For nearly a century now, these three men, each in their turn, have been the face and ideological standard bearer of the Democrat Party. But now just 15 years into the “Party of Obama,’ his power and that of his vision, are showing significant cracks. Today, it has put all its electoral eggs in an 81-year-old basket named Joe Biden whose prospects for victory grow dimmer by the day.
These are three very different versions of the Democrat Party. FDR told America there was “nothing to fear but fear itself,” and that big government would save them from a Depression with his “New Deal,” and then from the Nazis through military might. JFK had a very different message, “Ask not,” he insisted, “what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” Thus were born the anti-communist Cold War Democrats. For his part, Obama ushered in a party that is fixated, almost exclusively, on identity politics.
Of these three figureheads of the Party of Jefferson and Jackson, it was Kennedy, mainly in absentia, who had the longest run, nearly half a century from 1960 when he captured the White House and the heart of the nation, until 2008. Those old enough will recall that in 1992, when a young governor from Arkansas named Bill Clinton was introduced to America, it was through a photo of him as a teenager, shaking hands with none other than JFK. Not exactly subtle.
It is therefore somewhat fitting that Barack Obama defeated the Clintons, this time in the form of Hillary, to finally snap the spell of John F Kennedy. In almost every way the party has lurched left under Obama, he evolved on gay marriage, “safe, legal and rare” was replaced with celebrating abortion, he stoked racial division, most notably in the arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr, but more broadly as a proponent of the concept of systemic racism. He included trans students under Title IX as a parting gift.
Personnel, they say in Washington, is policy. Presidents and party bosses are not Hindu Gods with dozens of arms tugging on the levers of power, rather, they delegate. Obama’s personnel were extremely progressive and identity driven. This is why it was no surprise that Obama backed Harvard’s embattled first black president amid anti semitism and plagiarism scandals last month. It was the symbolism that mattered, not the transgressions.
According to a 2021 study by the Miller Center three quarters of Joe Biden’s top 100 aides at that time served in the Obama administration. It’s a staggering number, more so when one recalls the angry scowls as many of them watched Trump take over the White House in 2017. Their faces said, “we will be back,” and back they are.
But whether they are back to stay, either in control of the White House or the party is very much up in the air. This desire to extend the era of Obama, explains more than anything else why the Democrats will not sanction any challenge to Biden, despite his obvious electoral deficiencies. After all, a Gavin Newsom, Gretchen Whitmer, or Jared Polis likely wouldn’t make 75 percent of their staff former Obama appointees. They probably have their own choices, as well as their own ideas on what the party should represent going forward.
So long as Joe Biden is the nominee, then win or lose, the Democrats remain the party of Obama, at least in the short term. But could the long term be different? Of late we have seen Democrat Pennsylvania senator Jon Fetterman creeping back to the center, on Israel, on illegal immigration, on not letting the Japanese buy up US steel plants. Gavin Newsom has come out against keeping Trump off of the primary ballot in California. Democrat mayors across the country are sounding frustration over Biden’s border debacle. Fissures are showing.
It may be that even many Democrats today across the nation have grown weary of the divisiveness, the constant identity politics, the absurdity of men in women’s sports and porn in elementary schools. Even core constituencies of the Democrats like black and young voters are souring on their sad results. This is not merely an opportunity for Republicans to win, it is an opportunity for sensible Democrats to take back that party.
But it doesn’t seem likely to happen in 2024, Obama and his minions will not allow it, to replace Joe Biden would be to slip off the elusive ring of power in the nation’s oldest political party. For better or worse, Barack Obama seems very unlikely to let that happen, at least without a fight.
