Tuesday night's Democratic primary debate in Des Moines, Iowa, will feature just six candidates: former vice president Joe Biden, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.), unemployed 37-year-old Pete Buttigieg, and billionaire tycoon Tom Steyer. All of them are white, a fact that some Democrats, primarily journalists, consider to be problematic.
ABC News analyst Matthew Dowd, a former Republican strategist turned conventional liberal pundit, has a different view. Dowd, who recently was forced to apologize for making degrading remarks about a female member of Congress, suggested that, actually, the all-white Democratic debate field is "incredibly diverse."
Can we just acknowledge that diversity isn’t only defined as skin color. Diversity is also age, sexual orientation, life experience, sex, etc. and by that standard the dem debate stage tonight is still incredibly diverse.
— Matthew Dowd (@matthewjdowd) January 14, 2020
In a way he's right. The fact that one of the candidates on stage (Buttigieg) is not a millionaire, and three of them (Warren, Biden, and Sanders) did not attend an Ivy League university, actually constitutes an unusual amount of diversity when it comes to presidential candidates. But this expert analysis from Dowd, a white man, is unlikely to hold much sway in the modern-day Democratic Party.
Some users of the popular social networking website Twitter responded to Dowd's assessment in critical fashion.
While true, diversity (and discrimination) based on skin color is by far the most prevelant and relevant diversity characteristic in America. And has been for an exceptionally long time.
— realKP (@Petersen4UNI) January 14, 2020
Altho I don’t engage much on this app you’re among my favorite follows, respect! I know what you mean, but when we speak about diversity in any context in this country it means color! It’s uncomfortable, but the Democratic Party needs to look like all of us.
— Asma Jama (@Asma_Jama11) January 14, 2020
https://twitter.com/AmySeeksTruth/status/1217131850273099779
no one looks at the brady bunch and says look at this diversity. Sorry
— Christian J Cabrera (@cjcabrera2) January 14, 2020
https://twitter.com/Giorgiaxoxox/status/1217136863930175490
No. When these people walk out the door, they're all shielded by their skin color. Every single one.
— Tina Herod (@tina_herod) January 14, 2020
— Grand Masker Kushibo, MPH (@kushibo) January 14, 2020
Just another lib getting owned by his fellow libs. You hate to see it.