Politics today is a cult of authenticity. Before a pol is entrusted with power, he or she must open their soul for inspection. This has made “phoniness” the cardinal sin of politics. We saw this in the failure of Mitt “Etch-a-Sketch” Romney, and in the struggles of Hillary Clinton to establish credibility with voters.
Which brings us to North Carolina. For once, the NCDP has it easier than the DNC. Of all their virtues, the greatest asset that Deborah Ross and Roy Cooper bring is an overriding genuineness. Cooper’s image was defined as a sober foil for the egregious Mike Nifong. Ross, although less well known to the public, is obviously heartfelt in her briefs for social justice. Tellingly, neither candidate has a need to be “humanized.”
In the coming months, these strengths will come under threat from homogenizing pressures. Some will want Cooper to “move to the left,” whether to blunt the threat of a primary challenge or for vaguer, identitarian reasons. Inversely, Ross may be encouraged to cool her jets a bit, the better to look like a Very Serious Person. These pieces of advice are siren songs, and each candidate must remain resolutely deaf to them.
2016 affords us the opportunity to place two strong, sincere personalities at the top of the ticket. More conventionally minded strategists may feel uncomfortable with the loss of control that an unvarnished personality represents. But to thwart their individuality would mean conceding a rare, precious advantage.
Let Deborah be Deborah, and let Roy be Roy.
Alexander Jones is an original contributor to PoliticsNC.
The authenticity and credibility of this report is challenged by the omission of Bernie Sanders’ name in relation to the authenticity of political candidates in 2015. This is especially true since Hillary Clinton’s name was invoked in the beginning of the article. Her authenticity problem is related to the comparison of herself to Bernie Sanders. Your readers should be reminded of this.
I don’t know who writes this page but he or she simply needs to google identitarian and then scrub it off this page!
This article and the the comment by M say nothing — lack the substance necessary to good thinking and debate.
Good to have a couple of serious and viable candidates in race. I agree that the worst thing either can do is listen too much to their advisers and get squishy, either to the left or right(see Kay(the most moderate Senator, Obama who?)Hagen.
I believe people are beginning the see what is going on in Raleigh and DC and would like to change direction.
All they have to do is vote, just vote!