Their Need for Race-Status–Reaping the Horrid Extremity of It Now
For White Marginals Race-Status is pretty much all that matters and all that matters for them will have been wholly upended as we close in on white minority status here because the revolting behavior we see is not and was never about their economic reality. Were it anywhere near primarily about that they’d have never ditched unions in such percentages, never have signed on to the Corporate Shill party. Their economic lives have never grown under the Corporate Shill Party. Their perceived status vis-a-vis people of color has been continually and fraudulently coddled. That is what what matters to them.They already understand themselves as a trampled racial minority, numbers be damned.And yet there are still those who understand 2016 as some desperate economic revolt. I could never sign on to the Econ-Centric Trump Win analysis in ‘16 and it’s even more ludicrous now.Sadly Neglected By the Left. Really?GiveMeABreak.Republicans had won them on a continuous race-based dog-whistle platform well prior to ‘16, beginning in ’68, and nailed them down with explicit and continuous drumbeat racial animus appeals in ‘16 and we just now begin to reap its horrid extremity. |
08/08/2019 @ 2:01 pm
“If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”
—-Lyndon B. Johnson
08/08/2019 @ 2:17 pm
LBJ knew stuff.
08/08/2019 @ 2:19 pm
“Every man must decided whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr.
I think it is pretty clear that all Republicans, and WAAAAY too damn many Democrats, have decided on the second choice.
The question is, “How do we change their minds?”.
08/08/2019 @ 2:22 pm
I think we work for proper policy w.o being overly concerned abt bringing into the discussion people whose policy ideas emerge from hatreds (“Build That Wall!” as policy, e.g.). Not enough time, good policy aims become too weakened, no real likelihood or past evidence that significant numbers will be moved.
08/09/2019 @ 2:16 am
I’ve never seen you ask that. That question is exactly what I worry about when I blog politically – it drives what I write more than anything else – and it is why I got involved in Ron’s racism book project. I’ll give you my answer. It may not be the best one, but it’s a shot.
1. Show them how and where their views are inconsistent with their own expressed values and priorities. People don’t like to feel illogical.
2. A lot of Republicanism is driven by fear. A lot of those fears are unfounded. Show them how.
3. Liberalism actually supports a lot of what they care about. Show them how.
You’ll notice that at no point do I suggest changing our values and policy priorities. I don’t think centrism is the right path.It’s a better path than fascism and if I’m presented with a choice between the two I’ll take centrism because fewer people get hurt by centrism than by fascism, and also hurt less severely, but I’d rather not be stuck with a choice between the two because centrism isn’t nearly as good for the country as liberalism is. The point isn’t to become centrist, it’s to sell liberalism, but in order to sell liberalism, we have to remember who we’re trying to sell it to. If we try to sell liberalism to centrists with sales pitches that are really geared to other liberals, we’ll fail because converting is ultimately the centrists’ decision, not ours.
Not that I think you’re worried about understanding me but if you are at all you just asked the right question.
08/09/2019 @ 7:32 am
I respect and understand you here, Kosh. I simply disagree w the premise and the efficacy of the offered remedies.
08/09/2019 @ 10:40 am
I think you’re painting with too broad a brush. We’re not going to get the die-hards but I wouldn’t count on not getting the fringes. I can tell you two things about this approach. The first is that I’ve occasionally had success, particularly on fundamentalist perceptions about homosexuality. The second is that in the places I’ve blogged, including a stint for a while at a majority conservative site that Steel Breeze brought me to, I’ve gotten to the point where I get the respect of conservatives even though I’m blatantly liberal. They will generally dismiss liberalism as knee-jerk and I’e had some success at making conservatives understand that it isn’t quite that simple.
08/09/2019 @ 12:01 pm
Jon, I should further say that we can’t really measure the success or failure of the approach I advocate because it’s hardly ever been done. I’ve read enough editorial pieces over the years, I’ve read other blogs for a long time, but I’ve been mostly alone. I don’t see other people writing that liberalism is good for business, that regulation is good for business, that having a permanent underclass is probably more expensive than getting rid of it, that worries about minorities taking over in any respect are unfounded because of how American assimilation has always functioned and continues to function. As liberals, we’re way more inclined to dismiss them as racists and troglodytes, which many of them are, but to refuse to talk to them in ways they understand and then blame them for what they don’t understand doesn’t make a bit of tactical sense.
08/09/2019 @ 12:10 pm
Kosh sure we have measured it, in votes.
08/09/2019 @ 5:39 pm
Jon, we posted our last comments at about the same time. Did you read my most recent comment above before you said this?
08/09/2019 @ 8:12 am
Speaking of “Ron’s racism book project”:
We were ahead of the curve re the Trump phenomenon….
The “catlions” of the world got “their” president, and look what it’s done to the “conversations” about race in this country…
We need but to add a chapter or two re the election and administration of Trump and get an appearance on Morning Joe or Rachel Maddow to make the NYT Bestt Seller List…
I honestly believe that we had it nailed and with some edits and updates we’d still have it right….
08/09/2019 @ 10:35 am
Talk to Lezlie and Myriad. You’re right, we were ahead of the curve.
08/08/2019 @ 7:00 pm
Some weight has to go to his crudeness, vulgarity and shared anger at their perceived perpetual victimhood despite being among the most privileged and rich people in the history of humanity.
09/19/2019 @ 7:48 pm
And…Yes, they are Hillary’s “basketful of deplorables”.
08/17/2020 @ 1:02 pm
I’ve never understood how so many people can be so oblivious to their own hypocrisy. A relative of mine on the telephone (a huge Trump supporter) was going on and on about Nancy Pelosi and how she is a horrible person because she has an expensive kitchen. She said, “How could anybody need such an expensive kitchen. Why spend so much money on that? She’s just a monster and she wastes so much money.” Then she continued, “Who spends a hundred K on a their kitchen?”
I responded by saying “Trump does. I heard his kitchen is even more expensive.” (I had no evidence for this, but assume the kitchen at his home (Trump Tower, or Bedminster Golf Course) has a pretty expensive kitchen.
My relative said, “Yeah, but he’s had that money for a long time and he earned it.”
I said “Nancy has been rich for some time, too.”
And then the relative said, “Well, people with that kind of money shouldn’t be in politics.”
And then I said, “What about Trump?”
And then they said “He’s one of the people.”
I was like, ok