‘White liberals can love Warren or Buttigieg until the cows come home, but the belittling of Biden’s support reeks of privilege…’
(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) The list of time-honored practices under fire from left-wing political failures is growing.
Outraged by the inability to game the system to their advantage, they have blamed everything from political redistricting to the Electoral College to the Supreme Court.
Now, another institution has been added: the “racist” nominating contests that push the wrong candidates to the forefront, lending crucial momentum to their campaigns while deflating the efforts of minority-friendly underdogs like… former Vice President Joe Biden?
“Not a single Democratic candidate for president is racist,” wrote Jessica Tarlov, head of research at Bustle Digital Group and a Fox News contributor, in an opinion piece published Tuesday by The Hill.
“In fact, the majority of them have dedicated their careers to lifting up minority voices,” Tarlov continued. “But the system—like so much of the bureaucracy in America—is [racist].”
Tarlov complained that the sequence of primaries and caucuses diminished minority voices—and black voters in particular.
“It isn’t new to point out and bemoan the fact that the two earliest primaries are in majority-white states where voters don’t reflect the national party,” she wrote. “Narratives and results developed around Iowa and New Hampshire create deep misrepresentation of the 2020 race.”
According to 2010 census data, all but four states (Hawaii, California, Texas and New Mexico) are majority white. Overall, white voters (excluding Latino/Hispanic voters who are technically considered Caucasian) make up 60 percent of the population.
Only two other states—Nevada and South Carolina, both of which have large nonwhite constituencies—are scheduled to precede the March 3 “Super Tuesday” primaries next year.
But those hardly offered consolation for the offenses of their two electoral forebears. Both Iowa and New Hampshire customarily have had citizenries more than 90 percent white—although a recent influx of Latinos has taken Iowa to 85 percent as of July 2018.
“In our quest to quarterback the race, predominantly white electorates bestow ‘surge’ status upon candidates who are out of step with crucial voting blocs,” griped Tarlov. “The result is that the atmosphere of this primary season is divorced from the reality of a) how elections are won for Democrats and b) the values and priorities candidates espouse in campaigning.”
Not satisfied with lumping all nonwhite minorities together under one generic banner of ‘marginalized Democratic voters,’ Tarlov shifted her focus specifically to America’s black population, which comprises 13.4 percent of the total but disproportionately influences the electorate, she claimed.
“After big and important Democratic wins, black voters are lauded for their loyalty and consistency,” Tarlov generalized.
Surprisingly, while radical progressives like Bernie Sanders have complained that the front-loading of more conservative-leaning primaries was unfair to them, Tarlov took the opposite approach.
She said it was Biden, the odds-on favorite and self-declared working-class moderate, who was being victimized by a false narrative that ignored his overwhelming support among blacks.
“African Americans are still the most consistent, loyal Democratic voters,” Tarlov stereotyped, “and they also happen to be the biggest supporters of frontrunner Joe Biden’s candidacy.”
She blamed recent shifts in the momentum not on the 76-year-old’s Biden’s own shortcomings but on the the institutional racism underlying the entire electoral process.
“A perusal of the latest headlines tells you what you need to know about the narratives of the race, which have been far more interested in amplifying candidacies that garner little to no African American support while dismissing Biden’s as dull, gaffe-prone or safe.”
In essence, Tarlov asserted, it was “white privilege” that was oppressing Biden and his candidacy.
“No candidate is above close coverage and no analyst would claim Biden is a perfect candidate,” she said. “White liberals can love Warren or Buttigieg until the cows come home, but the belittling of Biden’s support reeks of privilege. This type of coverage is adding yet another systemic challenge to black Americans’ futures.”