucker or a teen mom. To win back these voters, Democrats must run a candidate who can empathize with their stories, someone who can truly say, “I feel your pain, I too have been ignored and forgotten.”

Stedman checks so many boxes of what the Democrats need in a candidate to beat Trump, that it is a failure of the pundit class that his name has not even entered the conversation. Not only can the average voter relate to his story, but he is a transracial figure who will be able to appeal broadly to voters of all ethnic groups. When people think about Stedman, they don’t think black or white, they think, “Who is that guy? Is he Oprah’s brother or what?”

After four years of a Trump presidency marked by a consistent barrage of outrageous statements — where the entire country held its breath waiting on his next inflammatory, unthreaded tweet — Americans are looking for a steady hand now more than ever.  The consummate quiet professional, Stedman will bring about a return of normalcy to our country and make Calvin Coolidge look like Kathy Griffin.