forjusticethunders
forjusticethunders's JournalWhite progressive analysis of politics is fundamentally broken.
Bill Clinton was wrong - it was only "the economy, stupid" because he took race out of the discussion as much as possible. Sista Soulja, Ricky Ray Rector.
In reality, "it's racism, stupid", just like it has been since the founding of the Republic (also sexism, but that exists in a broader civilizational context). The racial caste system nearly destroyed America multiple times prior to the end of slavery. Racism crippled the power of the working class movement as white workers found that the psychological wage was better than the material wage. Racism engendered the right wing backlash to both economic and social progress under Democrats. Racism empowered Reagan as well.
Socialists from Marx to DuBois to King recognized racism as the LYNCHpin of American capitalist oppression. FDR realized he couldn't pass his New Deal without kowtowing to the DixieKKKrats. LBJ realized the white man will empty his pockets for the bosses as long as he gets to be above the black man. Yet modern progressives try to handwave it away as "identity politics", or to try to defend the Trump vote as "economic anxiety". Who are they trying to fool? And for what purpose? Trump voters are FAR more agitated about BLM and "SJWs" than they are about jobs going overseas (which itself is more about jobs going to THOSE people than actual job loss)
Remember the words of Atwater - Republican "free market" politics are an elaborate way to scream "n**** n****". It is the cry of "n**** n***** that keeps the system going. But instead of centering the racial struggle in the fight for progressive change (as well as the social justice movements that flow directly, both spiritually and tactically, from the racial struggle), a lot of progressives focus on "neoliberalism" without a real understanding of the term, let alone a sense of how to apply it correctly to current politics. I don't think the modern Democratic Party is propping up United Fruit or invading countries to enforce IMF payments (and even if you cite NAFTA, they then fail in drawing comparisons to the TPP, which is closer to a global union protection act like Wagner than NAFTA)
At the end of the day, people on the left need to organize based on real threats and real issues, and must adopt an objective view of political realities because by chasing shadows, it inhibits our ability to organize against creeping fascism and authoritarianism.
Thomas Frank is a hack but clueless white "progressives" cite his word as gospel.
What's the matter with Kansas? They're racist, sexist, homophobic and bigoted, and that matters much, MUCH more than pocketbook issues. Sam Brownback and Kansas Republicans win every fucking election even while turning Kansas into a Third World-level state. But nah, it's "neoliberalism" that's the problem. Never mind the fact that even the most neoliberal Democrat is more of a friend to the working class than the most "progressive" Republican (and I use that term very loosely in this context).
The last Democrat to win white males is LBJ. I wonder what could have happened between that election and the next that might have hurt our chances with that group? Gee, I'm stumped. But nah, it's neoliberalism, despite the fact that Carter and Bill ran WAY to the right of Hillary.
As long as the Democratic Party is the party of the marginalized, of the people hated and despised by bigoted whites, especially bigoted white males, we're going to struggle to win those votes until those people stop being less bigoted.
You've got to be kidding me.
No less than Marx himself said that there CAN be no victorious class struggle as long as the white worker basks in white privilege. WEB Dubois, who btw was a socialist, stated that white workers partially compensate for their exploitation with a psychological wage.The race, gender, nationality struggle IS the class struggle.
As long as white workers refuse to relinquish white privilege, they will remain vulnerable to the siren song of racism to advance the interests of the oligarchy.
The GOP has suckered White voters
They think all that small government bootstraps shit is directed at THOSE PEOPLE and they'll get herrenvolk democracy like the good old days where THOSE PEOPLE knew their place.
They're in for a rude awakening, the GOP extreme right really does want you to die quickly so their donors can make more money, whether you're black or white.
When I hear people say "drop identity politics", I reply that I'd love to
But if you're of a privileged identity, you first.
Because this is "identity politics" too.
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Unfortunately, much of the Left has made reflexive anti-Americanism a core ideological value.
For many leftists, America is the "Great Satan" every bit as much as it is for an Al Qaeda or Daesh extremist (almost a mirror image of how America would prop up any tinpot dictatorship as long as it claimed to be fighting Communism) and thus, Putin is their ally.
Russia has been playing these types like a fiddle for a long long time, to the detriment of the leftist movement.
How many times do we have to educate you on this?
The only reason why we don't have the Internationale as one of our patriotic songs right now is white bigotry. White working class Americans fucking LOVE socialism when it's not going to """""""THOOOOOOOOOOOOSEEEEEEEEEEEE PEOOOOOOPLEEEEEEEEE"""""""""
As long as racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and other bigotries are a powerful force in American politics, a large plurality of white working class voters will see "their interest" as keeping resources away from minorities and will vote accordingly.
Now, one could argue that we needed to focus more on Hillary's plans and less on how bad Trump was, and that we underestimated how big a problem vote suppression would be, but given how multiple powerful entities, including a foreign Great Power adversary and our own domestic security services were trying to rig the election for Trump, who knows if that would have been enough.
Instead of shilling for the white """"working class""""
(Marx is rolling in his grave at the idea that reactionary petit bougies are the working class, though some actual white workers did shift to Trump)
Can someone tell me how the fuck we lost 10m (some who stayed home, others who actually shifted to Trump ffs) from the Obama Coalition and how we can get them back?
Also yes part of the answer is voter suppression, but that's the game we have to play and win at.
Bernie's message would have sold like gangbusters with a President Mitt Romney or John McCain.
With a President Obama, ummmmmmmmm, no. Right or wrong, a lot of Democratic Party voters didn't hear "Wall Street" or even Blue Dog corporate Dems, but Obama when they heard "Establishment".
The main issue is more optics than anything - you can be progressive without telling Wall Street to fuck off and die (in fact, not telling Wall Street to fuck off can help advance those goals, or at least neutralize them as an obstacle to an extent), but a lot of voters were really waiting for a candidate to tell Wall Street to fuck off and die. Obama and Hillary aren't "tell Wall Street to fuck off and die" types. Because of that, a lot of more progressive voters (and a lot of LPVs) see the game as "rigged" even if they're advocating progressive policy, because "Wall Street will get their way". The paid speeches were certainly benign in content, but that doesn't matter, and wouldn't have mattered unless Hillary was raining fire and brimstone on the bankers like she's channeling Jonathan Edwards in "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God". Those were the non-deplorable Trump voters (the ones Hillary said were non-deplorable), or at least some of them who were angry at the system because Obama and Hillary are, while definitely progressive and for marginalized groups, revolutionary in their own way, BECAUSE of their identities and the negative stereotypes used to keep them down (angry black man/bitchy feminist woman), can't take on the bully pulpit and go to war with the real Establishment the way a lot of lefties would like to.
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Gender: MaleHometown: Washington, DC
Home country: USA
Member since: Thu Jan 28, 2016, 04:01 PM
Number of posts: 1,151
