Long time, no blog. We're just past Super Tuesday and Joe Biden and his team pulled off a dramatic upset. Drawing on support from the Black Community, Baby Boomers and pretty good chunk of Gen X, he won 9 states outright, and split the vote with Bernie Sanders in 4 others to win at least some delegates.
Nobody saw this coming last week, even after South Carolina, most pundits, polls and voters had Bernie ahead in almost all the Super Tuesday states. I have a theory about what happened. It's a little nuanced but it's based on my experiences working with victims of abuse, and it sort of makes sense.
When we deal with victims of child abuse, we do everything we can to keep the family together, and keep kid safe. That's the mission, that's the job. Every so often, (about 3% of all cases) the abuse is so bad, or it's been repeated so many times, we have to take the child into protective custody and place in foster care.
America and the Democratic party are the abuse victim, that need foster care for safety and healing. Now you're thinking What the hell is this guy talking about? Bear with me. My assertion is that Donald Trump and the GOP have abused the country so badly in the last four years, that we as a country and a party need to be protected, and given a safe space to heal.
Now when we take children into foster care, we have several choices to make about placement. Non relative licensed foster care is certainly an option. Safe people who would take a kid in and protect them and provide structure. In this analogy Warren, Harris, Castro, Klobuchar, Buttigieg, and Booker are the licensed non-relatives. Good people who would take good care of us.
I've worked with foster parents who have traits similar to each of these candidates. Foster parents like Elizabeth Warren, who keep a kid safe and have a plan for that kid daily, but also a kind heart. Fosters like Kamala Harris who will take that angry ornery kid, give them some real truth and at the same time buy a plane ticket and an extra Disney pass, so the kid can go with the family even if the kid just got there.
Foster dads like Julián Castro, Pete Buttigieg, and Cory Booker, who inspire the kids they take in and make sure they do their homework and play their sports or go to their plays. Foster moms like Amy Klobuchar and Kristen Gillibrand who do the same thing and also make sure the kids learn about body safety and consent.
All of the traits of all of these candidates are things I see in Foster Parents. What they don't have in this analogy is they are not family. Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders to a lesser extent are family for whole swaths of Democrats.
Let me explain. When we take children into care, we do have choices of many qualified loving foster parents, but to try to make the kids feel as safe as possible, we first seek out relative foster parents who are members of the kids family. People the kid knows. This makes the kid feel safer. As good as Elizabeth Warren or Kamala Harris might be as foster moms, they are strangers to a lot of people.
Joe and Bernie are family. People know them. I think the reason Joe is doing better is because he's like my grandpa Tom who was solid as a rock, somewhat progressive, but safe and comfortable. Bernie is more like my Great Uncle Nat who was an inventor and somewhat eccentric. Nat was a good guy and I think Bernie is a good guy, but Nat had ideas that people thought were too far out there and I think that's why mainstream Dems are hesitant to get behind him.
Joe is the guy who snuck you candy even when you didn't finish your broccoli. Joe is also the guy who is tough enough to come running downstairs in his boxers and boots with a 12 gauge when somebody was trying to enter your house (true story about my grandpa). Joe may be staid, and corny and boring, but the country wants from a little boring in my opinion.
I have long thoughts about the misogyny that tanked the female candidates and I wish they all could have stayed in because they all would be good Presidents, but because of the way things have gone, they won't be. That sucks. I hope Joe and if he makes a late charge, Bernie chooses a woman for Vice President, so that to people in this country in a few years, she will feel like family.
In my work kids have better outcomes when they're with family. Taking a kid away from their parents because they are abused is very traumatic. This country and has been abused for the last four years. The country and the Democrats in particular need to be given space to heal and feel safe. Could any of the Democratic nominees do this? Of course, but like an abused kid we crave the safety of family.
