Tim Ryan believes we should gloss over issues of race, gender, ethnicity with an economic argument
Last edited Thu Jun 22, 2017, 10:12 AM - Edit history (2)
Ryan on MTP, November 2016 :
I think, in part, we try to slice the electorate up. And we try to say, "You're black, you're brown, you're gay, you're straight, you're a woman, you're a man." The reality of it is there's no juice in that kind of campaign. There's no energy in that because it's divided.
The key to, and-- magic of, good campaigns, is when you pull people together. You unite them around a common theme. And look, if you're black, white, gay, straight, brown, you want a good job. You know, we focus sometimes too much on the minimum wage and we should be talking about living wages and middle class wages and pensions and benefits and the kind of thing that people in the industrial Midwest talk about all the time.
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This is a centrist's attempt to sideline concerns particular to gays, blacks, women in favor of what he believes is an all-encompassing economic argument.
What Ryan is angling for is a muffling of the voices of the vast majority of Democratic voters who actually show up at the polls, in order to draw in conservative voters, like him, who can't bear to hear about the needs and concerns endemic to individuals and groups of individuals who choose to organize under our Democratic banner.
Essentially, Tim Ryan wants our party to posture to appeal to republicans. He's envious of the way Trump was able to rally white moderates, reasoning that it was an economic appeal which assuaged their anti-Democratic fever. But Trump did more than sell them on some economic plan. He reached out to stroke the deep resentment those voters were expressing against anyone who didn't look like them or think like them.
Trump ran a lurid and prevaricating campaign which would have been an anathema to his republican predecessors. I'm not talking about the types of campaign rhetoric that came from Sanders during the primary that Hillary's 'Wall Street connections' meant that she couldn't or wouldn't represent the working class. Whatever the truth is about Hillary and that nebulous campaign meme, 'Wall Street connections' couldn't be all that important to anyone who voted for this ruthless capitalist who's demonstrated nothing but antipathy to the people who've worked for him over the entirety of his privileged life.
Trump appealed to the insecurity of some white Americans who have been convinced their share of the nation's economic benefits are being unfairly threatened by blacks, immigrants, and anyone else who dare assert their rightful role in our country's economy. The oft-bigoted demagogue left no dog-whistle behind as he promised to restore these psychologically-displaced souls to their assumed place of prominence in society.
Take the issue of race in the election, for example. If there was one message the white working-class got from Hillary in that campaign, it almost certainly was that black lives were going to matter in her presidency. Hillary challenged white Americans to acknowledge their economic successes and take heed of those who have been left behind in the recovering economy. More importantly, Hillary insisted that white Americans should recognize and appreciate the role race plays in the failure of the black community to fully benefit from the economic recovery.
"For many white Americans," Hillary said, "it’s tempting to believe that bigotry is largely behind us. That would leave us with a lot less work, wouldn’t it? But more than half a century after Rosa Parks sat and Dr. King marched and John Lewis bled, race still plays a significant role in determining who gets ahead in America and who gets left behind."
That seemingly obvious reasoning should be commonplace in our political debate, but these truths have been overlooked throughout our nation's history. Black economic gains have always lagged behind those of white Americans, certainly not just during the Obama administration. In the present economy, blacks have experienced the slowest economic recovery of any group of Americans.
Why would anyone who claims to have the interests of our diverse party at heart want to homogenize concerns like these into phony economic populism which treats everyone on the economic and societal ladder as if we were starting on level ground?
Ryan's argument for condensing our diverse party's myriad concerns and needs into an appeal directed at one group of Americans is not only wrong, it's foolhardy. It's also the 'identity politics' he's denouncing, he's just advocating identifying our party's agenda, primarily, with one group of Americans. White males.
That's basically Trumpism, dressed up in a self-opportunistic appeal designed to unseat a Democratic leader who has endeavored throughout the entirety of her career to represent ALL of our needs and concerns, not just those of a privileged few.
= new reply since forum marked as read
"He's interviewing Tim Ryan of Ohio, who is going on and on about how bad Pelosi is, saying "she has no plan for this", "she has no plan for that". Finally Chuck Todd interrupted him and asked, "so where's yours?"
He was dumbfounded and didn't know how to answer.
Then he asked, "other than hand wringing, what do you do?"
Still no sensible answer."
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=9239969
Mahlao, bigtree.. shocking from chuck todd
I'm just passing it on.
ryan is a vulture.. and not very skilled at that, either. 
