Too 'civil'? What if Joe Biden knows what he's doing?
An exception, by the way, might be his confusing use of "boy," a condescension usually reserved in old Southern customs and tradition for black men of any age. In his past retellings, Biden has said, "He didn't call me 'senator,' he called me 'son.' " This time he may have misspoken.
Otherwise, Biden was departing in his own way from the almost slavish way that other Democratic candidates try to appease the politically correct etiquette of the party's left-progressive base. Could Biden have been sending a message to moderates and swing voters? Was this his own subtle Sister Souljah moment, as Bill Clinton expressed by scolding the rapper -- and, by connection, the Rev. Jesse Jackson's wing of the party -- in his own successful 1992 primary race?
If so, Biden's so-called "gaffe" might be remembered as groundbreaking in its reassurance to persuadable swing voters, who fear that the Democrats have been taken over by Black Lives Matter, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other far-left progressives in the way that President Donald Trump's erratic populism has gripped the Grand Old Party.
Who knows? Running ahead of a crowded field, Biden is appealing to a broad range of voters, particularly the swing voters in the industrial Midwest who provided Trump's narrow margin of victory. Trump's persistent appeals almost exclusively to his MAGA base leaves a lot of other voters waiting to be persuaded.
In that spirit, just when Biden needed somebody at his back who wasn't sticking a knife in it, more than a half-dozen members of the Congressional Black Caucus stood by him. They included House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., the highest-ranking African American in Congress. "I worked with Strom Thurmond all my life," said Clyburn, name-dropping another infamous segregationist senator and fellow South Carolinian. "You don't have to agree with people to work with them."
Right. Misspeaking drove Biden to make early departures from his two earlier presidential runs. But, let's face it, President Trump, the single most unifying figure for Democrats, has drastically lowered the bar on permissible campaign language and behavior. With the Democratic debates about to begin, let the voters decide. That's what primaries are for. Use them.
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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)
(c) 2019 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
