Announcing Jan. 27 he’s considering an independent run for president, 65-year-old billionaire founder of Starbucks Howard Schultz received no welcome mat from the Democrat Party. Worried he’d steal votes from any Democrat candidate, Schultz go nothing but vitriol from Democrats claiming he’d guarantee 72-year-old President Donald Trump’s reelection. But running as an independent, whether he wins or not, is the right of any U.S. citizen believing they can make a difference in today’s partisan gridlock, the reason Schultz believes there should be an alternative to the two-party system. No, Democrats are only concerned about taking votes away from their future nominee, not whether or not they compromise Schultz’s Constitutional rights. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who was the first to announce for president, said billionaires like Schultz should be allowed to buy elections.
Schultz said he respects Warren but politely disagrees with her socialist agenda, promising Medicare-for-all, free college tuition at state universities and colleges and higher taxes on the rich. Schultz noted that Warren seems to blame him for being successful, lifting himself out of Brooklyn housing projects to run one of America’s most successful corporations. In case Warren missed it, Schultz, as CEO of Starbucks, instituted a generous college tuition plan for full-time employees, subsidizing tuition and paying for generous health care benefits. Schultz told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that he’s “no longer” a Democrat, since the party lurched toward the left, now embracing former Democrat candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) leftist agenda, starting with Medicare-for-all health care and free college tuition. Schultz believes Warren or Sanders’ plans would bankrupt the country.
Promoting his new book, “From the Ground Up: A Journey to Re-imagine the Promise of America,” Schultz told hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzeziniski that “I’ve been a Democrat but no longer.” “I don’t affiliate myself with the Democratic Party, who’s so far left, who basically wants the government to take over health care, which we cannot afford, the government to give free college to everybody, and the government to give everyone a job . . .We can’t afford it,” Schultz explained. “What’s ‘ridiculous’ is billionaires who think they can buy the presidency to keep the system rigged for themselves while opportunity slips away for everyone else,” Warren tweeted Jan. 29. When you consider Starbucks under Schultz has done more to give opportunities to rank-and-file employees to earn college degrees and get excellent health care, Warren’s criticism rings hollow, actually outrageous.
Schultz’s Starbucks set a national trend for providing its employees opportunities to advance from within the company, promoting individuals from starting jobs as baristas, to supervisors, assistant managers, managers, district managers, area mangers to corporate positions. No one, certainly not Warren, can accuse Schultz of creating anything but a model company, giving its employees the best chance of advancement. Warren’s the last person to accuse someone like Schultz of robbing employees of opportunities when all he’s done at Starbucks in create them. Warren’s real beef with Schultz is that he has widespread appeal to the vast majority of moderate and independent voters, something she doesn’t have. Warren appeals only to the radical fringe of Democrat voters looking to the government to solve problems on health care, education and employment. Schultz sees that approach as disastrous.
Adding Schultz to the political mix is precisely what Democrats need to pull the party back from the socialist abyss. “Well, I must be doing something right to create so much interests and backlash from the Democratic Party,” Schultz told Mika and Joe. “I mean, some of it is a surprise, but I think we expected to see some of the level of vitriol, but not to the extent it’s been,” suggesting, at the very least, Schultz’s independent candidacy could resonate with large numbers of voters. Schultz is no Texas oil billionaire like H. Ross Perot, whose eccentricities were seen by all. Schultz’s narrative fits right into the American Dream, growing up poor, having vision, working hard and making it to the top. Unlike Perot who sank President George W. Bush’s bid for a second term in 1992, handing the presidency to Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, Schultz appeals to mainstream voters.
Whether or not Schultz actually runs for president as an independent is anyone’s guess. As of right now, he’s a mortal threat to the Democrat Party, that so far has lurched so much to the left, it’s leaving behind most independent and moderate voters. Unlike other out-of-touch billionaires, Schultz is exactly the opposite, someone who started from scratch and made it big. “I have walked in their shoes. I’m on both sides of the equation. I’m somebody who has been—who’s successful, I’m somebody who came from the projects, and I understand American people,” Schultz told “Morning Joe.” Lashing out at Schultz is lashing out at the American Dream, someone who embodies the values of entrepreneurship, hard work and success. When Schultz said the two-party system is broken, he resonates with the silent majority, sick and tired of business-as-usual in Washington.
