African American
In reply to the discussion: Thom Hartman joins number of white progressives slamming those criticizing #BLM [View all]JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)I have no quarrel with BLM's message. I have a huge argument about their strategy.
See my posts please. History shows us that when we have a strong very liberal coalition in the Congress and in the White House and long enough to control the Supreme Court, we can pass the kinds of legislation we need to achieve racial justice as well as our other goals.
If we on the left are divided, we achieve nothing. That has been the situation since Reagan was elected in 1980.
The missing component in the liberal coalition we need has been working people, the people who need economic justice.
No part of our liberal coalition can go it alone or drop out of the coalition. We need all of us working together to improve all of our lives.
No one group in our coalition is strong enough to go it alone or to offend others in the coalition.
It is interesting to me that I get such a strong reaction against me when I talk about the contributions that white people made to end slavery and to promote Black rights. Very interesting. Because it is the truth. And because what I am saying supports my belief that we cannot any of us, go it alone. It isn't women against Blacks. It isn't Blacks against economic justice. All of the components of our coalition have to be marching with all other components if we are to achieve our goals.
To the extent that BLMs thinks it can change police brutality without a lot of white help, well, what can I say?
Same for environmentalists. Can't change things without a strong liberal majority in Congress plus a strong liberal in the White House. Just won't work.
And it is mostly in the South and in the Midwest where any conservative idiot can win in the ballot box. So it is issues that win in those areas that we need to support while still supporting the equal rights and justice reform issues. We can do it if we work together. But if one of the groups that forms our coalition opts out of supporting the rest, that group will pull everybody down, and no one will get anywhere.