Michael Dukakis was a good man. He was my smart and mostly efficient governor. I believe he sincerely tried very hard to help the people of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. But, he was also a very private man. He never wore his emotions on his sleeve. He was labeled a technocrat largely because he never reallly mastered the art of displaying emotion and empathy when called upon.
The most successful politicians either feel a real, emotionally empathetic connection for those in pain or fake it really well.
Like those in the Black Lives Matter movement, the South Bend protestors weren't just filled with righteous fury, they're also grieving yet another senseless murder of a black man. They know full well if Eric Logan had been white, he'd be alive today.
When Mayor Pete faced those protestors in the streets, he reacted like Michael Dukakis would. He read their petition carefully. He offered legal suggestions to improve it. But, he failed the empathy connection completely. He grew defensive instead of embracing their pain as his own.
Mayor Pete needed to channel Bobby Kennedy instead.
You make their tears your own by sharing your own pain… like Bobby famously did in Indianapolis on the night MLK was assassinated.
“For those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and distrust at the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I can only say that I feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling,” he said. “I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man. But we have to make an effort in the United States, we have to make an effort to understand, to go beyond these rather difficult times.” — Bobby Kennedy
That was the first time Bobby ever spoke of his beloved brother’s assassination. He surprised his closest advisors that night and opened that vein. Bobby instinctivelly understood that crowd wasn't just angry, but, also filled with the same deep-abiding grief he, too, felt over losing a beloved brother.
Mayor Pete needed to tell that crowd, this is MY community, too. Everyone in MY community is MY brother and MY sister. Eric Logan was MY brother, too, and I deeply grieve his loss. For a man who expouses so much Christian faith, Mayor Pete failed to quote scripture, “I am my brother’s keeper” as Barack Obama often did to explain his shared grief over failing to save/protect lives in his care.
Instead, Mayor Pete got defensive and technocratic.
I'm no Biden supporter, though I think he mostly has a good heart. Racially insensitive comments aren’t a new thing with Joe. One such disparaging comment came in the 2007 debate which Obama forgave. But, many of us remember it well. I don't expect great racial sensitively from Joe. He is who is he. He’s always been tone-deaf on race and sexism.
I did expect better from Mayor Pete so I find his behavior far more troubling. I know that's not a popular opinion here as the front page and countless diaries pound on Biden while Mayor Pete largely gets a free pass here.