Chris Murray at the interesting demographics/politics blog Election Dissection and Burt Solomon, writing in the Post, are just two of the commentators who have taken a look at how SCOTUS nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s experience growing up in the rough-and-tumble housing projects in The Bronx’s Soundview neighborhood shape her outlook on life and consequently her interpretation of the law.
Murray noted that Sotomayor hails from the poorest congressional district in the nation and one that gave Barack Obama a whoppin’ 95% of its vote in 2008! And Solomon, in his fascinating column “What the Bronx Would Bring to the Bench,” implies that her “gritty upbringing” is unique among justices and can tell us something about her priorities and concerns.
Soundview subway stop (compliments of jag9889)
But when you think about it, won’t Sotomayor’s urban background be consistent with the current leaders of the U.S. government? It’s been widely noted that Barack Obama is the nation’s first “urban” president. He’s spent all of his adult life in the old-school cities of Chicago, New York and Boston. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is a product of Baltimore and the representative of San Francisco, two classic American cities. And Vice President Biden feels most at home on the Metroliner.
In many ways, Obama, Pelosi and Sotomayor embody urban America: Among the three, there is a black man, a white lady and a Latina (and Obama’s CoS is a Jew). They also have backgrounds in both strains of American urbanism - poverty and rich elite, or Anacostia and Georgetown - that top demographer Joel Kotkin has identified. Obama cut his teeth on the rough South Side, but later lived in Hyde Park, where “black and white are united against the poor.” Pelosi’s family came from gritty Baltimore, but she is the embodiment of a rich San Francisco liberal.
Obama in Chicago
Regardless of their economic place in life, they are city-dwellers through and through, which is a major contrast to the previous administration. George W. Bush, although a faux Texan, was one for the country and embraced his home on the range. VP Cheney was an energy baron from Wyoming. Ex-Speaker Dennis Hastert hailed form the Illinois Prairie. And for a consistent comparison, Bush’s most prized SCOTUS appointment, Chief Justice John Roberts, grew up in a small Indiana town.
Bush in Texas
I think we’ve already seen how this shift in the background of our leaders has affected the priorities of the U.S. government. The lion’s share of federal stimulus money has gone to national banks and automakers, the bedrocks of New York and Detroit, respectively. And unlike FDR’s New Deal, which fueled rural development operations like the Tennessee Valley Administration, Obama’s new New Deal has prioritized urban projects such as high-speed rail.
I think the nation is somewhere in between these two administrations, both politically but also geographically. We’re a suburban nation – a plurality of Americans live in the suburbs and suburbs are the key swing vote. Obama couldn’t have won the presidency without winning Wake County, N.C., and Orange County, Fla., or making gains in Hamilton County, Ind. I grew up in Fairfax County, Va., which voted for GWB in 2000 but gave Obama a seven-point victory in 2008. Whichever party can win over these voters and emphasize their priorities holds the keys to long-term electoral success.