2016 Postmortem
Showing Original Post only (View all)White progressive analysis of politics is fundamentally broken. [View all]
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.