The Rev. Al Sharpton
handed Howard Dean his head during the Iowa ''Black and Brown''
presidential debate over why Dean appointed no minorities to his
cabinet during his multiple terms as Vermont governor.
The implication was that Dean has a ''race problem'' that has
crimped his campaign's ability to appeal to minority voters.
But Sharpton himself has criticized President Bush for dragging
out Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice every time his tepid support
from (and for) African Americans is brought up. Bush's assumption
that Powell's and Rice's mere presence closes the matter of race is
the equivalent of the ubiquitous Martin Luther King references
favored by Democrats as a racial quick-fix. Both are equally
irritating and irrelevant. So even if Dean had scoured Vermont for
one or two blacks to put in his cabinet, that would have been
irrelevant, too, right?
The truth is, Dean may have a race problem, but it has nothing to
do with his past hiring practices. It has to do with his
campaign.
Polls have shown that Dean's support is coming mostly from
younger, suburban, college-educated whites. His support is weakest
among two of the pillars of the Democratic base: older voters and
minorities.
That could be because Dean's message isn't resonating with those
groups. But it also could be due in part to an issue seldom talked
but that is still very much with us: the digital divide.
The Pew Research Center's most recent ''Internet and American
Life'' study found that while more than 126 million Americans used
the Internet last year, a profound gap remains between those who are
wired and those who are not.
The study found that ''older Americans are much less wired than
younger Americans; minorities are less connected than whites, (and)
those with modest amounts of income and education are less wired
than those with college educations and household incomes over
$75,000.'' The divide isn't just racial; it's suburban vs. urban vs.
rural, and childless vs. families with kids.
The ''wired'' demographics in the Pew findings correspond almost
perfectly with the Dean supporters. The survey found that 83 percent
of adults aged 18-29 are wired, compared to 73 percent of
30-to-49-year olds, 59 percent of 50-to-64-year olds, and just 22
percent of seniors. Dean's 18,000-plus donors, 56 percent of whom
have given $200 or less (only Bush had more contributors), are drawn
mostly from those younger demos.
Dean and the other Democrats are campaigning in a world where
two-thirds of whites and English-speaking Hispanics are on the
Internet vs. a little more than half of blacks.
Sending daily e-mails
The Pew survey found that African Americans and Hispanics are
less likely than whites to send e-mail on a given day (39 percent
vs. 54 percent). And e-mail is the engine driving the Dean campaign.
By being a largely virtual phenomenon, Dean's campaign (and the
campaign of Wesley Clark) appeals to a new swath of younger, more
tech-savvy would-be voters, while the more-traditional candidates
are campaigning mainly the old-fashioned way.
Dean and Clark can even things up by buying lots of television
time, thanks to their prodigious fundraising, and both have had
success getting people to turn off the computers and show up for
campaign events. But campaigns that target the young, tech savvy and
affluent will have to get grounded and get creative, both in
strategy and on issues, to reach the Old Base, which must turn out
in large numbers if the Democrats are to have a chance in
November.
The Pew poll suggests that there might be a fix for Dean.
It found that African Americans are more likely than other
demographics to search the 'Net for faith-related information. Dean,
who has said that he wants to talk more about religion in the
campaign, might want to consider blogging for BeliefNet.
Joy-Ann Reid is an online news editor and freelance
writer.
