ERASURE

The 2020 field started off as one of the most diverse fields for the Democratic nomination in recent history and has dwindled down to four legitimate contenders to win back the White House from Donald Trump: former Vice President Joe Biden, former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren.

And honestly, I am disappointed with how the field winnowed down. I have voiced these concerns to some in my political circles, friends, and family members in conversations.

I look at who got elected in 2018 to the House, various statewide offices, and other legislative offices. Colorado saw some historical firsts: Joe Neguse became the first member of the Congressional Black Caucus from Colorado. Briana Titone became the first transgender legislator in the state house. Sylvia Garcia and Veronica Escobar became the first Latinas to join the Texas US House delegation. Lucy McBath represents the district that was once held by former US House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Sharice Davids and Deb Haaland became the first Native American women in Congress. Davids also became the first LGBT person elected to Congress from Kansas. Lauren Underwood represents a portion of the Chicago suburbs. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib became the first Muslim women elected to Congress. Ayanna Pressley became the first black woman to be elected from Massachusetts.

This is just a small sample of some significant historical marks of the 2018 elections and it showed when the new House was being sworn in early last year. Look at the faces of the Democratic caucus and compare them to the Republican conference, then ask yourself who represents the vast mosaic of America? Which party is so desperately clinging to the past to where it resorts to maligning our citizens based on race, gender, sexual orientation/gender identity, national origin, and religious affiliation through their policies?

The Democratic Party wanted to avoid what the Republican Party did during their 2016 nomination process which was having so many candidates resulting in a main stage and the so-called “kid’s table” of lower polling candidates. Instead the party instituted thresholds in polling combined with individual donors as well as randomly placing candidates on two different debate nights if the debate field warranted it.

It looks like that might have backfired a bit towards Senators Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey, and former HUD Secretary and San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro.

This is where I should note that I saw Senator Harris when she visited Manuel High School in Denver last summer. I wouldn’t call myself a member of #KHive, more like #KHive adjacent in that I was willing to give her a look given the candidate field. I also saw Castro speak at UNT in February 2013 when he was San Antonio, and I admired that Castro was willing to go places where no presidential candidate dared to go as well as that he was as Texan.

In her suspension video, Harris noted that she was unable to meet potentially higher donor thresholds despite that she qualified for the debate in California in December 2019. Castro and Booker had to drop out due to not meeting polling thresholds which began the ink churning of the lack of diversity of the Democratic presidential field. The only non-white candidate remaining was entrepreneur Andrew Yang who in order to win the nomination would have to make a run like the Millennium Falcon through the second Death Star during the Battle of Endor.

To me, it seemed that Booker, Castro, and Harris had to meet impossible standards that was set by a press who four years earlier failed to vet Trump and still has yet to atone for their failure to do so. Booker and Castro weren’t given the same adoration of being a mayor as Buttigieg was despite that both candidates represented cities more diverse than South Bend and cities that were larger than South Bend (Booker’s Newark was double in size, Castro’s San Antonio is currently battling Dallas for the second spot behind Houston in Texas). Castro had the additional notch on his belt that he was a cabinet official in the Obama administration.

Harris faced criticisms of her record as California Attorney General in that she wasn’t really a progressive prosecutor. The same person who wrote that New York Times op-ed also penned an op-ed supporting one of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ policies. Harris was slandered on social media platforms about locking up parents of truant students and those possessing marijuana prior to the beginning of reducing the penalties. Harris wrote a book before winning statewide in California in 2010 called Smart on Crime that critiqued the tough on crime stances of the 1980s and 1990s and how there are other approaches within the justice system to tackle crime instead of the draconian polices that played a role in increasing the incarcerated population in this country to near shameful levels.

If Booker, Castro, and Harris had been any of the white candidates remaining, they would have been given a pass on their record, possibly still be in the race.

Instead this erasure is an embarrassment and people need to do some soul searching.