How the Democrats can Win in 2022 and 2024
Okay, a lot of people are going to abuse me for saying this, but I believe it is true. Here is my guide to Democratic victory:
1. No more talk about racism
2. No more talk about trans rights
Are these issues not important? Of course they are important but they have been so poisoned by Republican baiting that, for every person persuaded by talk about them, three or four are turned off. If Democrats want to win, they have to leave these issues alone for now.
3. Every time a Democrat gets in front of a microphone or on a TV broadcast, they must insist that the conversation be about one thing- the real threat facing this country today, which is the effort by Republicans to turn this country into a fascist dictatorship, which has been their main goal at least back to the time of Reagan. Republicans are so successful at using this technique of assault in spreading their lies; it is about time Democrats use it to spread the truth. Because no other issue matters if Republicans succeed in their war on democracy. None of us, gay, straight, black, white, will have any rights at all, or a shred of security, economic or political. We will be ruled by theocrats every bit as demented as those in ISIS or the Taliban, and will end up living in similar conditions. If every Democrat does not insist that this is the only important issue in the country today, we are doomed.
Ignore this advice and perish. That's my opinion, anyway.
Comments
I don't think the Democrats should, or even can, ignore the issue of racism entirely. Black voters are a large and essential part of the party's base -- Democrats cannot win most elections without them, any more than they can win without centrist suburbanites. Both are essential. With the latter group, the need is to avoid losing them to the Republicans by pushing issues that alienate them, as you say here; with black voters, the need is to deliver enough that they are motivated to vote in high numbers. And one of the things that needs to be delivered is protection for voting rights, which is an important interest of black voters. Given that Republicans are working so feverishly to suppress the black vote by various tactics -- a big part of that "war on democracy" -- it's hard to see how we can address that issue honestly while entirely avoiding any mention of racism.
What the Democrats do need to do -- and I assume this is what you were referring to -- is stop throwing accusations of racism around like confetti, as has become the habit. When white grade-school kids are being taught that they're "oppressors" with "privilege", and the response of Democrats to complaints about this is to split hairs about whether what's going on in those schools technically constitutes "critical race theory" or not, obviously parents are going to lash out against this at the ballot box. It's the same with accusing voters of being racist when they don't vote the way we want, as an easy way to avoid the need to figure out what we're actually doing that turns them off. Racism is a serious accusation and should be used only sparingly and where strong evidence exists. Unfortunately the habit of asserting that racism is the real root underpinning any disagreement has become so ingrained that it will be very hard to break.
To convince the masses that the Republicans are trying to turn the country into a fascist dictatorship, it will be necessary to be both specific and credible about what exactly they are doing that tends toward that result. There is, of course, vote suppression, which is pushing the country in the direction of an apartheid-like system, which is not really the same as a fascist dictatorship; it also doesn't seem to be very effective, given that 2020 saw by far the highest voter turnout in US history. The pursuit of extreme economic inequality has pretty much reach its goal already, but again, extreme concentration of wealth in the hands of a few is not the same as a fascist dictatorship, even though it's a very bad thing for other reasons. The January 6 insurrection certainly looked like a coup attack, but that was Trump's gambit, not the party's as a whole, even though they've mostly come to downplay it after the fact because they kowtow to him. I don't deny that Trump, Miller, and Bannon are fascists at heart, but Trump was mostly inept and the others never had very much power in their own hands.
It might be better to focus on things the Republicans unambiguously are doing which are unpopular, such as cutting taxes on the wealthy that most people want to see raised, obstructing programs that most people want to see enacted, etc. Not as dramatic as fascism, but easier to convince those middle-of-the-road voters of.
1) Citation needed (specific examples, that is). Conservative invective targeted towards people whose children graduated decades ago does not count.
2) When I was in school, fellow first-graders called me "Jew shoes." I didn't have the luxury of not knowing about antisemitism. If first graders are being antisemitic, they need to be taught about it. Likewise with race - society at large teaches grade-schoolers of color about racism.
I agree that the Democrats' "splitting hairs" approach is bad. Oliver Willis says "strong and wrong beats weak and right." It is necessary to be strong and right.
Here's how to do it.
Texas Republican lawmaker Matt Krause put together a list of 850 books he wants to ban. In Virginia, Republican school board member Kirk Twigg wants to burn books in school libraries.
Republicans want to ban all discussions of racism in schools. They think your kids are weak-willed snowflakes who can't handle the truth. Well, they're wrong. Your kids are strong. They can handle the truth. And they can do better than we have in the past.
I favor the American Heritage Dictionary definition: Fascism n. A philosophy or system of government that advocates or exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with an ideology of belligerent nationalism.
I would include their operating strategies that fuel division, bigotry, racism, false accusations, demonization and scapegoating.
Fascism cannot take hold without hate and lies.
Sounds like the Republican Party already, even before Trump.
And I also like Orwell’s conclusion on fascists, from his 1944 piece, “What is Fascism?”
"By ‘Fascism’ they mean, roughly speaking, something cruel, unscrupulous, arrogant, obscurantist, anti-liberal and anti-working-class. Except for the relatively small number of Fascist sympathizers, almost any English person would accept ‘bully’ as a synonym for ‘Fascist’. That is about as near to a definition as this much-abused word has come."
They are ALL bullies to their core, but Trump is the beloved and feared leader of a party and movement of white nationalist and money-soaked bullies.
The same ambiguity occurs with the term "racism" and "racist". It gives the racists plenty of room to argue they, "Don't see color", "all lives matter", and "both sides are racist".
Better to call them bigots, what they truly are.
(Merriem-Webster) bigot: a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices, especially : one who regards or treats the members of a group (such as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance
(Oxford) Bigot: a person who is obstinately or unreasonably attached to a belief, opinion, or faction, especially one who is prejudiced against or antagonistic toward a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular group.