Political primaries are a good thing, no matter how many candidates, because they allow for the exchange and testing of ideas.
With Joe Biden entering the race, an intriguing match up of messages is emerging between the oldest and youngest Democratic candidates. In his opening message, Biden, 76, speaks to the current political decision before the country as a “battle for the soul this nation.” The youngest candidate, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, 37, casts a more forward tone: “It’s not about winning an election, its about winning an era.” Both are noble stands, and both are different.
It makes sense for Biden to take his approach to challenge the Trump administration as an aberration in our politics that puts everything about America at risk. As a highly seasoned political professional with decades of public service experience in the Senate and the White House, he witnesses the current decision facing the nation as one of pure political conscious, the good kind.
Who are we as a nation today? What values have defined us and brought forward the American story at home and around the world? Biden lives those values and wants his campaign to be one that affirms them, and stands as a repudiation of the break-all-the-china approach that gripped the electorate the last Presidential election. The choice is Trump or America.
Out of the blue — or perhaps rising like a stalwart heartland corn stalk — comes Mayor Pete, who redefines the political game board as a mission to win the next America era for all Americans. He brings a millennial dream team of skill sets and accomplishments: education, social contribution, military and public service, and perhaps most important of all, a full embrace and integration into the new social construct achieved though this century’s explosive inter-linking of ideas through technology. His sexuality is a novelty for the media, but he doesn’t need an elder Democrat’s blessing to be who is he. He already is, and that resonates.
The novelty of the Buttigieg campaign helps him garner more attention, yet, without his authenticity, he would quickly loose steam. It remains to be seen if voters in New Hampshire, Iowa and elsewhere feel he has the true grit for the job.
Biden brings a certain gravitas mixed with his own personal folksy political style honed for years in the Senate and from his native Delaware. He has the elder’s voice. Not quite yet a statesman, yet he speaks like one. Will voters see him ready to make the big speeches that deliver big things?
Swirling around is a sea of other candidates, who, by and large, are all quite capable individuals. Diverse and articulate voices abound, and it is way too early to suggest that the race is centered around just two men. Not by a long shot. Hopefully, all the candidates will see the race as a chance to hone their ideas and messages for the American people. We have a long way to go.
Yet this generational bi-polar comparison is hard to resist, and perhaps it provides good bookends for the debates to come. Does the nation support a leader who has lived through a world that has created many of problems the daunt us today, or do we place our hands in someone who will have to live with the solutions that are proposed and enacted?
And this is where the dynamic becomes more interesting, because the electorate is still as frustrated as it was two years ago, though the landscape is different. Does a sense of a steady hand of experience mean much to voters who embraced Barack Obama, but then turned to Trump for hope? Or do we as a nation see ourselves more in the rising generation, its grasp of knowledge and technology, and almost boundless ability to move into new places of thinking and social exploration unencumbered by old institutional norms of government, religion, or, to borrow a phrase, whatever.
What I hope is that this debate dynamic and others will energize our citizens to get engaged, to grab the amazing tools to inform themselves, and think hard about what future we want for America. The mid-terms suggest the voters are waking up and taking notice, and that is good. The loudest and the most tweeted do not define who we are.
Perhaps by seeing these two fine leaders offer themselves to the country, individuals of vastly different ages and perspectives, we will think deeper about what we want America to be. What voice we want our nation to have here at home, to the world and into the future.
It’s not a bad place to start.
A native of Utah, Scott Williams is a communications consultant in Washington, D.C.
Scott Williams, a native of Utah, is founder of ForeFront Strategies, a Washington, D.C.-based communications firm.