The list of participants for the mid-September debate among Democrats seeking their party’s presidential nomination has been finalized. Yesterday was the last day to qualify.
The 10 making the cut include Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, Cory Booker, Beto O’Rourke, Andrew Yang, Julian Castro, and Amy Klobuchar. Let’s unpack that group.
Buttigieg represents the LGBTQ faction, and maybe the few evangelical Democrats. Booker anchors the African-American faction. Harris does the Obama-style “presentable” mixed race thing. Warren and Sanders speak to the “free stuff” young living in parents’ basements. Yang fronts the techno-geeks.
Castro tries to represent Hispanics, while apparently speaking little Spanish. O’Rourke imperfectly echoes Kennedy nostalgia. And Biden and Klobuchar are boring left-centrists of no particular distinction. And of course Warren, Harris, and Klobuchar also rep, with varying success, the women’s coalition.
Basically nobody in this group has the support of very many Democrats, which illustrates the problem with identity group politics. Speak to the grievances of a number of groups, each with its own victimology and demands, and this set of candidates is what you get. Ho-effing-hum.
By contrast, Trump says let’s make the whole country more prosperous, everybody (who wants them) gets jobs, buys stuff, has choices and fun. People claim he speaks for whites, but in fact every citizen benefits from his policies which are of the classic “rising tide lifts all boats” sort.
Prosperity, after the Obama-era stagnation, is hard to argue with. And, in spite of “hill to die on” opposition, the border wall is getting built.
