It seems clear that the field of Democratic candidates for President can be divided into the leading three, Biden, Warren, and Sanders, and then the rest of the field hoping for a break out that would allow them to replace on of these leading personalities.

What I think is interesting is that the leading three represent very different points of view on the future of the Democratic Party and America’s political system.

Biden’s holds the conceptual space that they system is not broken and that with the right leadership we can return to a mode of operation that operated in the past. That with good will and proper leadership the hyper- partisan combat can be cooled and normalcy can be restored.

Sanders is operating from the presumption that the system is irreparably broken and that not only is there no ability to return to a previous normal, that the previous normal itself was bad. His stand seems to be that the old ways and the old systems must be brushed away and replaced with a new way of doing things. Burn it down and build a new political reality is the strategic aim of the Sanders camp and it is fitting considering that the candidate is not even a member of the Democratic Party.

Warren stands between these two poles. Her position rejects the ‘return to normalcy’ of the Biden campaign and rejects the revolutionary nature of the Sanders. It is fitting that Warren grew up on the Republican side of the political spectrum before finding herself and her voice with the Democratic Party. It is reminiscent of Reagan’s voyage from Democrat to Republican decades earlier. She vocally takes the stand that she is a capitalist and wants to save capitalism while advocating for deeper systemic changes than Biden seems willing to tolerate.

It is likely that the nominee will come from one of these three people and it will be fascinating to see what direct the Democratic Party moves.