This piece is not in praise of Stacey Abrams. So let me begin today by reminding people that I am not now, nor will I be in the future, a political candidate for anything. I'm someone who grew up in politics and has participated in politics extensively, and I have observations that I'm sharing here. Take them for what they're worth and agree or disagree with them as you will, but I’m not a threat. Let me also say that were I still a Georgia voter in 2022, I would absolutely vote for Stacey Abrams for governor. She’s pro-choice, and she favors the medicaid expansion that all but twelve states have adopted to better care for the poor. I agree with her on many issues, but those two wedges issues are enough for me.
Last week I started to discuss the enigmatic nature of Stacey's political career. There is a huge gap between her political stock and her electoral accomplishments. She has never won a general election of any significance; she trails a beleaguered Brian Kemp in polls of the 2022 gubernatorial race; she has worked hard over many years as a political organizer, yet her impact has been no greater than mostly anonymous people in a number of other states where Democrats have started to win after long dry spells. I made the case last week that the Democrats’ new success in Georgia has more to do with changing demographics and scary Republicans than anything Stacey Abrams has done. Nonetheless, she is indisputably a political superstar credited by the Democratic party base with near super-human feats. She even posed for the Washington Post as a superhero. https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2020/05/14/stacey-abrams-political-power/. How has she pulled this off.
Barack Obama wrote a book and ran a campaign and won an election and led a country all based upon “the audacity of hope.” Before him, Bill Clinton never forgot “a place called Hope.” And it was impossible to live through Ronald Reagan's presidency, whether you liked him or not, without identifying optimism and hope at the very core of his political identity and political appeal. Hope has generally been a winning message in American politics.
For the moment, we have very clearly passed from the politics of hope to the politics of aggrievement, and I believe Stacey Abrams is a superstar because she is the most adept practitioner of this politics in the Democratic party. For this very reason, even if she loses the Georgia gubernatorial race in 2022 -- perhaps especially if she loses -- she has to be considered a Democratic frontrunner for president in 2024. That race could very well pit her against the Republican party's own Godzilla of aggrievement, Donald Trump, in a contest to decide who's getting more screwed in America.
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