Former Vice President Joe Biden is known for a multitude of personality traits and political issues: He nibbles, sniffs, enjoys hairy leg rubs from children, has segregationists as mentors, and is perhaps losing his grip on reality. Now, one can add tyrant – erring on the side of Caucasian – to the presidential candidate’s growing curriculum vitae. Biden campaign field organizers in the Sunshine State penned a tattling letter to the Florida Democratic Party with a claim of “suppressing the Hispanic vote” and relocating key Spanish-speaking staffers out of heavily Hispanic districts.
The letter published by The Miami Herald reads in part:
“The [Coordinated Campaign of Florida] is suppressing the Hispanic vote by removing Spanish-speaking organizers from Central Florida without explanation, which fails to confront a system of white-dominated politics we are supposed to be working against as organizers of a progressive party.”
As one might expect, there is a union involved – IBEW Local 824 – and demands in the letter to the party are clear:
- Apologize for the treatment of field staff.
- Commit to restoring organizers back to their original locations.
- Give adequate notice of planned events and job openings.
- Resume previous organizing activities.
So basically, low-on-the-Seminole-totem-pole staffers want to be treated as brain trusts of a presidential campaign and included in strategic backroom meetings. This is not how a presidential campaign works: There are pecking orders and a reason for such things. Loose lips sink ships and all that. And that perhaps demonstrates further how the chasm between progressives and Democratic faithful only continues to widen.
You Work For Biden Not Bernie
Young staffers are beginning to realize a harsh reality of a Biden campaign. State managers, directors, and field managers have no time for hand-holding less than 100 days away from the election. Whatever strategic decisions made by the muckety-mucks do not take into account dashed dreams, participation trophy purchases, or whether the staffer believes he or she is the best-ever-smartest-ever person to tell their boss what to do.
One organizer chimed in: “A lot of the field organizers are young, and with that comes different views of workplace norms.”
Sure, but presidential campaigns are brutal – a boot camp for reality: folks get yelled at, sleep is considered a luxury, the food is fast, and the praise slow to come. And that praise is a 50-50 shot and only when the last vote is cast. There are no safe spaces, and with today’s softer, angst-ridden 20-somethings, a national campaign is sure to disappoint someone expecting a participation trophy.
A sampling of complaints given to the Florida Democratic Party included: “We were told that we would get placement calls about where we thought we should be best placed and where we’d be most effective.” That was never going to happen.
Another disgruntled young’un was hoping to get the bad guys: “It’s disappointing, but I can’t say that I’m surprised. I just hope that it will be reckoned with soon.”
The collective bomb-drop in the letter was nearly humorous if it weren’t so sad: “It is necessary to emphasize that despite this lack of preparedness by leadership, existing productive work was halted and the little strategy that was shared is ill-suited for the new dynamics of remote organizing.”
Even if they are correct in the lack of progressive strategy, these idealistic young people appear to be woefully undereducated on American political-party campaigns – and have no concept of their place in the system. Perhaps the Democratic National Committee will step up and make those mean Floridians take direction from the recent high school graduate or bored college student. But probably not.
Kids, this isn’t Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign where everyone was entitled to a plush purple unicorn and free stuff. Biden is old guard, and this is straight out of the establishment Democratic playbook. Your position for 2020 will be in the index.
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Read more from Sarah Cowgill.
