Posted on January 15, 2020

The Democrat Primary Is Too White

Robert Hampton, American Renaissance, January 15, 2020

Democrats and Republicans finally agree: The Democrat primary is too white.

Non-white presidential candidates — including Kamala Harris, Julian Castro, and Cory Booker — have dropped out. The remaining non-whites — Andrew Yang, Tulsi Gabbard, and Deval Patrick — didn’t qualify for the last debate.

Tom Steyer, Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, and Amy Klobuchar during the CNN Democratic Presidential Debate. (Credit Image: © Edward M. PioRoda/CNN via ZUMA Wire)

Mr. Patrick, for one, is furious.

“The debates have stopped either showcasing the field or representing the Nation,” he said on Tuesday. “[N]o one on that stage knows what it’s like to fear for their safety when pulled over for a routine traffic stop.”

Former Barack Obama adviser David Axelrod said that it’s “an awkward fact that the frontrunners are all white in a party that’s very diverse and a field that was the most diverse in history.”

“I don’t doubt that the rules our party set were well-intentioned, but the outcomes are undeniable: These thresholds have effectively kept people of color from the national stage,” Cory Booker said.

NewsOne managing editor Bruce C.T. Wright criticized Tuesday’s debate for lacking any “hint of a hearty or substantial debate on the plight of Black and brown people in America.” He added: “Nothing on gun violence, poverty, trans women of color, Black infant and maternal health or criminal justice reform — all pressing issues for Black and brown folks as well as the rest of America.” (I don’t know why he capitalizes “Black” but not “brown.”)

Texas Democratic Party chairman Gilbeto Hinojosa said Iowa and New Hampshire primaries “set the tone for how your campaign continues.” These mostly white states “in no way represent the diversity of the Democratic Party” and make it “very difficult for minority candidates to get momentum.”

Arizona Republic columnist Elvia Diaz condemned Democrats who are “fixated with defeating Trump” and so “gave up the chance to elect a man or woman of color.”

“I’m not a happy camper,” California Rep. Barbara Lee, a Democratic National Committee member, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “When you establish rules that become systemically discriminatory against people of color, then you’ve got to question your party and how they’re making all these decisions.”

“Institutional racism and sexism is everywhere in this country, present in all of our institutions,” former DNC official Leah Daughtry told Politico last month. “And the presidential primary system is not exempt from that.”

It’s amusing that Democrats are so fixated on “racism” and “sexism” that they assume even the people who are probably the most rabidly egalitarian in the history of the world are guilty of it. The debates are white for a very simple reason: Blacks and Hispanics like the white candidates. Forty-eight percent of black Democratic voters support Joe Biden and 20 percent back Bernie Sanders. The two white boomers are the only candidates with double-digit black support. Just 4 percent of blacks supported Sen. Booker before he dropped out.

Sen. Sanders leads among Hispanics, with 36 percent. Joe Biden has 24 percent.

Some conservatives think the white field will hurt Democrats.

Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk claims the 2016 Republican primary was more welcoming to “candidates of color.”

“[Democrats] want to believe that their party is about fighting to ensure a fair shot for everybody, and minimizing any inherent advantages that whites, males, or the wealthy enjoy because of previous societal beliefs or structures,” National Review senior political correspondent Jim Geraghty wrote last month. Yet “the evidence is mounting that they can’t even mitigate this intrinsic unfair edge within their own ranks.” He thinks the “country would be better served by a menu of presidential candidates from every race, creed color and hue, and with a wide variety of life experiences.”

Do conservatives really believe this, or are they just trying to score points? Either way, this rubbish takes diversity’s supposed value for granted and assumes that anything white is illegitimate. Even when they criticize liberals, conservatives submit to their dictates.

Diversity is the highest good in modern America — for both Right and Left. The Democratic primary is a shameful failure so long as it’s white. All this wailing about it shows that white Democrats cannot control the beast they’ve created. Republicans, of course, are too weak and cowardly to exploit this moment of failure.

About Robert Hampton

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Robert Hampton is a contributing editor at American Renaissance. He is a Middle American who chose to wake up.