Three examples of why Democrats don’t command broad, stable national majorities and why Trump is president.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/03/10/opinion-how-identity-politics-hurts-democrats-national-hopes/
Absolutely love the way this one starts......
Despite the endless hysteria surrounding President Trump, Democrats may be no closer to understanding how to politically capitalize and do better than closely contesting national elections.
Many feel the Democratic Party could re-assemble a broad, decisive majority coalition like those that powered the Great Society and New Deal behind alleviating poverty, environmental survival and generally enhancing life opportunities for the 99 percent.
But Democrats have a choice to make: Winning elections and leading the country toward better governance and a better life for most people, especially those who need help. Or, championing identity politics.
Three examples of why Democrats don’t command broad, stable national majorities and why Trump is president:
1) Should anyone (Hillary Clinton) who proudly proclaims “the future is female” be taken seriously as leader of anything broader than an advocacy group?
This lesbian separatist slogan from the 1970s is no better for half of us than “—hole countries.” What should boys think?
Indiscriminate advocacy of identity politics removed from basic rights issues contributes hugely to male and white identity politics, at least in the voting booth, obstructing a potential liberal majority.
2) Another false banner of identity politics triumphalism we should drop into history’s dustbin: “Majority minority.”
Whether pushed by media, politicians or the Census Bureau — especially here in California, where it supposedly has “already happened” — this on closer examination is a myth, a ‘Bronx cheer’ to middle America and a self-defeating one for supporters of liberal immigration policy.
It validates — beyond any reality — the angst of people who fear losing their country. It’s a misleading victory lap against non-Hispanic white people, undermining liberal goals and values.
Few things reinforce opposition to immigration like trumpeting the specter of minorities becoming the majority. Exaggerating the share of so-called ‘minority’ public schoolchildren meanwhile expands emotional distance with majority-identifying taxpayers.
But “it’s a fact.” Actually, it’s not. And to the extent there’s any truth to it, it’s largely due to liberal immigration policies. Crowing about it is bad analysis and worse strategy.
‘Majority minority’ requires, for example, counting anyone with one (of four) ‘Hispanic’-identified grandparents — in a country a quarter of which was once Mexico — as ‘minorities’ because they are not unambiguously ‘non-Hispanic white.’
The minorities who suffered decimation and slavery here are securely in minority status. The “majority minority” fantasy is based on contemporary migration from Latin America and Asia.
The Trump era underscores how identity politics divorced from broader social ideals strengthen Republicans and nativism.
3) Google fired a blogger an executive claimed expressed “incorrect assumptions about gender,” recalling the Stalinist genesis of ‘political correctness.’
He fundamentally suggested that differences between sexes may contribute to women forming a minority of Google’s technical and managerial staffs, and that preferences favoring women weren’t justified.
Evidence of multifarious systematic differences between sexes is stronger than for human-caused global warming. But Google believed expressing these widely held views undermined preferential policies so it fired him.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/03/10/opinion-how-identity-politics-hurts-democrats-national-hopes/
Absolutely love the way this one starts......
Despite the endless hysteria surrounding President Trump, Democrats may be no closer to understanding how to politically capitalize and do better than closely contesting national elections.
Many feel the Democratic Party could re-assemble a broad, decisive majority coalition like those that powered the Great Society and New Deal behind alleviating poverty, environmental survival and generally enhancing life opportunities for the 99 percent.
But Democrats have a choice to make: Winning elections and leading the country toward better governance and a better life for most people, especially those who need help. Or, championing identity politics.
Three examples of why Democrats don’t command broad, stable national majorities and why Trump is president:
1) Should anyone (Hillary Clinton) who proudly proclaims “the future is female” be taken seriously as leader of anything broader than an advocacy group?
This lesbian separatist slogan from the 1970s is no better for half of us than “—hole countries.” What should boys think?
Indiscriminate advocacy of identity politics removed from basic rights issues contributes hugely to male and white identity politics, at least in the voting booth, obstructing a potential liberal majority.
2) Another false banner of identity politics triumphalism we should drop into history’s dustbin: “Majority minority.”
Whether pushed by media, politicians or the Census Bureau — especially here in California, where it supposedly has “already happened” — this on closer examination is a myth, a ‘Bronx cheer’ to middle America and a self-defeating one for supporters of liberal immigration policy.
It validates — beyond any reality — the angst of people who fear losing their country. It’s a misleading victory lap against non-Hispanic white people, undermining liberal goals and values.
Few things reinforce opposition to immigration like trumpeting the specter of minorities becoming the majority. Exaggerating the share of so-called ‘minority’ public schoolchildren meanwhile expands emotional distance with majority-identifying taxpayers.
But “it’s a fact.” Actually, it’s not. And to the extent there’s any truth to it, it’s largely due to liberal immigration policies. Crowing about it is bad analysis and worse strategy.
‘Majority minority’ requires, for example, counting anyone with one (of four) ‘Hispanic’-identified grandparents — in a country a quarter of which was once Mexico — as ‘minorities’ because they are not unambiguously ‘non-Hispanic white.’
The minorities who suffered decimation and slavery here are securely in minority status. The “majority minority” fantasy is based on contemporary migration from Latin America and Asia.
The Trump era underscores how identity politics divorced from broader social ideals strengthen Republicans and nativism.
3) Google fired a blogger an executive claimed expressed “incorrect assumptions about gender,” recalling the Stalinist genesis of ‘political correctness.’
He fundamentally suggested that differences between sexes may contribute to women forming a minority of Google’s technical and managerial staffs, and that preferences favoring women weren’t justified.
Evidence of multifarious systematic differences between sexes is stronger than for human-caused global warming. But Google believed expressing these widely held views undermined preferential policies so it fired him.
