That's what the Senate Minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, had to say about current Republican immigration proposals. It was her "basket of deplorables" moment. (As many of you know, Hillary Clinton came up with that term and delivered it in a campaign speech. According to her, Trump supporters could be divided into two groups. One half consisted of vile racists; the other consisted of those with legitimate grievances who could be won over. This was quoted out of context, of course--a few days later, a Trump supporter carried a poster that informed us that Deplorable Lives Matter).
There is, of course, more than a grain of truth--perhaps a whole bowlful--in what both women had to say: to pretend that Trump's success--diminishing already, thank God--has nothing to do with racism is like claiming increasing carbon emissions have nothing to do with climate change. (It is true, alas! that many Trump supporters deny both racism and climate change--the world, however, continues to warm while prejudices continue to harm.)
Still, what Nancy Pelosi said, is what one wearing Democratic ballet shoes might call "unhelpful and misguided," or what one wearing Texas cowboy boots might call "deplorable and stupid." What an unhelpful, misguided, deplorable and stupid political strategy! Haven't Democrats learned anything yet?
And it is not only Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton. Here's how N.Y. Times columnist Charles Blow described Trump in a recent op-ed piece:
He was working-class white America’s rebuff to an erudite black man and a supremely experienced woman. Trump’s defects had been validated. He was loved among those who hate.
Sweeping all working class whites into a basket of deplorables is almost--not quite, there is admittedly a lot of racism involved--like demonizing all immigrants because of the crimes of a few. (This is exactly what Trump does; it is a bad example to follow).
It is also, like all prejudice, unjustified. Many of those same white people who voted for Trump in 2016 voted for Obama in 2012, proof that hate wasn't foremost on many of the voters' minds last November.
I view the election debacle of 2016 as another example of "What is the Matter with Kansas?," that is, large numbers of working-class whites voted against their own interests due to economic duress and feelings of marginalization. The resultant anger induces one to vote like a snapping crocodile, that is, using one's brain stem, a more primitive area of the brain, than to vote after a cool analysis of issues. Calling a group of human beings--and we're all human beings--crocodiles, however, doesn't help at all.
Not only is believing that a large swath of the voting public consists of brain-dead, white-supremacist yokels morally unjustifiable, it is--which is the point of this article--a horrible political strategy.
Rural America--Trump's base--is home to many American voters; Democrats ignore them at their peril.
I am firmly convinced that many, with the right political strategies, can be turned around. These do not include downplaying racism or ceasing to advocate for immigrants; one must reach out to working-class whites for the right reasons. And in this age of increasing inequality, there are many: threats to Social Security and Medicare; lack of universal health care; lack of a living wage for all those who work, etc. I recall a town meeting of Trump supporters during which Bernie Sanders spoke. It didn't take him long to quell their anger by asking them questions such as, "Don't you support Social Security?," after which he exposed Republican plans to rip the already frayed social net even further.
Democrats have much to learn from Republicans. The latter are expert political strategists. Some white people feel economically threatened and marginalized. What better way to get their votes than by blaming everything on immigrants? Many feel that their way of life is disappearing. What better way to get their votes than to vociferously oppose gay and transgender rights? What better way to demonize Social Security and Medicare than by calling them "entitlements," implying that they are the fuel for the (imaginary) limosines of "welfare queens?"
These are, of course, evil political strategies, but politically effective ones nevertheless. Politicians often have to stretch the truth to win--this is a fallen world, no doubt about that. Republicans, however, are in a different category. They are the party of the rich and the rich are in the minority; they therefore have to use deceit as their primary means of inducing the rest of us to vote against our own interests.
The Republicans are winning this war. It is a sad trait of humanity that scapegoats are sought--and always found--when life becomes especially hard. Immigrants are to blame for everything! They're taking our jobs! They're criminals! Rapists! Anyone who even mentions the word amnesty hates us!
As I write this, Nancy Pelosi is threatening to shut down the government if there is no agreement on DACA. Regarding DACA, there is only one moral position; Republican strategists have the Democrats just where they want them, however, by pairing granting citizenship to Dreamers with funding for that miserable wall in the same bill.
If Democrats had been reaching out to working-class whites, mightn't the latter's irrational hate for immigrants have been tempered, reducing Trump's base's support for something so base as opposition to Dreamers? Did it have to come to this?
They're trying "to make America white again."
If that is your response, Madam Leader, the Democratic one should be "You're fired!"
There is, of course, more than a grain of truth--perhaps a whole bowlful--in what both women had to say: to pretend that Trump's success--diminishing already, thank God--has nothing to do with racism is like claiming increasing carbon emissions have nothing to do with climate change. (It is true, alas! that many Trump supporters deny both racism and climate change--the world, however, continues to warm while prejudices continue to harm.)
Still, what Nancy Pelosi said, is what one wearing Democratic ballet shoes might call "unhelpful and misguided," or what one wearing Texas cowboy boots might call "deplorable and stupid." What an unhelpful, misguided, deplorable and stupid political strategy! Haven't Democrats learned anything yet?
And it is not only Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton. Here's how N.Y. Times columnist Charles Blow described Trump in a recent op-ed piece:
He was working-class white America’s rebuff to an erudite black man and a supremely experienced woman. Trump’s defects had been validated. He was loved among those who hate.
Sweeping all working class whites into a basket of deplorables is almost--not quite, there is admittedly a lot of racism involved--like demonizing all immigrants because of the crimes of a few. (This is exactly what Trump does; it is a bad example to follow).
It is also, like all prejudice, unjustified. Many of those same white people who voted for Trump in 2016 voted for Obama in 2012, proof that hate wasn't foremost on many of the voters' minds last November.
I view the election debacle of 2016 as another example of "What is the Matter with Kansas?," that is, large numbers of working-class whites voted against their own interests due to economic duress and feelings of marginalization. The resultant anger induces one to vote like a snapping crocodile, that is, using one's brain stem, a more primitive area of the brain, than to vote after a cool analysis of issues. Calling a group of human beings--and we're all human beings--crocodiles, however, doesn't help at all.
Not only is believing that a large swath of the voting public consists of brain-dead, white-supremacist yokels morally unjustifiable, it is--which is the point of this article--a horrible political strategy.
Rural America--Trump's base--is home to many American voters; Democrats ignore them at their peril.
I am firmly convinced that many, with the right political strategies, can be turned around. These do not include downplaying racism or ceasing to advocate for immigrants; one must reach out to working-class whites for the right reasons. And in this age of increasing inequality, there are many: threats to Social Security and Medicare; lack of universal health care; lack of a living wage for all those who work, etc. I recall a town meeting of Trump supporters during which Bernie Sanders spoke. It didn't take him long to quell their anger by asking them questions such as, "Don't you support Social Security?," after which he exposed Republican plans to rip the already frayed social net even further.
Democrats have much to learn from Republicans. The latter are expert political strategists. Some white people feel economically threatened and marginalized. What better way to get their votes than by blaming everything on immigrants? Many feel that their way of life is disappearing. What better way to get their votes than to vociferously oppose gay and transgender rights? What better way to demonize Social Security and Medicare than by calling them "entitlements," implying that they are the fuel for the (imaginary) limosines of "welfare queens?"
These are, of course, evil political strategies, but politically effective ones nevertheless. Politicians often have to stretch the truth to win--this is a fallen world, no doubt about that. Republicans, however, are in a different category. They are the party of the rich and the rich are in the minority; they therefore have to use deceit as their primary means of inducing the rest of us to vote against our own interests.
The Republicans are winning this war. It is a sad trait of humanity that scapegoats are sought--and always found--when life becomes especially hard. Immigrants are to blame for everything! They're taking our jobs! They're criminals! Rapists! Anyone who even mentions the word amnesty hates us!
As I write this, Nancy Pelosi is threatening to shut down the government if there is no agreement on DACA. Regarding DACA, there is only one moral position; Republican strategists have the Democrats just where they want them, however, by pairing granting citizenship to Dreamers with funding for that miserable wall in the same bill.
If Democrats had been reaching out to working-class whites, mightn't the latter's irrational hate for immigrants have been tempered, reducing Trump's base's support for something so base as opposition to Dreamers? Did it have to come to this?
They're trying "to make America white again."
If that is your response, Madam Leader, the Democratic one should be "You're fired!"
No comments:
Post a Comment