Quote:
Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield
Exactly. Run on the issues. Run on the ACA.
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I think you missed my point. To many people identity politics issues
are "the issues" or at least are included in their list of issues.
In order to expand the base, you need to address some of the issues that fall into the identity politics category. They can't be dismissed wholesale. People like me care very much about them because they affect our lives. It is clear the Republican Party has been very good at exploiting white fragility by manipulating them by (i) passing bullshit laws that hurt people and then (ii) dismissing the backlash as liberals classifying everyone as racist, sexist, etc. They are very successful at this because people close themselves off to this stuff since any personal admission of a tendency, no matter how small, towards an "-ism" or "phobia" is an uncomfortable proposition for whites and often seen as not very important.
But you can't expand your base without including issues that are important to huge swaths of the target. Marketing the party to go after those who want accessible healthcare and an inclusive economy is surely important. But I guarantee that focusing solely on that stuff will
not expand the base. Obama was able to avoid talking identity politics too much because his skin color has agency when it comes to those issues and he benefited from an expansion of his base (plus the fact that the last Republican to hold office before him was a fucking fool) as a result.
So, the question remains: How can Dems expand the base without turning off fragile whites in key states?
TM
