Democrats Pick White Male Kennedy as Their New Anti-Trump

Democrats tapped 37-year-old Massachusetts Rep. Joe Kennedy III—of the formerly obscure Kennedy family—to deliver the party’s response to President Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday.

In announcing the decision, New York Senator Chuck Schumer said he believes Kennedy—a white man from a storied political dynasty who is, by all accounts, not one of Capitol Hill’s pioneering forces—will “do an excellent job in making clear that Democrats are laser-focused on enacting policies to benefit middle class Americans, not special interests or the wealthiest.”

Being asked to deliver your party’s response to the sitting president’s State of the Union address is largely seen as both an endorsement and an investment in that politician’s future.

It’s an interesting look coming from a party that seems constantly ready to sell out the people of color in its base. Given that, in nearly every single report announcing Democrats’ decision, Kennedy is described as a “rising star,” it seems the party has shown its hand in settling on a strategy for beating Trump in 2020: Get an unoffensive white man who’s young and pedigreed to urge America that we don’t need radical change as long as the party of “equality” is in the White House.