Diversity and the Democratic Debate

A quick thought on the Democratic debate tonight. There will be five participants, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Martin O'Malley, James Webb, and Lincoln Chafee. It is an extraordinarily homogenous group -- all white, all professional politicians, with the partial exception of Jim Webb, who has been a successful author and has exemplary military service.   The one woman, Hillary Clinton, owes all of her professional success to her husband, the former President.


It is also a pretty old field.   O'Malley is the junior at 53.   On election day, Sanders would be 75, Webb 70, Clinton 69, Chafee 63.  


Now contrast that with the Republican field.  

• Carly Fiorina., a woman who made it to the top in business through her own efforts. 
• Ben Carson, an African-American brain surgeon.
• Donald Trump, a multi-billionaire businessman.
• Ted Cruz, a Hispanic Princeton undergrad/Harvard law grad who has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on numerous occasions.
• Marco Rubio, the Hispanic junior Senator from Florida.
• Even Jeb Bush, the most conventional white male politician of the group, is married to an Hispanic woman and speaks fluent Spanish.

It's a diverse field, with diverse backgrounds and skill sets  -- women, minorities, people from outside of government.   And Cruz and Rubio would both be only 45 on election day.


That's why the Democrats will try to destroy Fiorina, Carson, Rubio and Cruz.   They desperately want to run against a white male, because they only strategy they have is to paint Republicans as the enemies of women and people of color.   And they desperately don't want to run against new fresh faces who could argue that the Republican Party is the party of the future.