General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: It would be nice if the centrists in this party did some introspection, too. [View all]Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)In some cases, they simply believed that we, as a party, were on the side of corporations AGAINST them. And yes, there was a contradiction between that and their decision to vote for a billionaire scumbag, but there was a valid feeling driving that choice...and that feeling was desperation.
To get them back, we don't need to push any groups in the current base down...we just need to help working-class and poor folks of ALL identities folks get back up off the canvas. If we don't, if we just write them off and say "it's all because you're all personally wicked", they will just stay in backlash mode forever and they'll not only vote for Trump after Trump after Trump. they'll be locked in permanent violent resistance against modern life and any form of change...and we'll never be able to just wait them out.
A message that said "you've been done wrong-you never should have been treated as expendable by this system. You have value and we want you to be part of the project of creating a future that includes all of us" would resonate with the voters I'm talking about, ad do so without causing anyone's justice struggle to be put on the back burner.
Obviously we need to get every suppressed voter registered or re-registered-ALL of us agree with that, I think-and obviously we have to deal with subversion of the electoral process, but too often, the insistence that the November result was ALL due to racism, Comey and the Russians is a coded way of insisting that we preserve the status quo in how this party works and what it stands for no matter what. At times it comes way too close to arguing that ANY calls for change are support for white supremacy or something. And it leaves us with no way to ever recover in any future election.
As to the "college-educated moderates"
We're getting close to being a party that takes the side of the rich against the poor. No party that does that, no party that limits inclusion to the "successful" and the "aspirational" can truly be progressive...because progressivism, to be valid and sustainable, needs to be egalitarian, needs to be bottom-up, not top-down. All top-down politics end up being characterized as elitism and then inevitably stopped.
We don't have to make "people and not businesses the top priority". We just need to treat business as simply one part of life...there, but not more important than everything and everyone ELSE, not the only thing in life that really matters.
How would THAT be "risky"? Are there really that many people who think we should treat CEO's as if they are gods who walk the earth?