Despite the regular and ongoing fawning over candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizableth Warren, there is something wrong with this year’s crop of presidential candidates, at least according to “woke” Democrats who suddenly noticed a distinct lack of variety in their 2020 prospects.
After Kamala Harris dropped out of the race, the remaining Democratic candidates with substantial followings are all white – which is a big problem for many on the woke left. Harris had been lagging in the polls and finally dropped out this week, after dismal fundraising numbers and a rapidly shrinking presence. With Harris gone, the main contenders are “troublingly” white and include former Vice President Joe Biden, Pete Buttigeig, Minnesota’s Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
The outrage overlooks several other candidates, who are not white – Andrew Yang, Julian Castro, Cory Booker and Tulsi Gabbard all remain in the race, but none of these candidates have a strong enough presence to sooth the angry woke left.
According to the Washington Post, many woke liberals don’t feel the current presidential roster and debate slots are diverse enough. Criticism poured in this week once it was noticed that with Harris out of the picture, the frontrunners were all white. One woke pundit, Hilary Clinton spokeswoman Charlotte Clymer, referred to the current lineup as “White Christmas.”
The lack of diversity is reflected on the Democrat side – but in the most recent nomination bids in 2016, Republicans had more minority representation. Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Ben Carson were are prominently featured in the primaries and all had a shot at the top spot, eventually earned by now-President Donald Trump.
Woke leftists aren’t the only folks noticing the whiteness of Democratic leadership; once Harris bowed out of the race, Cory Booker shared his anger over the remaining presence of white candidates, particularly those with wealth:
“I’ve seen the bile, the anger, from my family members, to people in the Congressional Black Caucus, to leaders of color across this country who just don’t understand how we’ve gotten to a point now where there’s more billionaires in the 2020 race than there are black people,” he told BuzzFeed News.
Booker isn’t the only one who notably dislikes the candidate makeup. Fellow candidate Julian Castro, who is also still in the running, spoke out on Harris’s departure, indicating that her race may have been a factor:
“To me, they held her to a different standard, a double standard, to other campaigns,” Castro said. “And I don’t know if it impacted her decision to withdraw from the race or not, but I’m sure it didn’t help.”
