Sunday, January 19, 2020

Class Analysis or Racist Analysis

Centrist hacks are now pushing the fable that Bernie ignores Racism by focusing on Class based analysis.

First of all, it's untrue, Bernie acknowledges the independent existence of Racism.  However his programs which would meet universal needs--most important in the first place--and also help reduce racism.  (And this is also where I, a Bernie Supporter, stand.)

When a candidate or politician like Trump is appealing to racism, he needs calling out for that.  However, criticizing voters for responding to racist appeals is quite another thing.  It's a politically pointless denial of their agency.

So the windbag claim that the 2016 election was determined by the racism of middle american voters who voted above average for Trump is pointless, and worse, it won't win any friends.

The truth is that economic insecurity drove the 2016 election and nearly all US elections.  It will drive the 2020 election as well.  It's the economy, stupid!

The racist appeals, if they did anything helpful overall or not, were not the only thing keeping Trump aloft.  If anything, the racism was the veneer, and most visible only to viewers of anti-Trump TV networks like CNN and MSNBC generally, and select audiences otherwise.

Most Trump voters would strongly disagree they voted for Trump because of racism.

Even if racism were a factor, it's pretty useless to focus on the racism of the voters themselves.  Racism isn't ended by preaching anti-racism to racists.  Fixing racism indeed first requires fixing the economic insecurity, otherwise the racist appeals will continue to resonate.

Bernie's movement and programs are the best solution to both economic problems in the USA and Racism.

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