The Democratic Party’s presidential hopefuls differ on their approach to policy issues such as income inequality and climate change, but on one thing there is almost uniform agreement: They’re all very, very sorry.

The most recent high-profile mea culpa came Thursday when Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts apologized for her controversial decision to take a DNA test to prove her decades-old claim of Native American ancestry.

Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. recently lamented his role in crafting the tough-on-crime drug legislation of the 1980s and 1990s. Senator Kamala Harris of California said she regretted some of the positions her office took while she was a state prosecutor. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York said her past hard-line stances on immigration “certainly weren’t empathetic and they were not kind.” Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont apologized after reports of gender discrimination and sexual harassment in his 2016 presidential campaign.

The spate of sorrys is indicative of a crowded field of Democratic candidates who understand that the party’s increasingly diverse base can be uncompromising on issues such as discrimination, criminal justice reform and immigration and often expects candidates to stand more boldly on questions of identity including race, gender and sexuality.

“This is about morals,” said Steven Drahozal, the chair of the Dubuque County Democrats in Iowa. He said voters in Iowa, the key early primary state, will actually appreciate a candidate who recognizes and acknowledges previous shortcomings. But he said Democratic candidates need to be acutely sensitive to those who in the past have been left behind. “Not intending to offend is not an excuse,’’ he said.

What is less clear is whether what works in a primary will be harmful in the general election and whether the cascade of apologies risks making Democrats look like the hypersensitive, politically correct crowd Republicans make them out to be — especially when compared with President Trump, who often insults and offends people and almost never apologizes for anything.

The zero tolerance on issues of race also played out in the almost immediate demands by nearly all the Democratic presidential candidates that Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia resign over a racist yearbook photo. (Mr. Northam began with an apology but pivoted to a new defense when he triggered a crush of calls for him to resign.)

Political strategists and crisis communication experts said the sensitivity speaks to how quickly the center of gravity has shifted for Democrats on key issues. As recently as 2006, national Democrats including former President Barack Obama expressed wariness about immigrants’ ability to assimilate into American culture and did not openly embrace gay marriage — two talking points that would probably be deeply damaging for any 2020 candidate.

For candidates seeking to lead the party into its post-Obama era, their hope is that the base is more concerned with defeating President Trump and Republicans than holding every candidate to rigid standards of ideological purity.

“There is no perfect progressive candidate, there is no perfect anyone,” said Yvette Simpson, chief executive of Democracy for America, a political group that is trying to build grass-roots support for the Democratic nominee.

“We’ve also got to give people grace and space to grow and to acknowledge that,” she added. “I’m always open and willing to hear how people grow.”

But this is not true for more ideologically leftist elements of the party, who are more interested in building based on ideals than the success or failure of any individual Democrat.

Waleed Shahid, a spokesman for Justice Democrats, the group that helped elect Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and is targeting several incumbent legislators in the House, recently shared an old video of Ms. Harris critiquing the social justice mantra “schools, not jails.”

“This video is from 2013 but it’s still pretty disappointing to hear @KamalaHarris mock one of the slogans of the movement to end mass incarceration: ‘Schools Not Jails.’ Many of the people carrying those signs across the country later formed the #BlackLivesMatter movement,” Mr. Shahid tweeted last month. “Harris’ views in 2013 are now increasingly out-of-touch with the Democratic Party.”

Another reason for the run of apologies was a 2016 presidential election that totally upended the playbook, political observers said.

While Mr. Trump offended people across the political spectrum without paying a price, Democrats saw their base repeatedly penalize Hillary Clinton over her past policies and rhetoric.

Candidates this cycle have been determined to not mimic Mrs. Clinton’s fate, said Zac Petkanas, a Democratic strategist who served as a senior adviser to Mrs. Clinton in 2016. He said he was not surprised so many presidential hopefuls have tried to get ahead of their most worrisome issues well before the campaign heats up.

“They are trying to address any potential issue that could come up on the campaign trail so they can later point to the fact that they have addressed it in the past and that they have moved on from it,” Mr. Petkanas said.

“In a lot of ways, it’s a way to avoid a sort of email situation that Hillary Clinton went through where she was asked for months and months and months whether she would apologize,” he said. “When she did, her critics said it was too late.”

But not all apologies are created equal, said two crisis communications experts who have counseled public figures and companies through scandal. Voters want to see contrition, but also authenticity and reflection, while not appearing overly weak.

Historically, voters have also taken into account who is doing the apologizing. Female politicians have frequently been held to higher standards than their male counterparts, and their choice about whether to apologize can be complicated by factors such as sexism.

Andrew Gilman, the chief executive of the Washington-based crisis communications firm CommCore Consulting Group, said politicians are recognizing that some voters and constituencies might not be receptive to their message unless they apologize for past blunders first.

“This might be a precondition for some people to listen to the rest of what you want to say,” Mr. Gilman said. “But I think you need to stand for something, not just apologize or something. It becomes less of an issue in this gotcha world if you can get it out early if it’s perceived to be sincere.”

Sara Brady, a crisis and reputation management expert, said that apologies do make a difference if they convey sincerity.

“The general public is really forgiving but they also see through inauthenticity . They know when an apology is sincere and when it isn’t,” Ms. Brady said.

For Democrats, the frequency of apologies has already reached parody status. Mr. Gilman said he would not be surprised to see a sketch on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” about which Democrat was the best apologist, and the satirical website The Onion has already joined in.

On Friday, when Ms. Warren’s apology became public and Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey announced his presidential bid, the site merged the two themes into one catchall headline: “Cory Booker Apologizes To Wall Street Bankers For The Mean Things He’s Going To Have To Say About Them.”

Source: Read Full Article