Democrats Are About To Plunge Into a Civil War
If Hillary Clinton had been elected, the future of the Democratic Party and that of the country would have converged. The virtues of diversity and inclusion that Hillary Clinton championed would have been led to forefront of the public conscious. Government policy would have reflected these ideals, and we all would have been better for it. Instead, we are going to get the exact opposite. Donald Trump has pledged to run the country the same way he ran his campaign, with the blinding hatred of white nationalism. Trump will push to ban Muslims, create a deportation task force, build a wall, and establish nationwide stop and frisk. Trump champions the supremacy of whites at the expense of minorities, and for many of us, there is going to be hell to pay. It is of the utmost importance that we not only resist Trump, but also Democrats who cave to his demands or who co-opt some of his policies to appeal to his base. There are some on the left who will attempt to use Trump’s rhetoric on race to achieve their own economic policy goals. These people need to be opposed at every turn. They need to be resisted in public. The future of the Republican Party is set. But the Democratic Party is now in a fight for its core values.
White Leftists Want To Remake The Democratic Party In Their Image
It is no secret that Bernie Sanders did terribly with minorities in the primaries. He lost Black voters 75–25, and Latino voters 65–35. Those are massive margins. Bernie won white voters, albeit only slightly. His economic message resonated with white liberals, but minorities clearly rejected it. I’ve written pieces on why, but the short story is that Bernie’s message was colorblind.
He didn’t care to recognize the racial barriers that minorities face in our institutions. For decades in Congress, he never made relationships with minority interest groups. Bernie framed much of his rhetoric as economic populism where greedy elites steal from the poor to keep for themselves. Bernie talked about how the Democratic Party had left these rural white people behind in favor of banks and lobbyists. Nothing could be further from the truth (these white voters largely left the Democrats after the party passed Civil Rights, for obvious reasons) but Bernie pushed it anyway. The Sanders colorblind approach to economics and American politics at large was a loser because an overwhelmingly majority of nonwhite voters are Democrats. And they know that the real economic divide is with race, not class. The median white family — not some wine sipping elites — has over ten times the wealth of the median Black or Latino family. Bernie never talked much about that, as he framed most of his campaign rhetoric around working class whites.
It is telling now, that white leftists (also known as the far left, or brocialists, or dudebros, or the alt left, or just bros for short) claim that Bernie Sanders is now the leader of the Democratic Party. The “class matters more than race” crowd believes that a man completely rejected by minorities six months ago is now their Democratic leader. Never mind the fact that Bernie himself isn’t even a Democrat. These white leftists believe as Bernie does, that the Democratic Party has lost its way because it no longer appeals to the common (white) man. They believe that identity politics (defined as appealing to minority, gender, etc interests) is bad for the Democratic Party. Never mind the fact that Trump just won on white nationalism. Never mind the fact that the white leftists themselves are pushing white identity politics in the Democratic Party. This group believes that Democrats now cater too much to minority interests, and they must revert back to caring about the “common man.”
Minorities Will Be Fighting Two Battles — Against Trump, and Against Leftist White Identity Politics
Unfortunately for us, the Democratic Party’s power vacuum is going to result in a massive power struggle. On one side, the traditional antiracist, antisexist, inclusive Democrats will fight to retain control of the party. This side is considered the establishment, and is currently in a weakened and more vulnerable state. But they still have resources and connections with minority interest groups who will fight to make sure their interests and grievances are heard.
On the other side, the white leftists will attempt to remake the Democratic Party in the image of white identity. There will be a massive push for Democrats to avoid using “divisive” language about racism or sexism as to not “alienate” white voters. There will be a push from these white leftists to tell marginalized groups that their identity has no place in politics, that intersectionality is a bad thing. They will push to put “class solidarity” over antiracism. In an effort to get their preferred class first agenda, some of these types of people will be willing to compromise with Trump. Their agenda is about class — if that means preserving the racial status quo, they alright with that. Watch if Trump uses rhetoric like “working families.” He means the white working class. He could potentially get cooperation from white leftists, even on issues that directly subjugate minorities, if there is a perception that working class whites are being helped.
This is Not The Time To Get Complacent — Let’s Hold Our Leaders Accountable and Push Them To Support Diversity
Whenever a political party loses a political election it does some soul searching. But that doesn’t mean it should abandon its core values. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, and is on pace to win by a bigger margin than Nixon in 1968 and Kennedy in 1960. She won the youth vote. She won the poorest voters. She dominated the minority vote. The Democrats have won the popular vote in six of the last seven elections. The message isn’t the problem.
Now is the time to get energized, not dejected. The core values of the Democratic Party are under assault from the alt left and from the right. Now is the time to hold our Democratic leaders accountable to ensure that they don’t abandon minority voters. That they don’t abandon diversity and inclusion in favor of white identity politics. We must support the leaders that oppose Trump at every turn, and punish the ones that cave and work with Trump. We must have political backbone if we are to ensure the future of inclusion and diversity. We must call out the white moderates who are indifferent to racism and suffering. The Democratic Party is about to enter an internal battle, and we need to make sure that minority interests don’t end up losing out.
We are alone
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