|
First, there were the old-style, New Deal Democrats. They promoted social programmes and obtained street repairs, building permits, and city jobs for their working-class constituents.
Then there were the Democrats of 1968 — young, idealistic, and rich. They were preoccupied with the peace movement, and despised the dirty politics of old-style Democrats. They demonstrated at the 1968 Democratic Convention, split the Democratic Party, and swung the election to Republican Richard Nixon.
The 1968 Democrats, who came to dominate Democratic politics, were contemptuous of white working-class voters, and made them feel sour about the Democratic Party. It was working-class “Reagan Democrats” who swept Republican Ronald Reagan into office in 1980, and subsequently became a reliable base for conservative Republicans.
Competing for the Democratic nomination in 2008, John Edwards, an economic populist, could not win them back. He promised programmes that would benefit working-class Americans, but most did not believe him.
Edwards’s failed campaign nudged the two remaining Democratic contenders, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, to the left — even though both were centrists, and there was little to distinguish them ideologically. Obama enchanted high-prestige Americans — the young, rich, and cool, and those who just imagined they were. Hillary Clinton appealed to Americans who knew they were uncool; in particular, those with the least prestige of all — older, working-class women.
Many people hated Hillary. They perceived her as a strident, ruthlessly ambitious shrew, intent on pursuing a radical political agenda — an icon of feminism as they understood it. Men did not like her. Young college-educated women who had broken into the unisex élite did not care for her, either: they regarded feminism as an outdated embarrassment. Even Democrats who did not dislike Hillary were convinced that everyone else did, and that she was therefore unelectable.
Electability was a serious concern. Although Americans were thoroughly sick of George W. Bush, they were not disillusioned with his conservative agenda. Indeed, the worse things became, the more convinced they were that the problem was Bush, and not the Republican Party or its policies (Comment, 21/8 December). As for the Iraq War, Americans had become used to it, and saw their rising comfort-level as evidence that “the Surge worked” — a McCain mantra.
McCain, the Republican front runner, was popular because he was tagged with the alliterative epithet “maverick”. Americans distrust government and politicians. They clamour for term limits to undermine political careerism, and vote for politicians whom they believe are not politicians — those they perceive as bucking the political establishment.
As a traditional white male candidate, and as someone perceived as a maverick, McCain won both ways. As a non-traditional female candidate, perceived as a conventional, opportunistic politician, Clinton lost both ways.
Last week, on Super Tuesday, McCain effectively captured the Republican Party’s nomination. The Democratic race was inconclusive, although Obama appears to have the momentum. “Baby boomers”, such as Clinton, who wrenched the Democratic Party from the New Dealers — now old and uncool — are being muscled out. But the spirit of 1968 broods over the 2008 Democratic campaign, and the empty rhetoric of youth, idealism, and vision is remarkably familiar.
Dr Harriet Baber is Professor of Philosophy at the University of San Diego, USA.
|
back to Comment
previous story
|
next story 
%231%23.jpg)
.gif "New, nearly new, and used cars for church and charity © site")
