Following the success of his article on Wednesday, John Edwards has agreed to write for us during the rest of the Presidential campaign.
Politico.com
Saturday March 10th 2018
"Identity Politics: The Pitfall of the Democratic Mind"
By John Edwards
In 2006, Matt Santos was elected President of the United States in one of the closest margins in political history, a race in which he was still unable to win the popular vote. A race that looked to be a landslide for Arnold Vinick only a month out from the election (it likely would have stayed that way had if not for the event at the San Andreo Nuclear Power Station), Campaign Manager Josh Lyman turned to a new strategy. Determined to drive out Hispanic voter turnout in the Southwest and Florida, Lyman began pivoting the campaign towards the historic nature of then-Congressman Santo's candidacy as the first minority to be a major party's nominee for President. The plan worked, as Hispanic turnout would propel the Santos campaign to victories in Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. However, what was once seen as a last resort tactic has now become the de-jure strategy for the Democratic Party. Over the past 12 years, the Democratic Party's support among middle class voters has dropped to an all time low, particularly in key states like Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio & Pennsylvania. For 12 years, Democratic politicians have focused on the "identity" of the voter, rather than the voters themselves. Democrats have seen winnable races slip through their fingers because they took for granted that minority voters would support them no matter what as long as they painted their opponents as "Anti-Poor"; "Anti-Women"; "Anti-Gay"; "Anti-Immigrant", rather than speaking to the very issues that actually affect these peoples daily lives.
When California Congressman Will Durham visited San Francisco's Castro District before Super Tuesday this year, the move became the punch line of the week for comedians and social media alike. It would later come as a massive shock (except to the people who live there) when Durham carried San Francisco in California's primary. And these results are not an outlier. Polling data for the current election shows that minority support for GOP Candidates is at it's highest point since the 1950s. In 2015, Evan Butler took 35% of the Black vote in South Carolina by talking about issues like poverty and criminal justice reform, while his opponent took their votes for granted. Even as early as the 1990s, Josh Lyman famously lambasted then-Congressman Matthew Skinner as a "self-loathing hypocrite" because he was an openly gay republican.
For the Democratic Party's newest nominee, the dangers of being trapped by identity politics are more prevalent that ever. His victory being seen as a forgone conclusion only a few months ago, Senator Seaborn suddenly found himself on the defensive as he struggled to hold off the powerful challenge of Senator Andrew Thorn, whose economic message brought him victory after victory in the south, largely thanks to African American voters who felt like for the first time that a Democrat actually cared about the things that affect their lives. Facing several "do-or-die" primaries on "Mini-Tuesday" and unable to counter Thorn's economic message, the Seaborn Campaign once again reached into the Lyman bag of dirty tricks, deciding that if they couldn't win the issue that was being discussed, they would create there own issue. They decided that since Senator Thorn's campaign had asked the legitimate question about how an admitted felon named Laurie Edelstein (with whom Senator Seaborn was once romantically linked) got her job as an assistant US Attorney, they decided that that was sexist.
In the end, the whole debacle amounted to nothing. Much like they did in nearly every other contest, Seaborn and Thorn split the women vote. However, instead of learning from this bought of idiocy, the Seaborn Campaign doubled down, making sure to credit their victories to this new "brilliant" strategy. However, as we have seen time and time again, the strategy of identity politics will fail. Seaborn's newest tactic was decried by many within in the party as harmful to party unity. Liberal Pundit Bill Maher stated that while he voted for Seaborn in the Primary and still intended to vote for him in November, called out Seaborn on it, claiming "If you were stupid enough to sleep with a hooker, you shouldn't be shocked when someone asked if you paid".
The biggest problem for Sam Seaborn's campaign, is that he won. He won with a message of identity politics, and as we've seen, it can only take you so far. The 2018 election is perhaps the most winnable election for the Democrats in decades. Their nominee, oozes charisma and combines J. Crew model looks with a GQ sense of fashion. However, none of it will matter if they don't talk about the issues that voters care about. It's time for the Democratic Party to start caring about the voters themselves, and not their creed, color, sexual orientation, or sex.
John Edwards is a former Media Advisor to former Texas Governor John Hoynes from 2012 to 2017.
