Getty Images
Martin O’Malley felt compelled to apologize for saying something that was apparently sensible on the same day that Donald Trump refused to say he was sorry for spouting something truly appalling. And these tales tell the story of the Democrats’ problem winning elections.
Here’s the quick background. At an annual gathering of uber liberals called Netroots in Arizona last week, liberal Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley was interrupted as he was speaking by protesters chanting “black lives matter” and “say her name,” referring — though it wasn’t clear O’Malley could have known this — to Sandra Bland, a black woman who died in police custody under suspicious circumstances.
O’Malley, governor of Maryland and former Baltimore mayor, responded by ticking off his impressive liberal record on these issues, but the protesters took over the stage and continued to interrupt him. Understandably frustrated, O’Malley fired off a response he probably should have thought better of. “Black lives matter. White lives matter. All lives matter,” O’Malley said over boos as he retreated from the stage.
He later apologized for that comment and spent the next complete day atoning for his sins by meeting with activists.
That same day Republican candidate Trump said that John McCain was not a hero because he had been a prisoner of war. “I like people who don’t get captured,” said Trump, who sat out the Vietnam War with a deferment thanks to a bone spur in one of his feet — he can’t remember which one. Under fierce attack and pressure to apologize, Trump refused to do so.
Trump leads in the polls for the Republican nomination and did not seem to sustain too much damage over his McCain remark.
Now, I get why O’Malley’s remark came off badly. As explained by Jason Johnson on The Root website, “‘All lives matter’ is a passive-aggressive narrative created to keep black people from being the focus of a policy conversation.”
I get that, but the only reason I understand it is that I’ve spent my entire adult life living in one of the most liberal neighborhoods in one of the most liberal towns in America. A person has to have a finely tuned sense of being aggrieved to understand what was offensive in that remark.
But for the average white American, the simple statement that “all lives matter” makes perfect sense, and to apologize for it appears nonsensical, weak and, excuse a term that itself has become politically incorrect, politically correct. Most Americans would probably feel that it was the protesters who should have apologized to O’Malley for rudely interrupting his remarks.
O’Malley was accused of tone deafness by Johnson and by David Dayen in The New Republic. But what Democrats should really worry about is how what they say and do resonates with white middle-class America. That’s where the battles are fought and, for the Democrats, lost.
In off-year elections, when the electorate is older and whiter, the Dems get taken to the woodshed. That’s why a nation that skews liberal, and is becoming more blue overall, is governed by far-right majorities in Congress and most of its statehouses and governors’ offices. As I’ve written before, it is a growing problem for American democracy, as the will of the moderate-progressive majority is frustrated by policymakers who advance a hyper-conservative minority view on key issues. To progress on liberal causes, liberals have to win back some white middle-class and blue-collar voters who could support the party on its policies, but are alienated by its cultural positioning.
And that’s why I believe Hillary Clinton will be the next president of the United States. She had the good sense not to show up at Netroots, having learned that this sort of drama is pretty much what’s to be expected there. Like her husband, who brilliantly spoke out against Sister Souljah in the run-up to his 1992 victory, Hillary seems to understand that by distancing herself from the far left she can focus the debate on economic issues, where she has a better chance to win with the bulk of voters. (Rap artist Sister Souljah had said that we should take a week out of killing black people to kill some white people. She may have been making more of a rhetorical point than an actual suggestion, but Bill Clinton seized on it and said that he thought killing white people was as bad an idea as killing black people. His response worked well as a political strategy.)
Bill Clinton demonstrated how far left rhetorical gambits present mainstream liberals with a chance to show voters that they’re different, resulting in greater electability for the very candidates who will help set a left-leaning agenda. No doubt, Sister Souljah’s causes were advanced far more by Bill Clinton than they would have been by George H.W. Bush, just as the Netroots protesters’ issues will be better addressed by Hillary Clinton than by any of the Republicans.
So, this was a chance for O’Malley to stand up to the far left and, in so doing, break out of his single-digit malaise. Instead, he apologized and therefore pretty much sealed his fate as an also-ran. The left will give him no credit for his apology and middle America will see him — if they see him at all — as just another out-of-touch liberal.
Look, Martin O’Malley is a smart guy with a solid record who would make a good president, and, in fact, maybe he’ll wind up as the running mate for Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump does discredit to the word “buffoon” and will fade just as soon as Americans tire of his latest reality show. And, of course, the Netroots protesters are right, in my view, on the issues, if wrong on strategy (and guilty of having just plain bad manners).
But what the O’Malley and Trump experiences of the last week show is that apologies rarely get you anywhere in politics. A candidate can apologize for saying something that is true on its face if somewhat “passive-aggressive,” while another candidate can refuse to say he’s sorry for saying something that is patently false and deeply offensive. And it’s the candidate who refuses to take it back that comes out ahead.
The best interests of those Netroots protesters is to elect a liberal Democrat to the White House and more Democrats to Congress and statehouses. That can’t happen without winning back some substantial portion of the white middle- and working-class voters who really believe that all lives do matter and that candidates should be allowed to finish their sentences.
