It's Not 'Safer' For Democrats To Nominate A White, Straight Christian Man For President

Cynicism isn't wisdom.

Donald Trump’s approval has sunk to an all-time low of 33 percent. That’s lower than Joe Biden’s when he disgracefully left office older than when he entered. Yet, Democrats are still running scared. That’s expected, though. They have to do it. It’s part of their lifestyle.

There is admittedly a concerning gap between Trump’s disapproval and voters’ stated support for Democrats, who are only polling between three to seven points ahead of Republicans on the generic House ballot. Voters might loathe Trump but they are still skeptical of Democrats. In 2022, a Red Wave was avoided because voters who “somewhat disapproved” of Biden still voted for Democrats down ballot. Something similar could happen in November, where non-Trump Republicans prevail in tight races. However, voter contempt for Trump is so great and Republicans are so in lockstep with him that voters might correctly feel that the only way to punish Trump is to vote against Republicans down the line. That could result in a Blue Tsunami, where Alaska or even Texas flips. So, hooray, right? Well, maybe not. (Watch below.)

---

---

If Only Democrats Were In Disarray

Axios reports that some top Democrats are just asking if maybe the best way to defeat the political dynamo that’s JD Vance in 2028 is to play it safe and nominate a man — no, sit down, Pete Buttigieg, they mean a straight man. Oh, don’t even bothering standing up, Cory Booker and Wes Moore, they mean a straight, white man. No, don’t get too excited, Josh Shapiro, they also mean a straight, white, Christian man.

Holly Otterbein and Alex Thompson write:

But falling short twice to President Trump — both times with women on the ticket — has left some Democratic leaders, donors and strategists deeply pessimistic about what voters will accept now.

“There is a fear — and I actually don’t think this is just a grass-tops fear, I think you’d hear it from voters, too — that a woman has now lost twice,” a national Democratic strategist told Axios. “So not discounting the hundreds of other times men have lost … but is it the right thing to nominate a woman?”

But you are, Blanche. You are discounting the hundreds of other times men have lost. (Watch below.)

Specifically, these scaredy-cat Democrats are ignoring that Joe Biden has been a white, straight, Christian male for longer than color television has existed, and in the most recent election, he was on track to lose far worse than Kamala Harris actually did. (His own internal polling showed Trump winning 400 electoral votes.)

This Axios piece seems like the start of a permission structure for donors to keep their wallets shut when women candidates come calling. It’s hard for a woman to get elected to anything if she can only afford ads during cable infomercials or my podcast.

“Very concerned” Democrats might quietly ask if 2028 is the “right time” to nominate a woman, but Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris were both nominated at the worst possible time for any Democrat, while the men who have won in my adult lifetime were nominated at the best moment for Democrats: Bill Clinton defeated incumbent President George H.W. Bush during a recession. Barack Obama won the same year that President George W. Bush presided over the 2008 economic crisis, which was the result of his own awful policies. Basically, if you want a recession, put a Bush in charge.

Biden also benefitted from running in a politically good year for Democrats, and I still question whether he might have won at all without covid. During the pandemic, when Trump pushed snake oil cures while Americans died, Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren, and Kamala Harris could have all reached 270. I’d even argue that Trump’s best performance was against Biden. He came very close to winning as the sitting president presiding over an economic and public health crisis.

Kamala Harris Took Joe Biden’s Ass Whooping For Him. He Should Just Say Thank You.

Unfortunately, it seems as if we keep steering women candidates toward the “glass cliff.” This is an unfortunately common phenomenon where women are promoted to higher positions during times of crisis or overall catastrophe, when the chance of failure is more likely. That best describes the circumstances of Joe Biden’s last-minute withdrawal from the presidential race and Kamala Harris’s elevation to the top of the ticket with just 107 days left until the election. Her candidacy began with a large asterisk attached because she hadn’t actually won the nomination through a contested primary, even though she probably would have if Biden hadn’t run for re-election. I’d argue that she still wouldn’t have faced a serious challenge in a 2024 primary, considering that the incumbent Democratic president’s approval was in the toilet. Few politicians voluntarily sign up to have their asses beat in public. (I don’t kink shame what people do in private.) There was a reason Gavin Newsom, JB Pritzer, or Josh Shapiro didn’t try to run in 2024. They saw the numbers. Biden’s near-freezing approval ratings and voter discontent with the economy/immigration spelled doom for the party in power. Democrats could’ve nominated a candidate with two penises and he’d still lose with those numbers.

In the private sector, a business would easily lose an employment discrimination case if it denied promotions to women because two individual women had struggled in the past for reasons that are not directly related to their gender. The fundamentals were against Hillary Clinton in 2016 (very hard for the same party to win a third term in the White House). Kamala Harris prevented a down ballot rout for Democrats, which is why the Senate is even in reach this year. A fair conclusion from her loss simply that the “sitting vice president of an unpopular president will lose.” Al Gore narrowly (thanks to the Supreme Court) lost in 2000, and his sitting president Bill Clinton enjoyed almost 60 percent approval on Election Day. George W. Bush’s approval was under 50 percent at the end of October 2004, and John Kerry still failed to beat him — and candidates don’t come much straighter and whiter than Kerry.

Why Is Everyone So Afraid Of President AOC?

After Harris’s loss, Michelle Obama claimed that America probably wasn’t “ready” for a woman president. She said the nation has “got a lot of growing up to do, and there's still, sadly, a lot of men who do not feel like they can be led by a woman.” The subscribing members of the He-Man Woman Haters Club probably weren’t the decisive swing voters in 2024, and many of the men who flipped from Biden to Trump (especially men of color) did so because they thought Trump would prove better for the economy. Eye-rolling stupidity is slightly different from irredeemable sexism.

Harris unfortunately also fed this cynical thinking when she revealed in her memoir, 107 Days, that she didn’t pick Buttigieg as a running mate because he was gay and she, if you haven’t noticed, was not a white, straight man.

“But we were already asking a lot of America: to accept a woman, a Black woman, a Black woman married to a Jewish man,” Harris said. “Part of me wanted to say, ‘Screw it, let’s just do it.’ But knowing what was at stake, it was too big of a risk.”

I’m sure someone with several advanced post-graduated degrees will explain why Harris’s frustrating risk aversion, which hindered her campaign, is somehow unavoidable if you’re a woman in politics. I just think that’s both fatalistic and sexist in itself.

Democrats should stop looking for reasons to not support women, and they definitely don’t need excuses to support very basic male candidates. The latter has been the default. How else do you explain Walter Mondale and Mike Dukakis? I understand the stakes are high in 2028 — yet another “most important election of our lifetime,” — but that’s why Democrats should get out of their own identity-obsessed heads and just rally behind the candidate they believe is the most qualified and can win because they stand for something that will resonate with voters. Nominating a “white, straight Christian male” for that reason above all isn’t strategic. It’s just settling.