This was an election about identity politics: white identity politics

[La Lioness Priyanka]

to see so many supposed liberal white men then turn around and state that identity politics do not win elections, is really laughable.

They do win election. In fact just did win an election.

I suspect a lot of these 'no more identity politics' people, are just against the rest of our identities taking center stage or having equal voice.

[libtodeath]

1. A male whitelash.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

6. i think a whitelash overall, but more male than female

[BeyondGeography]

2. Hillary lost white women by 10 points

I can forgive people for being confused re. the power of identity politics.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

4. because it was about white identity politics and race has always had more power than gender

however, the comments about ending identity politics that i have seen have only come from white men. hence, i stated the second part the way i did.

[BeyondGeography]

7. I think ID politics is a bit of a rabbit hole

People really do evaluate the person and their abilities, for better or worse. Black voters certainly held off on Obama until he won Iowa and was seen to have a legitimate chance to be President. Many white voters doubtless concluded Trump is a seriously mean racist just like them and would hurt the people they hate. But many really weren't primarily motivated by race or gender. They wanted a brick thrower and he fit the bill much better than Hillary. If he becomes an ID President catering mostly to that former group, he'll be one-and-done. With Bannon whispering in his ear, he seems to be moving in that direction.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

8. the many who were not voted by race, also didn't care how many damage he could

wreak on POC. not caring about racism is racism.

this is the whole 'i was a good german because I didn't want them burnt, i just wanted bridges built in a timely manner'.

maybe you believe this crap, i don't.

[BeyondGeography]

10. I call them heedless

like the 13 percent of black males who voted for Trump. Everyone has their reasons.

[JI7]

34. and minorities that support Republicans are regularly attacked and made fun of

as they should be.

[Demsrule86]

23. Hillary won women by 54% so not true.

[MADem]

3. To my mind, "white identity politics" is code for RACISM and

XENOPHOBIA.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

5. it is.

[DesertFlower]

29. racism against obama.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2016/03/how_donald_trump_happened_racism_against_barack_obama.html

[MADem]

31. And Mexicans and people living south of Mexico (Build That Wall!).

And Arabs and South West Asians (EXTREME vetting of Muslims).

Obama is just the leader of the pack as far as sTRUMPet! is concerned!

[el_bryanto]

9. The question is why did Hillary Clinton lose the electoral vote

Stipulated she won the popular vote; but why did she lose the election?

There's a lot of factors to consider. The inherent racism and misogyny of many Americans, Trump supporters particularly, but a wide enough swath to give him the white house.

But, in my opinion, Hillary Clinton also promised the same middle of the road, slightly liberal policies that we've seen. Hillary Clinton was politically a centrist, if not center-right. Her policies and history precluded her from making a real case against the status quo we've seen for the last few years. Would some of the people who voted for Trump have voted for a candidate who took those issues head on? I guess there's no way to know.

Bryant

[La Lioness Priyanka]

11. this was literally the most progressive platform any democrat has run on

so if she lost for political reasons, it was that she went too far left.

but i dont think she lost for political reasons, she lost because hate and fear are far more motivating than love and tolerance are. We have never had white supremacist on the ballot in recent years, and white supremacy is a very motivating strategy.

[el_bryanto]

12. Well we have different perceptions of Clinton's politics and history, I suspect. nt

[La Lioness Priyanka]

17. maybe history but her actual policies are way to left of obama

and other democrats on the national stage, that is not a perspective issue. we can see these policies on her website and gauge them accurately.

[geek tragedy]

14. Clinton's problem wasn't policies, it was that she as the embodiment of the establishment

in a change election (it wasn't a change election in NYC or San Francisco, but it sure as hell was in the Great Lakes areas outside the urban centers).

Trump's "you've been there 30 years and changed nothing" sounded stupid to us because of course she was only one person in the system. But people in a change frame of mind responded differently--how could you expect someone who's inextricably part of the system and establishment to shake it up?

Bernie was higher risk-reward--could have done much better but also could have done much worse and costs us House and Senate seats. We can war game it in our imaginations but anybody who pretends that they know is b.s.ing, especially after this year.

[WhiteTara]

16. How would anyone know about her platform? All that

was reported or read about were her emails and Benghazi and her speeches. At no time was she allowed to expand on her ideas (which were fairly radical, btw) except in her speeches and then they were trimmed to her attacks on drumpf.

When Scum said that the election was rigged, he was right. It was just in his favor.

[MADem]

33. 1,000,000! nt

[Demsrule86]

24. The election was stolen...no way

she wins the popular vote like she is and lost the electoral college legitimatly.

[guillaumeb]

26. But was the election lost because voter supression and gerrymandering ensured a GOP win?

In 2014 Democratic Congressional candidates won a million more votes that the GOP, but the GOP lead in the Congress increased. That was not a coincidence.

The corporate media and the GOP have no interest in talking about voter suppression but that does not change reality.

[geek tragedy]

13. it was identity politics, which should scare the crap out of us.

If WWC voters start voting as an ethnic voting bloc, we're in a huge amount of trouble.

There are 1.5 to 2X as many WWC voters as there are Latino and African-American voters combined.

The question we have to ask is how do we prevent this from happening.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

15. That is a very fair way to frame the argument

[liquid diamond]

18. Those

dumb fucks will learn soon enough that the donald conned their asses. If they want to keep voting against their own financial interests, then fuck them.

[progressoid]

20. They've been voting against their own interests for decades.

I don't think one more election is going to make them suddenly wake up.

[alarimer]

22. The Democrats will have to find ways to peel off some of those voters.

I don't know what that will be, but not being the party of Wall Street would help, I should think.

Real commitment to increasing wages and living standards. Protecting SS and Medicaid/Medicare, increasing opportunities. But they need to field candidates who are sincere in this.

[Initech]

19. Rich white conservative males felt their manhood threatened under Obama.

And I love how they're calling this a "culture war". It isn't. Nobody wants to adopt their culture!

[alarimer]

21. It really isn't that simple.

I can think of a number of factors that played a role and together added up to a disaster.

1. Voter suppression. The first election following the dismantling of the Voting Rights Act. Precincts closed, early voting restricted. All kinds of shenanigans in North Carolina. Certainly enough to make a difference in some crucial states like NC and Wisconsin.

2. Racism and sexism and Trump's ability (?) to appeal to the worst in people. He is a demagogue and, as such, knows how to manipulate people into voting against their own best interests. Politicians (especially Republicans) are very good at getting people to turn on each other and they have done this for decades using dog whistles and now it is out in the open.

2. An anti-establishment mood. Clinton was an establishment candidate in a change election. Coupled with the fact that a party almost never holds the presidency more than 8 years (Reagan-Bush being a recent exception), it was a tough row to hoe, no matter what.

3. Complacency on the part of some voters who thought she had it in the bag. The actual margin was 100,000 votes in three states. What if the polls showing her ahead ended up depressing turnout in some places. Or alternatively, these same polls drove Republicans out in larger numbers.

4. James Comey. We can't underestimate this at all. Those stupid emails (oh, and how quaint to be worried about this when we now have a president who will definitely used the office in illegal ways).

[Ace Rothstein]

25. There is an issue with the Democratic Party beyond just this last election.

We've won very few elections since 2000 when Obama hasn't been running for the Presidency. At a National level we won a year after Katrina and when Iraq was blowing up. We are obviously doing something wrong.

[Moostache]

27. Its been two weeks, my shock is not wearing off...

The election still feels like a nightmare that I cannot wake from...

Identity politics?
REALLY?
THAT is the 'answer' to the question HOW IN THE HOLY FUCK DID THIS ACTUALLY HAPPEN?

No.
I refuse to accept that the election swung to Trump on the backs of some ill-informed, racist asshats in Wisconsin and Michigan and Pennsylvania. Or that Hillary was a subpar candidate, although the post-mortem on that is still a little too raw to truly decide unequivocally.

There is an intellectual rot in this country that is gutting it from the inside out. A world view supported by malignant opportunists that do not care if the country craters around them as long as they make enough money to hire private security when it all goes down. It starts with the usual suspects....the Hannitys and Limbaughs and Ingrahmns of the world. It extends to the Trump satellite grifters and the fringe nut bags...but make no mistake it is powered by two intertwined things that NO ONE talks about...Race and Religion.

Fundamentalists of ANY stripe are devastating to a free and open society. By their very nature....be they American Evangelicals or Muslim Brotherhood or Jewish Zionists....they are a poison that needs to be marginalized and put back in their private boxes. The genius that was the American experiment was a truly secular government. Rule of LAW, not "divine right of kings". The idea that "sincerely held religious beliefs" should be granted ANY weight in the public square is offensive to the true separation of church and state.

I am sickened by the results of this election. I have lost sleep and weight in unhealthy ways since it happened. I have become angry all the time, a hair-trigger going off on my kids and colleagues and wife for innocuous things because I am torn up inside. But I can see the problem and my frustration and anger only grow when I know that nothing will change. Until the religious genie is returned to the bottle, the elections and direction of this country are inextricably linked in a destructive manner.

Barak Obama was as non-religious a president as we ever had...until Trump lied to the planet and got elected on the backs of a whole lot of fundamentalist, regressive fools. As a result, the Supreme Court is now a politicized and wholly owned entity of the right wing, the Presidency is diminished to the level of 'reality' TV and Congress is a bigger swamp than ever before.

Abandon Hope all ye who enter...I see nothing changing and nothing being proposed that does anything more than re-arrange the deck chairs on the Titanic AFTER the boat stopped and the sinking started.

Help me see the light here....PLEASE!!! I am losing my grip on the edge and despair is making me something ugly and not what I wish to end up as...

[athena]

32. Please go out and get some physical exercise.

Seriously. It helps. It doesn't change the reality, but it changes something inyour brain chemistry, so that you don't end up as an angry and hateful person. I was in really bad shape until I went for a run the Friday after the election. If you don't normally exercise, drive to the nearest woods and take a long walk.

There was another tip posted on DU while it was down (i.e., in the feedback messages that were temporarily on the main page). Every day, before going to bed, write down all your feelings about the election. Write whatever is in your head. Then go to sleep. I haven't been able to do this, but I imagine that it would probably help to freely express all the pain and despair you're feeling.

I agree with you completely, by the way. I think about the election even in my sleep and wake up feeling miserable each morning. But at least the anger and rage are gone.

[ismnotwasm]

28. K&R

[JCanete]

30. Sure. When both sides play a game of identity politics somebody wins the election.

We all lose though. And the reason IS as Bernie stated. Because it is not keeping the American's eyes on the ball. What the fuck do you think happens if both parties continue to enrich the wealthiest class? It's simple. We continue to break down into identity politics because these people like it that way. We can fight over the scraps and blame the Mexicans and Muslims and black people, and racist white men for the state of our nation and our own insecurity, and they can keep laughing all the way to the bank.

It's not that racism isn't real and scary as fuck, its that insecurity IS the lever that turns on the overdrive. Do you remember what the DNC and the media did to Sander's campaign when he demonstrated that he was able to court white middle class voters to our side? They painted him as a voice for only white people. They tanked his campaign in communities that might have otherwise responded to his message.

No matter how much they make other people suffer, we need to stop treating people who are also suffering as the enemy. We need to figure out how to speak to them in a way that galvanizes our causes together rather than divides us. Class warfare is that galvanizing issue. It says don't look at the immigrants. Does it look like they have your money? Don't look to our impoverished. Does it look like they have a fair chance in this world? Look at the wealthy and how they are rigging the system. Look at the media and how it wants you to hate your brothers and sisters.

If you don't want to take that on, we will NEVER escape this vicious downward cycle, powered on mutual hatred for our fellow man.

[Hekate]

35. Sure was