When a politicial analyst claimed that the Republican party is not finding a candidate, but in search of its soul; my husband said it was more like Republicans looking into an Abyss and having stared long enough are watching the Abyss looking back at them. Their party is fractured, their base split, their turnouts low, while independents and Democrats are genuinely excited about this race. It looks so good. However, I have some concerns.
Think back on events just after the NH victory for Hillary. How analysts made it all about the "woman" vote. That somehow Hillary's policies did not matter, her credentials didn't. That she had shown a bit of emotion, and women rallied to her support against the two men ganging up on her.
Now look at the pre-talk before the S.C primary. Analysts are bringing in race. The way they put it - Of course Obama is the favorite because by golly half of registered Democrats are African Americans and they prefer their own guy. If Obama wins S.C- which he must to retain his momentum- it will be reduced to a race based thing just like NH was made to be about women, and Nevada about Hispanics.
The danger in such speculation is that it creates an entire ingroup- outgroup mentality that divides the party base. Candidate choices should be personal- I do not dispute that, but to reduce it all to identity trivializes the choices that supporters of either candidates make.
Yes, 50 plus women are voting Hillary. But, they have turned out consistently in every election for every party candidate. African Americans have been another consistent, reliable base for democrats. To reduce their choice to purely gender based or ethnic choices is very divisive given their history of support. And I feel worst for Edward's supporters who get marginalized in all this. At least Edwards supporters get the legitimacy of voting for cause based politics, but even then, some of you may have been questioned on why you support a white, southern man. (My friend was asked to "get with the times")
Yes, for some African American voters, the idea of having an African American achieve the highest office in the land is a powerful motivator. It would be uncharacteristic of a woman to not wish a woman to break through the proverbial glass ceiling and win this. However, that is not all that fires up the support of any of these candidates.
The minute you claim that African Americans will support their own candidate, you legitimize the claim that some people will make that if black votes go by race, so do many white votes. The second people quote SC polls where African Americans are more likely to support Obama, you open up the counter attack of how Southern white males are less likely to vote for Obama. Given the heightened emotions of the supporters of these candidates, not only does the race get more and more divisive between the Obama/Hillary camps, a legitimate candidate like Edwards also gets marginalized. Who ever wins, you end up with bad feelings in some of our best, most loyal members.
Now while many people have made up their mind, there are still a lot of undecided voters. Hopefully, they will realize media spins this, and elect a candidate on the basis of more rational criteria. But I fear that by bringing issues like gender and race into it, and this being excaberated by rather over zealous supporters, you are taking a wonderful upsurge of support for the party and setting the stage where the very people who were fired up by this being ticked off, pissed off or otherwise jaded by it all. We are better than that. We honestly are.
I can't stress enough, that it is the supporters of a candidate who are now the face of the candidate to the people who have not yet made up their mind. It becomes imperative, that in a media scenario where this is made out to be divisive, that supporters conduct themselves in a way that reflects their candidate. An obnoxious Obama, Hillary or Edwards supporter, like it or not is going to reflect on the candidate because that undecided is going to hold them against the candidate. Especially if you fit the media stereotype of what Obama/Clinton supporters look like. (Edwards supporters, you get off a little easy on this.)
Supporters are perhaps the buffer zone between those who will divide the base. If the media is going to spin the ugliness, let some of us atleast try and keep this above that.