Trouble in the Tent

The New York Times' Thomas B. Edsall writes a column entitled "Can Hillary Manage Her Unruly Coalition?" His main focus is the conflict between Baltimore City, predominantly Black and Democrat, and Baltimore County, predominantly White and Democrat. They are, however, different groups of Democrats....

Baltimore County only became Democrat relatively recently, with an influx of well-paid federal workers who perhaps commute to DC. These federal workers are largely white Democrats, who value Black votes in the abstract but don't want to actually live near Blacks. Thus, the conflict is over housing policy, and whether the City can dump place inner city clients of welfare in their up-scale County neighborhoods.

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I am reminded of something I experienced when on TDY for 2 years in the DC area, quite near Baltimore. My fellow civil servants suggested I look for housing in Montgomery County, as opposed to Prince George County, both in MD, because Montgomery "had better schools."

As an innocent from CA, I was puzzled as I had no children. After living there for several months, it occurred to me "better schools" was fed-speak for whiter neighborhoods or fewer blacks. Very Democrat federal employees - it's the party of government - nevertheless wanted to live in white neighborhoods and presumed I would also.

Edsall's larger point is that the Democrat "big tent" includes groups of Democrats with diametrically opposing interests, even quite different values. An example of this uneasy coexistence can be found at Huffington Post. It's nice to know Republicans aren't the only ones with a fractious coalition.