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Presidential Nominees And Twitter
Descending from ideas to insults
Before the turn of the century the term “controversial” was reserved for daring individuals that injected the public discourse with original or contrarian ideas. Whenever a US President selected such a person for an executive position it started a controversy that put two very simple but fundamentally different questions on a collision course.
1). Are the ideas actually controversial?
2). Are the ideas too controversial for the public?
In 1993 President Bill Clinton selected two black women, Lani Guinier and Joycelyn Elders, for positions in the Clinton administration. Guinier was nominated for assistant attorney general, but Clinton withdrew her nomination, and Elders survived her confirmation hearing, but was forced to resign a year later.
Were Guinier’s ideas controversial? Guinier was a tenured law professor at the University of Pennsylvania. She advocated two ideas that came under fire.
1). Expanding Affirmative Action
2). Race-conscious districting, i.e., shaping electoral districts to ensure a black majority
The first idea wasn’t actually controversial. It was just unpopular among the opposition party. The second idea actually was controversial and…