Democrats begin long climb to relevance -- June 1, 2017 column

By MARSHA MERCER

After seven months of post-election hibernation, the old bears in the Democratic Party are stirring.   

Former Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday formed American Possibilities, a political action committee that could be his launching pad for a presidential bid.

Biden, who chose not to run last time, is probably right that he would have been a better candidate than Hillary Clinton, but time marches on. He’ll turn 78 in November 2020.

Clinton has reappeared after long walks in the woods near Chappaqua to blame her defeat on former FBI Director Jim Comey, the Russians, the Democratic National Committee, the news media and even the perception that she couldn’t lose.

“I was a victim of a very broad assumption that I was going to win,” she said Wednesday at a tech conference in California.

Whatever you think of her, Clinton insists she’s not running for office again. She does want a role in Democratic politics.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she said.

Her new political group – Onward Together – aims to organize against President Donald Trump’s policies and help people enter politics. Its slogan: “Resist, insist, persist and enlist.”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi raises hope that Democrats can regain control of the House next year with a renewed emphasis on creating jobs. She also wisely discourages loose, exuberant talk about impeaching Trump.

“If you are talking about impeachment, you are talking about, `What are the facts?’ Not that `I don’t like him’ and `I don’t like his hair’ and – what are the facts?” Pelosi said May 15 on CNN.

Pelosi wants the Speaker’s gavel back. But she is 77, and her lieutenants, Steny Hoyer and Jim Clyburn, are 77 and 76.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., who still makes progressive hearts beat fast, is 75.

Age matters in all these cases because Democrats need to let go of the past while they cultivate a new generation of leaders. Democrats know what they don’t like – all things Trump – but they still struggle with what President George H.W. Bush derided long ago as “the vision thing.”

In a sign they have no intention of fading into life in Chicago, the Obamas just plunked down $8.1 million for the house they’ve been renting in Washington.

The former president, 55, likely has decades ahead to motivate young people to get involved and run for office.

Meanwhile, one member of the younger Democratic set, Chelsea Clinton, is on the talk circuit promoting her new children’s book, “She Persisted: 13 American Women who Changed the World.”

“I don’t have any plans to” run for office, says the former first daughter. That’s a maybe.  

At 37, she has nearly 1.7 million Twitter followers, but Clinton’s chief qualifications – and her chief liabilities -- are her name and extraordinary ability to rake in cash as a speaker.

She was inspired to write the book after the Senate silenced Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., during the debate over the nomination of Jeff Sessions to be attorney general. 

  

When Warren attempted to read a letter by Coretta Scott King opposing Sessions for a federal judgeship decades ago, she basically was told to sit down and shut up.

“She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said, turning “She Persisted” into a rallying cry for Democrats.

Warren, nearly 68, is up for re-election next year and hasn’t said if she’ll run for president in 2020. Republicans reportedly plan to attack her hard during the Senate campaign in hopes of spoiling her presidential chances.

“Sometimes being a girl isn’t easy. At some point, someone probably will tell you no, will tell you to be quiet and may even tell you your dreams are impossible,” Clinton writes. “Don’t listen to them. These 13 American women certainly did not take no for an answer. They persisted.”

Large protests against Trump’s policies enliven Democrats, but it will take more than marches to win elections.

Trump’s voters aren’t yet having the buyers’ remorse critics expect. Hillary Clinton would again lose – even the popular vote -- if the election were rerun, a Washington Post/ABC News poll reported April 23.

For their long climb back to relevancy, Democrats will need fresh faces, an agenda that connects with ordinary Americans -- and persistence.

 ©2017 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.

How 'bout those girls? Daughter power in the White House -- Oct. 29, 2015 column

By MARSHA MERCER

Since Jimmy Carter was mocked for quoting his 13-year-old daughter Amy on nuclear proliferation, presidents have been careful about citing their daughters’ views on issues.

In a debate with Ronald Reagan a week before the 1980 election, President Carter said he’d asked Amy what was the most important issue, and, “She said she thought nuclear weaponry and the control of nuclear arms.”

Carter intended to use the conversation to personalize the nuke threat and show that it affects all ages, but most commentators hooted. He lost his re-election bid and there was not another daughter in the White House until Chelsea Clinton moved in with her parents in 1993.

Every election since 1992, though, voters have chosen a president with daughters, and the girls influence the dad-in-chief.

“I’ve got two daughters – I care about making sure these streets are safe,” President Barack Obama said Tuesday in Chicago as he called for tougher gun control measures.

When his daughter Malia suffered asthma as a 4-year-old, the experience influenced his views about the environment as well as health insurance, Obama has said. Because the family had good health insurance, “we were able to knock (the asthma) out early.” 

Obama has made climate change and health insurance priorities of his presidency.

Malia is now 17 and Sasha, 14. Dinner table conversations helped change his mind to support same-sex marriage, he said. The girls have friends whose parents are same-sex couples and they could not understand why those parents should be treated differently.

“It doesn’t make sense to them, and, frankly, that’s the kind of thing that prompts a change in perspective,” Obama said in a 2012 interview with ABC News.

The White House isn’t the only place where daughters’ opinions count. Academic research is mounting that daughters affect decisions in corporate boardrooms, courtrooms and in Congress.

Companies run by chief executives who have daughters have stronger corporate social responsibility ratings and spend more of their net income on corporate social responsibility than do companies whose CEOs have sons, the November issue of Harvard Business Review reports. 

For example, companies led by CEOs with daughters do more about and spend more on workforce diversity, employee relations and environmental stewardship, Henrik Cronqvist of the University of Miami and Frank Yu of China Europe International Business School found.

An earlier study found that when a member of Congress has a daughter, the representative is more likely to vote liberally, particularly on reproductive rights.

“Such a voting pattern does not seem to be explained away by constituency preferences, suggesting that not only does parenting affect preferences, but also that personal preferences affect legislative behavior,” Yale economist Ebonya Washington wrote in a 2007 paper.

After her landmark work, researchers studied the “daughters effect” on federal appeals court judges.

“Judges with daughters consistently vote in a more feminist fashion on gender issues than judges who have only sons,” Adam N. Glynn of Emory University and Maya Sen of Harvard University, wrote in an article published in January in American Journal of Political Science. Male Republican judges seem to be driving the trend, they said.

None of the studies looked closely at whether the gender of the CEO, judge or member of Congress matters more than that of his or her children, although researchers suspect it does.

After 22 years with First Daughters, voters next November will decide whether to extend or end girls’ long run in the White House.

Among the 2016 Republican presidential contenders, Donald Trump has two daughters and three sons ranging in age from 37 to 9. Marco Rubio has two daughters and two sons, while John Kasich has twin daughters,and Ted Cruz has two little girls.

Ben Carson has sons, and Jeb Bush has two sons and a daughter, all of them grown.

Among Democrats, Hillary Clinton’s daughter has a daughter, while Martin O’Malley has two daughters and two sons. Bernie Sanders has a grown son.

In 2012, you may recall, voters rejected Republican Mitt Romney, who has five sons and no daughters. Coincidence, you say? Sure.  But presidential candidates with daughters do have a good track record.

You likely won’t hear any of the candidates quoting their teenage daughters on nuclear arms this campaign season, but watch for the effect of daughter power if a candidate with girls is elected.

© 2015 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.

NOTE: An earlier version said Jeb Bush had only sons. This has been corrected to include a daughter. 

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