Democrats face big Super Tuesday choice
It’s no overstatement to say the Super Tuesday vote could determine the direction of the Democratic Party.
Will Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders solidify his socialist revolution and build a delegate lead so large that it could prove highly difficult to overcome?
Or does the traditional, left-of-center wing of the party reassert itself, with the race tightening and carrying on for the next several months, potentially to the convention in Milwaukee July 13-16?
Provincially speaking, the results could help determine whether Connecticut’s presidential primary April 28 will matter, or if the outcome will be essentially decided by then.
The delegate fight has yet to take place in a state well reflective of the current Democratic Party. The Nevada caucuses, a relative footnote in the process, probably came the closest in terms of politics and demographics. Iowa and New Hampshire both have relatively tiny minority populations. South Carolina, which held its primary Saturday, was the first state with a large pool of black voters, but Democratic voters there are generally more conservative than their national counterparts and it is a state Democrats are not going to win in the presidential race.
Yet, as nonrepresentative as they may be, the early primaries and caucuses have shaped the Democratic field that arrives for the Super Tuesday contest. The top prizes are California and Texas, with 415 and 228 delegates, respectively. Also voting will be Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont and Virginia.
A total of 1,357 delegates are in play, with 1,991 delegates needed to clinch the nomination. Most fundamentally, this is a fight over the ideological soul of the Democratic Party.
Sanders, a self-identified Democratic Socialist, wants to pull America hard left, instituting a national health care system, eliminating private health insurance, having government foot the bill for public college educations, forgiving student debt, and launching a Green New Deal that would use the heavy hand of the government to fully transition electricity and transportation to renewable energy within a decade.
His viable remaining contenders appear to be former Vice President Joe Biden and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Though there are policy differences, both men would preserve and build upon the Affordable Care Act, including pushing for a public option. They would take incremental steps to improve access to free community college and technical training, while providing some student debt relief. And they would use government inducements, investments and regulatory control to steer the nation toward more renewable energy sources.
It is no surprise where The Day stands and why the editorial board would just as soon see the race, and the debate, continue. A Democratic candidate with a more pragmatic agenda stands the better chance, particularly in toss-up states, to attract the broad support necessary to defeat President Donald Trump. Such an agenda has the advantage of having a chance of enactment. We see no path to ratification of Sanders’ radical national health care and free college platforms, even if he wins.
Yet there is no denying that many young voters, and plenty of older ones too, find Sanders’ call for a “revolution” of sweeping change exciting. He built momentum in the early primary states. And more than a million Super Tuesday voters have already cast ballots.
Still, Biden’s decisive victory in South Carolina revived his candidacy and the moderate wing is coalescing.
Dropping out the race after South Carolina were Pete Buttigieg and billionaire businessman Tom Steyer. Buttigieg’s campaign was a historic one, demonstrating an openly gay man can compete for the presidency. At age 38, the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor’s eloquent calls for unity were reminiscent of another politician who defied expectations, former President Barack Obama. Buttigieg has a bright future in the party.
Then, Monday, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar ended her quest for the nomination. Both Buttigieg and Klobuchar on Monday endorsed Biden. These Democrats made the right decision in winnowing the field and clarifying the choice for voters today.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren remains in the race, but it is hard to see her path to the nomination. She may well finish second today to Sanders in her home state of Massachusetts.
Today’s vote could also render a verdict, to some extent at least, on Bloomberg’s unorthodox strategy to skip the opening primary states and use his vast resources to build ground operations in Super Tuesday states, along with saturation advertising.
It is a night that should make for riveting political theater.