2 Chicago Tribune|Section 1|Monday, February 24, 2020
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‘EVEN THE TERRIBLE THINGS
SEEM BEAUTIFUL TO ME NOW,
2ND EDITION’
Nearly every day, something ugly is
exposed about Michael Bloomberg’s
past. In a normal presidential election
year, such a steady drip of racist and
misogynistic vitriol would have
doomed a candidate from the start.
But we are living in a different
political environment now, where a
candidate’s viability is determined
solely by whether he or she can de-
feat Donald Trump in November.
Everything else, including one’s mor-
al fortitude, seems less important.
When it comes to Bloomberg,
Democrats are demanding a lot from
African Americans. Those who are
convinced that he is the only one who
can go toe-to-toe with Trump are
asking black people to suck it up and
take one for the team.
Not everyone agrees that they
should. But if he is the nominee, most
of them will.
Blacks would join millions of oth-
ers in voting for Bloomberg, in part,
because it would be in the best inter-
est of America. Most voters are des-
perate to rid our nation of a president
so selfish, divisive and corrupt that he
would destroy the democracy that we
love.
But it also is because Trump has
normalized aberrant behavior.
We promised not to allow that to
happen, but Trump has worn us
down. Year after year, he has tested
the boundaries of what Americans
can tolerate, and he has survived
every challenge without ever having
to pay a price.
We have become accustomed to a
president who lies in nearly every
sentence. We are used to a president
who excuses white nationalism. And
we have been forced to acknowledge
that a president can create his ownrules and punish anyone who dares to
defy him.
The moral code for a president has
diminished to the point that he could
pay off an adult film star to keep her
quiet about an alleged affair and avoid
even a blemish. More than a dozen
women can accuse him of sexual
misconduct since the 1980s, and he
will not be held accountable.
We have settled into the notion
that in America, a president no longer
must attempt to exude honesty and
dignity. They don’t even have to try
and convince us that their flaws aren’t
as bad as they might seem. Nor must
they promise to fix them.
Bloomberg has entered the Demo-
cratic race with a bag weighed down
with flaws. He has apologized re-
cently for things he kept quiet about
for years. Time will tell whether he is
sincere about making amends. Mean-
while, we will take his word for it and
move on.
The former New York City mayor
continued to rise in the polls, even
after the release of an excerpt from a
2015 speech in which he said the way
to get guns out of kids’ hands is for
cops to “throw them against the wall
and frisk them.”
In that same speech, he said 95% of
murderers and murder victims fit one
description. “You can just take the
description. Xerox it and pass it out to
all the cops. They are male minorities,
16-25. ... That’s true in virtually every
city.”
No one was shocked by reports of
Bloomberg’s past habit of telling
lewd, sexual jokes in the workplace.
We did not flinch upon hearing that
he suggested a new computer system
would “do everything, including give
you a ——job” and “put a lot of you
girls out of business.”
How could we when the man cur-
rently in the White House boasted
that he could do anything to women,
including “grab ’em by the p—-.” How
could we when former close associ-
ates insist that Trump has used the
N-word, labeled Latino immigrants
rapists and drug dealers and contin-ues to advocate for “stop and frisk?”
For weeks, voters only got to see
Bloomberg as the messenger in pow-
erful television ads that made him
seem like a larger than life figure who
isn’t afraid to fight on Trump’s terms.
He appeared to be fearless on Twit-
ter, and the millions he is pouring into
his campaign felt like a safety net that
gave him the power to do whatever it
takes to tear Trump down. Seeing
Bloomberg do his thing on the air-
waves gave a lot of people hope.
Then last week, we saw him sput-
ter in a debate with seasoned com-
petitors who wasted no time ganging
up to reveal his considerable defects.
Suddenly, he didn’t seem as impene-
trable as we thought. He was not as
forceful as his ads had portrayed him
as being.
He was just a man, a seriously
imperfect one at that.
Polls taken since the debate show
that his momentum may have stalled.
A Morning Consult poll released
Friday dropped him from second
place to third place behind Bernie
Sanders and Joe Biden. But that
doesn’t mean Bloomberg is done.
In the coming weeks, we can ex-
pect Bloomberg to reenergize his
campaign and wow us with more
compelling ads. He will get better at
debating, as every candidate still
standing has done.
And he will compel many to be-
lieve that he and only he can defeat
Trump.
If he manages to stick it out to the
end, African Americans will cam-
paign for him, place his bumper stick-
ers on their cars, put signs in their
yards and make calls on his behalf.
And on Election Day, black people
will do what they always do and try to
push him over the top.
Many voters may never care for
Bloomberg as a person. But as presi-
dent, they are sure that he would be a
thousand times better than Trump.dglanton@chicago
tribune.com
Twitter @dahleengDemocratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg speaks during a campaign rally in Houston on Feb. 13.ELIZABETH CONLEY/APIf Bloomberg is the nominee, African
Americans will take one for the team
Dahleen Glanton50%OFF
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