An Exercise in Removing Bias

If we threw race and gender out the dynamic, what would the narrative of this campaign look like?

In an effort to make a point, I will attempt to do so by removing gender and race from the narrative of the current Democratic nomination for President.

Once Upon A Time,

there was a candidate. This candidate had a last name that was very familiar to everyone. This candidate was presumed to be, by public opinion, pollsters, and media alike the inevitable candidate. This candidate started out taking conventional wisdom and all these assumptions as gospel and made a point of not taking any contrary viewpoint particularly seriously, assuming that by mere name recognition, history, and familiarity this candidate would win hands down.

A challenger arose. A newcomer to the political scene, the odds of this candidate winning against the seasoned Washington insider with all the odds seemed remote. A few, the same few who always choose their conscience over the odds, supported this candidate from the outset. For many months, this candidate ran a distant, though healthy second place to the challenger.

Graced with a unifying spirit and rhetoric of inspiration, this challenger posed a threat not taken seriously by the presumed sure thing candidate that had practically been given the Democratic nomination by default.

But lo and behold, it all began to change. The promising outsider began winning caucuses and primaries and the momentum swung the challenger's way. It seemed implausible. Such things never happen! Who would have ever dreamed a challenger that until months before few had heard of could seriously attack the machine and presumed party spokesperson!

But the challenger knew that a war of attrition and a war over the hearts and minds of the American people would be no easy feat. The challenger knew this going in and presumed correctly that fighting against Washington and the Old Guard would be a massive endeavor and that the insider would not go gently into that good night. The challenger understood that the Old Guard dies slowly and even when backed into a corner, it does not easily concede defeat.

After weeks of back and forth bickering, arguing experience versus judgment, inspirational empty rhetoric versus words that promised known ability and known entities, fear versus hope, new versus old, the day came where the challenger, who had now taken the lead and flipped the dynamic absolutely upside down, stood poised to launch the decisive blow against the former sure-thing.

Attacks by both sides, some personal, some not, were but salvos launched directly at each other and the supporters of either candidate. Religion, patriotism, war, liberal, conservative, all of these same motifs found themselves spun against and for both challengers. The media, known for interjecting its will and its own love of conflict into the debate, was glad to make the race as contentious as possible, as were the supporters of both candidates.

By the end, the people had to decide.

Flip to page 17 to learn what happened.