General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: It would be nice if the centrists in this party did some introspection, too. [View all]forjusticethunders
(1,151 posts)The economic left left has a huge blind spot on "social" issues, massive, glaring, overwhelming. A lot of people, including me, feel that they're obsessed with recovering white working class industrial workers who left the party because of rising diversity. People who are more economically centrist actually have taken the vanguard in terms of fighting for the rights of minorities, which creates this kind of incoherence.
Basically a lot of minorities would take someone like Cory Booker because he fights for minority rights, even though he's more economically center, than someone like Bernie or Liz, because we feel like our issues aren't being centered enough by the economic populist left. It doesn't help that a lot of rose-touting "Socialists" on twitter are primarily dudebro white males who harass and demean women and minorities who don't agree with them.
We can talk about messaging and all that (though it seems that turnout in swing states was the problem; how much of that was voter suppression versus people not feeling inspired by HRC, keep in mind the VRA was gutted prior to this election and nobody really talked about it) but as long as leftists don't acknowledge our weakness on social and racial issues and work to fix it (and work means engage with minorities, listen to their problems and provide positive allyship), then this division will persist. Economic centrists have proven themselves much better at working with minorities, and if leftists are falling behind in this area, then it's basically hopeless. There is no revolution possible without black, brown, woman and LGBTQ liberation.