Berkeley Bruce
| 📚 | |
| Era | The Seventies |
|---|---|
| Age | 20-25 |
| Home | Berkeley, CA |
| Demographic | student, white, New Politics left |
| Lean | Strong Democrat |
| Race | white |
A graduate student in his early twenties, secular, anti-war and waiting on his draft number, who wants the Democratic Party remade rather than abandoned. He anchors the cast's left with Upper West Side Ruth and Japantown June.
Who they stand for
Bruce stands for the New Politics wing of the Democratic Party. These were the students who campaigned for Eugene McCarthy in the New Hampshire primary in 1968. They marched in the Moratorium protests of October 1969. Four students were killed by National Guard troops at Kent State University in May 1970, after the invasion of Cambodia, an event that shocked many of them. The draft lottery of December 1969 made the war a personal calculation for every man his age. The 26th Amendment, ratified in 1971, gave his age group the right to vote. The McGovern-Fraser reforms opened the Democratic Party's delegate-selection process to voters like him. The result was George McGovern's nomination in 1972 and his defeat in 49 states, which taught the Democratic Party that this bloc of voters could win it the nomination but could not win it a general election. Bruce's weight sits in California, Vermont, Oregon and Colorado, the states this movement most influenced.
Unlike Japantown June, who organises outside the two major parties, Bruce works inside the Democratic Party. Many in his generation eventually became part of the Watergate class of Democrats elected to Congress in 1974.
Playing to them
Bruce responds well to ending the war in Vietnam and ending the draft, to protecting the right to dissent, to environmental legislation, to marijuana law reform, and to any sign that a president shares his cultural and intellectual outlook. He does not forgive an escalation of the war, secret bombing campaigns, wiretaps placed on political activists, or a Justice Department that treats protest as a crime. A president who courts the hard-hat, working-class supporters of Southie Sean loses Bruce's support.
Once won, Bruce's support costs little to keep. Winning it in the first place is politically expensive, because the policies that win him over also anger voters on the right and in the centre. Concordia Hilda, Sun City Dot and Delta Earl react to the same policies in the opposite direction. Macomb Bev hears campus radicalism in anything that appeals to Bruce. Hamtramck Stan and Coalfield Roy belong to the same party as Bruce but dislike his manner. A president can keep the support of all three only by winning Bruce over on the war rather than on cultural issues.
Where they live
The five states where Berkeley Bruce makes up the largest share of the electorate in the seventies:
- California
- Vermont
- Oregon
- Colorado
- Hawaii