While I think that it is important to discuss the “lanes” and to look at trends in the Democratic Party in general, I also think its most important that caucus goers to choose the candidate that calls to them. 

When you look at the polling, it’s pretty clear the American people were by and large not too happy with the options the parties rolled out in 2016. Negative voting like this was rampant in this divisive election, and I fear this way of approaching voting has seeped into the Democratic primary race.

While I think that, for Democrats, it is incredibly important for voters to really consider electability in the general election, I think a lot less should go into the weight of this category. As many of the candidates stress on the debate stage, it is extremely important for Democrats to vote Trump out of office. Hyping up these polls that pit leading Democratic candidates against Trump is not entirely telling, as it is difficult to determine what the political climate may be over a year from now — when the election actually takes place.

I’m anticipating the political climate of the Democratic Party to shift dramatically from this relatively tense and tumultuous time of debate over the foundational policy views that the party should rally behind. These debates are important, but when the party has a nominee, I think the hierarchy of needs will kick in and Democrats will fully support the nominee.

This, of course, is not to say that I think Democrats will necessarily win the White House come in 2020. I merely think that that probability is affected less by the candidate that the primary process chooses and more on other factors surrounding the political atmosphere, turnout and the allocation of resources.