Politics

Janan Gaesh, Financial Times -   Last week, I came across a statistic that made me put down the newspaper, rub my eyes with my knuckles and contemplate the middle distance for a while. Tim Walz is the first person on either the top or bottom half of a Democratic presidential ticket since 1980 who did not attend law school. That is 20 individuals across 10 elections over 40 years who pursued a JD or LLB. Not one of the four Republican presidents over the period had a legal background. 

Law is a great subject and career. I’ve come to know it a little bit for a side project. But all professions have their deforming effects. And those of law are all over modern American liberalism. Such as? A belief that voters care about or even understand constitutional proprieties....  An exhausting primness about words and their use. (A good thing in a contract dispute. Less so in a conversation with the electorate about gender and other sensitivities.) Also, a gross overvaluation of ideological fads that spring from universities. A JD takes three years, after an undergraduate degree: a party so steeped in the campus experience can’t help but overrate the strength of the militant young. 

 I don’t suggest that senior Republicans are a people’s alliance of lumberjacks and night-shift nurses. JD himself has a JD. But their recent presidents came from acting, oil and real estate. The one postgraduate among them did an MBA. Even that modicum of cognitive variety must confer an electoral edge. The right was quicker than the left to spot that something had changed in the public mood in those years after the 2008 crash.

NPR-  More than 100,000 Michigan voters cast ballots marked “uncommitted” in Democratic presidential primary this year in large part due to President Biden’s stance on Israel’s war in Gaza. With Vice President Harris at the top of the ticket, organizers behind the movement are expressing cautious optimism about their ability to engage with her. The uncommitted movement grew out of the “Listen to Michigan” campaign and wants an immediate cease-fire in Gaza. Harris will need their support, as the “uncommitted” vote in the primary was about 13% of total votes cast.