I was reading in confusion, then disbelief, the comments in Robert Reich: Why We Need a New Democratic Party until I got to greg2910’s response:
Sorry this is crap we don't need a new party. There is nothing wrong with our positions, our party platform reflects liberal and progressive goals. The problem is simple we have a misinformed segment of society that reflexively votes against anything liberal or progressive. Even if that means voting against their self interest. Your not going to take money out of politics anytime soon because white middle and lower class people voted out of hate of change fear and racism.
It is truly amazing white people refuse to face the fact that Clinton lost because white people harbor an entitlement mentality based on race. Even white progressives, they had no problem throwing the election to a misogynistic racist
I’d planned to just rec him and leave DKos for a while again because the sentiments in that thread otherwise includes:
If you cannot finance your party $25 bucks at a time, something is wrong.
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Identity politics alienates white people, national presidential messaging must be economic and tuned to benefit everyone.
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What has to be done before a new democratic party is realized…
-a total overhaul of or elimination of systems like ‘superdelegates’.
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Whether or not Bernie could have beaten Trump, she DID lose to him, which to me is a repudiation of the neoliberal/corporate/big city white affluent tilt of the party and control of it.
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For years, I’ve been telling anyone who will listen that wealth inequality is the biggest issue facing our society.
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none of that mattered because people were so angry that they just wanted someone, anyone, to shake things up.
It’s so classist. It’s revisionist. And it must be addressed.
LISTEN UP, EVERYBODY. Neo-Nazis are proclaiming Trump is “our president,” the Klan is about to march for Trump in NC — and surely in DC come January — and the Daily Stormer responded to a violent video from Chicago with this (I won’t provide any links to hate groups):
We are bringing back law and order to this country. The age of the rabid monkey is closing. Let them take to the streets for their last big hurrah. And in Trumpland, criminals are punished with swift brutality. And cops are immune from prosecution.
People of color are telling you this win is about HATE. White supremacists are telling you it is about HATE. So the question remaining is not why we don’t understand it’s really about economics. It’s why don’t YOU understand that this is about hate?
What part of his speeches were you listening to, and what part of his rallies were you watching?
So here are thoughts to help you see and hear what you still do not want to.
Do not reduce my vote and hard work for Hillary Clinton to corporate politics. Just because you did not believer in her candidacy does not make my support illegitimate. Your sentiments do not dictate reality or any standard for other Democrats. They simply are your sentiments.
Do not mischaracterize my (and most of the Black community’s) rejection of Bernie Sanders as misguided or connected to Trump's win. As if it shouldn’t matter deeply to you that he did not speak to or represent POC or women adequately to elicit support? As if those “unheard” red state voters you believe we should be reaching out to would have supported him? Are you sure you want Democrats to skip all of those “alienating” social justice issues and the people they represent in favor of cultivating voters who wildly supported a candidate the Klan and Nazis endorsed?
Don’t call the politicians who acknowledge the very real issues of social injustice in this country “identity politics.” Do not do it. Because we “identities” are the ones who consistently put Democrats into the presidency. You know who else knows that? Republicans. That’s why they took dismantling the Voting Rights Act all the way to the Supreme Court to remove oversight in the Southern states. We lost our polling places. We lost our early voting locations. They recognized our voting power. And they blocked us. Then people turned around and said we didn’t vote! What is wrong with that logic?
You had the numbers to vote and protect our country. You didn't turn out. And now, you are arguing about the Democratic Party and what the party needs to fix?
You. YOU.
Go. Fix. This.
Go to Thanksgiving. Go to Christmas.
Have a sane, non-condescending, compassionate conversation with your friends and your family who have done this to OUR COUNTRY.
Do not come one more time for others you believe have let you down. Look at the polls. Look who put that man into office, either by not voting or voting for him. Look who’s celebrating. Start to slowly, slowly, how can it possibly be taking you this long, understand what is going on here. And go have that hard, internal conversation with each other about what in the heck you are going to do about hate in the White community. If they cared about economics, they wouldn’t keep voting for the Republicans that keep them down. They care about primacy. Accept it. Then go stop them.
My father said it today, and I repeat it with ferocity. We are NOT going back to the back of the bus. We got out of that before we had any rights/representation/wealth, so please know it is not on the table in 2016 or ever again. So you can pretend this is some purist, intellectual exercise about recognizing the frustration of the downtrodden, even while they are attacking children, ripping hijabs off of women’s heads, beating up gay people, grabbing women’s vaginas and otherwise telling you THIS IS ABOUT HOW MUCH WE HATE THOSE PEOPLE. Meanwhile, unbelievably, you are completing missing/discounting the frustration of marginalized communities. Know this — my frustration right now is not with the traditional racists, sexists and xenophobes we’ve outmaneuvered for centuries. Still here. Still standing. Still rising. Still strong. It is with you.
Stop ducking the reality of this country so you can debate stuff that doesn’t reflect on you or require you to leave your comfort zone and face horrific crap you want to log out of every night so you can sleep.
Go STOP THE HATE IN YOUR COMMUNITY.
That is, without doubt, the fastest way to fix this. In fact, it is the only way.
Step One: Acknowledge.
Step Two: Accept.
Step Three: Address...
That this is about hate.
This is about HATE.
H-A-T-E.
So very much hate.
Not corporate politics or campaign finance reform. They voted for hate.
They are filled with hate.
The number one thing those rural white people are complaining about? Low wages. Raise the minimum wage to $16/hr indexed to inflation and they’ll vote for you.
No. They will vote for hate.