As Justin Phillips writes, the only white male running for governor as a Democrat has some tough questions to answer about his race in a hyper-woke primary environment.
In a recent interview with abortion doctor turned progressive influencer Kristin Lyerly, that’s somehow both cringe and revealing, Wisconsin Democrat gubernatorial candidate Joel Brennan was forced to confront the one question his party’s modern catechism demands he answer: “Wisconsin has never not elected a white guy to serve as governor, and as the only white man in a crowded primary field, is that an asset or a liability?”
He struggles. He pivots. He offers the obligatory progressive disclaimers about how much he loves diversity and how he has seven sisters and a daughter. Then he paints himself as the oppressed candidate. He hopes we get to a point in Wisconsin, nay America, where we can choose a candidate based on vision, hard work, and qualifications. Joel Brennan’s dream is a dream deferred by the very identity politics his party spent the last decade enforcing like gospel.
Welcome to the modern Democrat Party’s racial hierarchy, where the rules were written explicitly to sideline people like Brennan. The state’s Democrat Party produced Herb Kohl, Gaylord Nelson, Tony Earl, and Tony Evers, but that was before the Great Awokening turned “diversity” into a divine mandate that somehow always ends with white men at the back of the line—unless they’re groveling for forgiveness first.
Brennan’s entire interview is a masterclass in the self-inflicted wound the modern left has carved into itself. The Democrats spent years building a coalition that ranks Americans by oppression points: race first, gender second (double points for landing on the LGBT spectrum), everything else left behind. The modern progressive movement—academics, politicians, activists, media outlets, and corporate DEI trainers—has turned “racist” into the ultimate Swiss Army knife of cancellation. They purged “problematic” white moderates from newsrooms, campuses, and corporate boards. They cheered when “whiteness” became an academic punchline and “toxic masculinity” a feature on NPR. They start forums, meetings, and any place where two progressives are gathered, with the pinnacle of worthless progressive pageantry: land acknowledgments, the empty, self-congratulatory rituals where pampered elites recite stolen-land scripts they have no intention of honoring. They’ve said everything, and I mean everything, from lawns, punctuality, to whole milk, tipping, and the entire restaurant industry, is racist, rooted in slavery. Never mind the history of the Democrat Party itself was the party of slavery. They institutionalized the idea that merit is suspect if the wrong skin tone shows up. Now, in the most diverse Democrat primary field Wisconsin has ever seen, the only white guy in the race has to explain why he dares to run at all.
Brennan’s “dream,” if we’re being honest, is the same one Martin Luther King Jr. actually articulated: that his children would be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin.
It’s not that Wisconsin voters are secretly bigots. It’s that the Democrat Party’s own rules have turned “diverse” into code for “anyone but the straight white guy.” Brennan isn’t running because he’s white; he’s running despite it. The party that claims to champion equality now treats his identity as the political equivalent of showing up to a vegan potluck with a smoked brisket. Awkward. Unwelcome. Embarrassing for everyone.
This is the logical endpoint of the left’s obsession with racial score-settling. They didn’t just demand representation; they created a hierarchy where representation is the only thing that matters until it’s inconvenient. Then they act shocked when their own logic bites them in the ballot box. Brennan’s “dream,” if we’re being honest, is the same one Martin Luther King Jr. actually articulated: that his children would be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. The Democrat Party’s current operating system is the exact inversion of that dream. Skin color first. Character optional. And if you’re a white man with three decades of executive experience, a track record of delivering results, and a well-built network of influence, then you’d better start listing your female relatives, STEM-for-girls initiatives, and find some binders full of women real quick.
The irony is thick here. For years, conservatives warned that identity politics would devour its own. The left laughed and called us racists for noticing that they think everything is racist. Now Joel Brennan, a career progressive, former Evers cabinet secretary, museum executive, father of two, is living the punchline. He’s not running on his record; he’s running damage control on his melanin levels. And the party that spent a decade telling white voters they were the problem now needs that same white voter enthusiasm to win a general election in a purple state.
So yes, Joel Brennan has a dream. He dreams of a Democrat primary where competence matters more than checkboxes. He dreams of a party that doesn’t make white men audition for absolution before they’re allowed to lead. He dreams that maybe, just maybe, the racial hierarchy the left built won’t end up disqualifying one of the more qualified candidates in the field.
Too bad the only place that dream still exists is in this opinion column. In the real Democrat Party of 2026, it’s just another liability to explain away on camera. Sweet dreams, Joel.
