“If American democracy ceases to move forward as a living force, seeking day and night by peaceful means to better the lot of our citizens, fascism will grow in strength in our land.” ― FDR
Very interesting discussion and an interesting linked article! My allegiance to the Democratic Party is due to its underlying desire to use the government to directly help people. And I thought ``identity politics'' were always a significant part of the Democratic party's identity. Hasn't the Democratic Party always advanced equity between groups by identifying injustices done to particular groups both based on socioeconomic status and based on gender, disability, sexual orientation, race, etc.? Should we base our policy choices based on popularity? Affirmative action has presumably never been popular, but does that mean it's not right? De-segregation was not popular and lost the Democratic Party the south, but it was still right. I can't imagine the women's rights movement was popular in much of the country, but it was still right. How is what is happening now different from what happened before with those types of policies? I 100% believe that there is a real reason for the Fear and anger in a large segment of our population and that it's due to economic problems that the Democratic Party needs to help with. But I don't know that addressing those problems and trying to continue to reduce racism, sexism, and homophobia have to be incompatible pursuits. And aren't we actively trying to help economic issues through the infrastructure bill and other major bills that have been and are being worked on? Are we not trying to do both right now, just as we always have done? Are you saying we need to talk more about our economic aims than our ``identity politics'' aims, or that we actually need to reduce our efforts to reduce racism in order to increase our efforts to improve economic conditions? If we just need to talk more about our economic aims, how do we do that in ways that are energizing to people? My sense is that neither party talks much about economics, but instead uses cultural differences to drive party allegiance most of the time. And my sense is that using cultural differences to compel voters is consistent with what politicians have been doing for a long time - is it much different now than it was before?
Yes, the perfecting of differences is reaching a level of absurdity while we turn a blind eye to the life destroying plight of "working people." I just participated in a program with George Monbiot and will be paying a lot more attention to this issue. We need to stop swatting at flies and address root causes.
Very interesting discussion and an interesting linked article! My allegiance to the Democratic Party is due to its underlying desire to use the government to directly help people. And I thought ``identity politics'' were always a significant part of the Democratic party's identity. Hasn't the Democratic Party always advanced equity between groups by identifying injustices done to particular groups both based on socioeconomic status and based on gender, disability, sexual orientation, race, etc.? Should we base our policy choices based on popularity? Affirmative action has presumably never been popular, but does that mean it's not right? De-segregation was not popular and lost the Democratic Party the south, but it was still right. I can't imagine the women's rights movement was popular in much of the country, but it was still right. How is what is happening now different from what happened before with those types of policies? I 100% believe that there is a real reason for the Fear and anger in a large segment of our population and that it's due to economic problems that the Democratic Party needs to help with. But I don't know that addressing those problems and trying to continue to reduce racism, sexism, and homophobia have to be incompatible pursuits. And aren't we actively trying to help economic issues through the infrastructure bill and other major bills that have been and are being worked on? Are we not trying to do both right now, just as we always have done? Are you saying we need to talk more about our economic aims than our ``identity politics'' aims, or that we actually need to reduce our efforts to reduce racism in order to increase our efforts to improve economic conditions? If we just need to talk more about our economic aims, how do we do that in ways that are energizing to people? My sense is that neither party talks much about economics, but instead uses cultural differences to drive party allegiance most of the time. And my sense is that using cultural differences to compel voters is consistent with what politicians have been doing for a long time - is it much different now than it was before?
Thanks for the comment! This will be the subject of my next post.
Yes, the perfecting of differences is reaching a level of absurdity while we turn a blind eye to the life destroying plight of "working people." I just participated in a program with George Monbiot and will be paying a lot more attention to this issue. We need to stop swatting at flies and address root causes.