White Democrats battle demographics -- and lose
SAN DIEGO -- The recent upset in New York's 14th Congressional District brought some valuable political lessons.
Twenty-eight-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was outspent 18-to-1 by 56-year-old Joe Crowley. But she still walloped the 10-term congressman in the Democratic primary by an impressive 15 points.
When the daughter of a Puerto Rican mother and Bronx-born Latino father ousts the son of an Irish immigrant in a district that is now nearly half Latino and 68 percent nonwhite, it is tempting to say that the torch was passed. Only, in this case, it is more accurate to say that the torch was forcibly wrested from Crowley's hands against his will -- and much earlier than he was planning to surrender it.
As for the lessons, let's start with the three big ones.
(1) Some people are afraid of rainbows. Color scares them. And you can find these timid souls in both political parties.
In 2002, I was in Texas writing for The Dallas Morning News when the state Democratic Party ran what came to be known as a "rainbow ticket." There was a white male running for lieutenant governor, an African-American vying for U.S. senator, and a Mexican-American seeking to become governor.
What I remember was that many Texas Democrats were concerned that they could be headed into unexplored territory -- a time when the leadership of their party might be entirely non-white. They didn't say if this was a good thing or a bad thing. The fact is, they didn't know what to make of it. They just knew their world was changing and it made them uneasy.
Today, in Texas, whites make up only about 40 percent of the population. Shouldn't the political parties reflect that?
(2) There is a difference between wanting to help people and being willing to empower them so they don't need your help.
It's commendable when people in politics want to use their power and influence to help improve the lot of others. Not so much when they try to use the levers at their disposal to keep themselves in power by keeping their constituents weak and dependent.
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