It seems
that all major political campaigns have their Sister Souljah moment, when the
candidate(s) face a high risk question or situation which opens or closes their
path to success.
The original
one of course was when candidate Bill Clinton, speaking to Jesse Jackson’s
Rainbow Coalition, chose to publicly rebuke a well known black activist’s justification
of black on white violence. Clinton did
endure harsh criticism from some quarters, but he gained the broader support of
moderate Democrats who had had their doubts about him.
In 2012,
Mitt Romney and the rest of the Republican presidential candidates had their
own Sister Souljah moment, and they blew it.
When a debate moderator asked them if they would accept a hypothetical deal
to increase taxes by $1 for every $9 in spending cuts offered by the Democrats,
they hesitated, looked at each other, and demured. How could getting 90% of what you want be
unacceptable to those “conservatives” when their idol, Ronald Reagan, famously
said he would settle for 80% and fight for the rest another day? They were so afraid of losing fringe support
that they ended losing the support of the majority.
This year,
we have seen Republican presidential candidates being called liars and other
names in front of millions of TV viewers and hundreds of spectators by Donald
Trump, and not responding. Is their
sense of value so distorted that they didn’t think such attack on their honor
deserved the most vigorous response? Or
were they afraid of Donald Trump? Either
way, they let their Sister Souljah moment pass and will live to regret it. So will we.Yet another such moment came in yesterday's debate: after arguing, sometimes literally, that Donald Trump was unfit to be president, his three opponents pledged to support him if he was nominated. I am glad they do not work as check captains at my favorite airline.
