I am a Delaware resident with the hope and sincere belief that, as such, I'm one of the many with a special tie to Vice President Joseph R. Biden. I'll be concise at first. Mister Vice President, please do not run for President of the United States again. While I believe that you would be a great President but getting there is a whole different story. We Delawareans do not have the political muscle to help push you into office. Our three mighty votes in the Electoral College do not exactly form the basis of a great political movemment. Even our small size has failed to present the advantages that it should.
You hear jokes all over the place about what life in Delaware must be like. You must know Joe Schmo! He lives in Delaware like you do. This should be a political advantage for us but it isn't possibly due to the strong differences between the poles of New Castle (Philadelphia media market) and Sussex (Baltimore media) counties. Traditionally, they are very rural with conservative politicians while those of us in New Castle live in high population density areas. There is a sign near where I live proporting to lead toward the Metroplex which turned out to be the city of Wilmington and all its associated sprawl. It's not a complaint, much less an exaggerated one when I buy into the theory that all of the land from New York City to Baltimore are becoming one giant city. What does a resident of that area have in common with a Sussex county farmer beyond some traditional American values? I write this to remind Vice President Biden of his lack of home field advantage and not to make fun of our Southern neighbors yet again.
I tend to look at candidates to see what natural constituencies each candidate might have. On the Democratic side, I'd like to start off with Hillary Clinton whom I believe would make the best candidate. I'm also start starting here to make a point against stereotypes. When I say that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has women among her natural constituents, I am not implying some sort of electoral sorority. What I am saying is that the choice between two candidates may be 50/50 on the issues but that a woman's gut instinct is more likely than not to choose another woman. Thus, 99% of women voters will most likely choose based on those issue stances that they believe in. The others will have that decision come down to the shared experiences they have based on their matching chromosomes. I'm only forced to make a weak joke about it because I am not a woman and I do not presume to tell women what experiences they share that will be important.
Clinton's political constituency includes a considerable portion of the coalition her husband formed to win the Presidency twice. He neutralized advantage of the so-called Reagan Democrats by bringing some working class white men back to the Democratic side. Some say it was a matter of policy including those who dismiss it as triangulation and others claim it was pure charisma including those who repeat, "I feel your pain," with more than a touch of sarcasm. Even in 2008 with an extremely gifted African-American politician who became one of our greatest Presidents without regard to the hue of one's skin, Clinton remained formidable with African-American voters. First her husband and now she will keep the South in play for Democratic candidates.
Moving on to Senator Bernie Sanders, I count the Northeast as his natural territorial constituency. He also has the support of intellectual liberals who have supported his policies for as long as we've heard of them. Sadly, we've hit a generation gap here because today's digital media was born while I was in college. Senator Sanders had to garner support through word of mouth, knocking on doors and coverage from a few lefty magazines out there. Despite the claims of Faux (sic, of course) News, the mainstream media was very center-right. Niche mediums tended to go even further to the right except for comedy which the absurdity of the right wing forced into the center-left. In other words, you cannot equate the impact of a Howard Stern with that of Rush Limbaugh and his host of imitators.
Now, you have the blogosphere and Twitter among others that balance things out a little. Unfortunately, the generational gap continues there. Comedy mixed with journalism and academic achievement have given Stephanie Miller, Jon Stewart and Rachel Maddow a louder voice but its impact fails to reach voters born before 1970. (I chose that year because it was a nice round year before I was born in 1974 and I tend to be a late adopter.) Thus, it will be difficult for Senator Sanders to reach outside his natural territory in my honest opinion.
In my honest opinion, neither Martin O'Malley nor Lincoln Chafee have a political constituency worth describing. Vice President Biden has his geographic political base in the Delaware Valley which includes New Castle County in DE and the Philadelphia region of PA. Honestly, he may be able to lay claim to Western PA as well but those voters tend to be far more conservative. The mainstream media likes Biden but it falls short of what I'd call political support as they split between Biden and Clinton. The slightly left of center media support Bernie Sanders except for feminists who support Clinton over Sanders for reasons of identity politics. The vast right wing media machine recognizes no difference among Democrats who are all part of the "Socialistic Democrat Party." Calling us the Democrat Party instead of the Democratic Party is an insult going all the way back to Roosevelt.
The good news is that most Sanders supporters will support Clinton or Biden in the general and so on. I simply do not see a path to the nomination for my greatest political hero, Joe Biden. We love you like a favorite uncle and wonder what your detractors are talking about when they go on about gaffes. You would make a great cabinet member and coming from the second smallest state won't hamper you there.
No comments:
Post a Comment