Hillary In Durham: The Return To Reason

Hillary In Durham: The Return To Reason

On the way home from the Trump rally last night, I listened to most of the Democratic debate on the radio; much of it was translated from Spanish. 

I couldn’t pick a “winner”; they both seemed to give as good as they got.  That was both a relief and a bit of a letdown:

A BIG relief, because — agreeing or disagreeing –they both made so much sense. I understood most of what they were talking about; as other observers have pointed out, on many issues, their arguments are about tiny slivers of difference amid vast areas of policy agreement.

And a bit of a letdown, because after all these debates, and town halls, and interviews and yada yada, I could repeat much of their stump speeches while half asleep. And they were both reasonable, despite the back and forth. There’s not much of the weird, the unhinged, or the creepy to spice things up.

That’s good for the country, no question. Helps me sleep better. But bad for ratings. What about its impact on voter turnout come November? That’s the $64 billion dollar question.

But whatever. Came 3 PM or so Thursday afternoon, I joined a very long line outside Hillside High in Durham. Hillside is a historic black high school, that’s been going since the 1940s, pre-desegregation. It’s a landmark in Durham’s large and politically active black community.

Hillary is well aware of that. She also knows that Durham County is the most Democratic jurisdiction in the entire state. Turnout here will be crucial to her chances in the primary, and for the Democratic nominee in November. 

So most of the area’s elected Democratic leadership came along with Hillary to Hillside: Congressman G.K. Butterfield, who chairs the Congressional Black Caucus. (Some ex-elected officials also came along; there aren’t many Democrats left in elective office in NC.)

Butterfield’s First Congressional District is one of of those sprawling, crazily-shaped gerrymander monstrosities, which just happens to pen up black voters from a vast area, making their votes irrelevant in their actual home communities. I’d insert a map here, but the district was thrown out by a federal court a few weeks ago as racially biased (well, Duh!); litigation is ongoing, and the shape could change substantially soon. 

Durham’s mayor Bill Bell, and State Rep. Larry Hall, Minority Leader of the powerless Democratic minority in the NC house, gave warmup speeches which included definite slaps at Bernie Sanders, suggesting he was soft on mass killers who use guns (which isn’t so, but will resonate here, where there is too much gun violence).

Do I need to say much about her speech? It was strong on education; it was strong on whacking at the gun lobby.  It was strong on jobs. She talked about Chelsea and her grandchild. She talked about vote suppression. She didn’t talk about ISIS; I suspect her polls say that seems far away for most students at Hillside. There were lots of cheers and applause.

Her speech was familiar. It was shorter than Trump’s the night before. And — oh, yeah: there were no protesters dragged out. (One elderly gentlemen fainted in the humidity, and was helped to his feet and escorted gently out.) As I left, I saw one solitary young woman on the grass, in a folding chair, holding a handmade sign saying “Black Lives Matter,” and that “our children are not ‘superpredators'”; this recalls a term Hillary used  years ago, in connection with a crime bill, which left some black activists angry.

Also, one other feature of the rally: nothing was for sale: no catchy  tee shirts, no clever buttons, no nothing. And I didn’t even see any flyers or brochures. The event was billed as a “Get Out The Vote” rally; but I didn’t see anyone asking people to sign up to do phonebanks, driving people to the polls, or anything else.

On reflection, this felt a bit eerie; is the “Hillary machine” so efficient and well-oiled that it will operate automatically and invisibly? Or –?

We’ll soon find out.

Coming tomorrow: Bernie Sanders will be in Raleigh NC Friday morning. Watch for updates on this primary hat trick.