Passing the Baton

What do Bill and Hillary Clinton, George W. Bush, Al Gore, John Kerry, and (Boo! Hiss!) Donald Trump have in common? The easy answer is that all were nominated for president. Delving deeper, all graduated from high school in either 1964 or 1965. For better or worse, the Baby Boomer Generation dominated (and still kind of does thanks to Trump) national politics since 1992. The only non-Boomer presidents in that time span (Obama and Biden) were the best.

Is it time for the Spoiled Children of the ’50s (myself included) to pass the political baton?

Yesterday, a lovely young woman knocked on our door. I recognized Anna Thomas, Democratic candidate for the PA House, from her TV ads. She was “knocking on doors” to introduce herself to her future constituents. Anna is probably in her late 20s and is of South Asian descent. She grew up in Bethlehem and was appalled by the warehouse sprawl when she came back to the Lehigh Valley after college. Her main issue is to limit that sort of development. Our current State Rep is a long-serving Republican who toes the conservative line on abortion and charter school vouchers even though he was a public school teacher.

A younger minority woman is challenging an older conservative White guy nationally. The same is happening here in the 137th PA Legislative District. We assured Anna that she had our support.

JD Vance commented that the votes of those who have the highest stake in America’s future should count for more. JD was thinking of White Christian heterosexual males of course. I contend that Anna Thomas has the greater stake. As a minority female, she has two strikes against her before she comes to bat. Running for office took courage, but it may pave the way for future Annas to succeed.

By Ed Dufton