Opinion Agree or Disagree: Liberals will lose 2020 if they keep focusing on race

[JuniorSonGoku]

I think liberals have done more to hurt than help at this point. Issues that need serious changes like income and resource distribution, wages vs. cost of living, environmental waste and toxicity, life expectancy, health, infrastructure, and education have all been thrown to the wayside to argue about race and gender.

I don't think Trump is the party of racists (majority-wise). I think it is the party of poor and "middle-class" white people tired of being called racists de facto. Just because the majority of Trump supporters are white, doesn't mean they are all therefore racist.

If we want to turn this country around before it becomes restructured to be owned by a few people, liberals will need to reevaluate their strategy.

 

[cincymma79]

Youre racist sexist kkk for asking

 

[Sketch]

They will lose because they are a splintered party that can’t work together. A large percentage of them if not all of them are obsessed with identity politics and the silent majority are tired of it.

 

[all caps]

Everybody will lose if we keep focusing on inconsequential shit

 

[AngryPorto]

If democrats can put forward a progressive candidate who beats Trump over the head with issues, they will win. If they fall back on the identity politics and "Trump bad me not Trump vote me" caveman rhetoric, they will lose.

So agree-ish.

They will lose because they are a splintered party that can’t work together. A large percentage of them if not all of them are obsessed with identity politics and the silent majority are tired of it.

You've got this backwards, a minority of them care about identity above all else, just like a minority of Trump supporters are racist. The issue is the fringe is just as loud as the majority now thanks to social and corporate media.

 

[Jack V Savage]

Disagree that they focus on race. Though whatever they focus on, the right will focus on race and accuse the left of sharing that focus.

 

[Possum Jenkins]

Agreed 1,000%

I mean, look at the issues of the current top two Democratic candidates:

https://joebiden.com/joes-vision/

https://berniesanders.com/issues/

Nothing but Cultural Marxism, reparations, race quotas, minority scholarships, race quotas again.

It's political suicide!

 

[Trotsky]

They aren't.

Democrats are continually rolling out policies on important topics: affordable/universal healthcare, campaign finance reform, path to citizenship and common sense immigration law, affordable/universal college, ballot access and voter protection, consumer protection, worker democracy, criminal justice reform, protecting the environment and transitioning to green energy.

The Republicans don't have viable policies in any of those areas - only shameless giveaways to the rich and corporations, looting of the environment and economy, and deficit spending in order to give more money to the rich. That's why the Republicans - such as can be seen through the posters here - only talk about racism and transgender issues, how feminists hate men, how journalists and academics are all a part of a liberal conspiracy.

 

[nac386]

Bit of a misconception there. Or maybe more accurately, an intentional misrepresentation.

In 2016, would any of you actually claim that Hilary Clinton was the identity politics candidate and Trump was the policy candidate?

 

[JuniorSonGoku]

Disagree that they focus on race. Though whatever they focus on, the right will focus on race and accuse the left of sharing that focus.

This tactic is certainly a part of the issue.

That said, look at most news outlets or go to any college in the U.S. and see what the students are consistently talking/organizing about. I am sorry, but you are factually wrong about the former.

 

[Madmick]

LOL at anybody who thinks this identity war favors Republicans long term.

Wake up. If Republicans don't change this conversation, rather than exploiting it, the party is going to get wiped out, and will have to radically reform its platform to stay relevant.

 

[Jack V Savage]

This tactic is certainly a part of the issue.

That said, look at most news outlets or go to any college in the U.S. and see what the students are consistently talking/organizing about. I am sorry, but you are factually wrong about the former.

College students aren't running any party or even a significant portion of voters. If you want to know what politicians are focused on, watch campaign ads, watch speeches, read their websites. Heavily identity stuff on the right, heavily not identity stuff on the left (precisely because A) it's not something even most of the left cares that much about and B) they know it's a political loser).

 

[Trotsky]

Bit of a misconception there. Or maybe more accurately, an intentional misrepresentation.

In 2016, would any of you actually claim that Hilary Clinton was the identity politics candidate and Trump was the policy candidate?

She was totallly pandering to the black when she....sided with cops on the topic of police shootings. And she was totally pandering to race activists when she.....sided with capital on NoDAPL.

 

[Mani]

Disagree

 

[panamaican]

I kind of disagree. I don't think the Dems are focused on race. I think @Jack V Savage has it pretty accurately. The GOP has made race a central part of much of their rhetoric and then the Dems get labelled as "focused on race" when they respond to it.

Let's take illegal immigration as an example: Illegal immigration is a problem but a large amount of the problem comes from visa overstays. Yet when the GOP uses this issue to motivate the base, they make sure that they're frequently talking about illegal immigrants who are Hispanic. This despite the fact that the number of illegal immigrants from Asia and Africa are triping and doubling respectively. They've racialized an issue that should be considered a universal one.

I do think it's important to draw a distinction between what leftists on the internet say and what the Democratic Party politicians say. And while the internet talkers are often focused on race, the politicians themselves aren't.

I think the distinction here is that the GOP often uses race when highlighting what they consider problems and the Dems use race when speaking to specific voting demographics about why to adopt a policy. That's not precise but a decent enough approximation.

 

[lilelvis]

College students aren't running any party or even a significant portion of voters. If you want to know what politicians are focused on, watch campaign ads, watch speeches, read their websites. Heavily identity stuff on the right, heavily not identity stuff on the left (precisely because A) it's not something even most of the left cares that much about and B) they know it's a political loser).

Most voters are just watching TV, youtube, IG, Twitter etc. Despite anyone's platform their perception is being formed to the masses on those mediums. You don't see very much policy position in the media.

It's a godamn shame.

 

[ultramanhyata]

In 2016, would any of you actually claim that Hilary Clinton was the identity politics candidate and Trump was the policy candidate?

Here's where the right has the advantage in race politics...

A GOP politician in the US can pander to whites de facto without ever openly acknowledging and praising that group's racial identity. But it is impossible to pander to any minority demographic in the US without being fully explicit.

 

[JuniorSonGoku]

College students aren't running any party or even a significant portion of voters. If you want to know what politicians are focused on, watch campaign ads, watch speeches, read their websites. Heavily identity stuff on the right, heavily not identity stuff on the left (precisely because A) it's not something even most of the left cares that much about and B) they know it's a political loser).

1. Democrats often depend on college voters and minority votes. I'm sorry but that is bullshit. And what about when they graduate and get older? The trend is definitely going in one direction in terms of focus.
2. https://www.cnn.com/ (first page has a top story article about race). You can go to just about any big news source and see race or gender as one of the top articles.
https://www.nbcnews.com/ (Same here)
Here's another https://www.washingtonpost.com/regional/ . First video on the right.
3. Have you watched their ads or read their websites?

As I said, I'm not denying conservative tactics. But to act like democrats aren't playing the same game is ridiculous.

 

[JuniorSonGoku]

LOL at anybody who thinks this identity war favors Republicans long term.

Wake up. If Republicans don't change this conversation, rather than exploiting it, the party is going to get wiped out, and will have to radically reform its platform to stay relevant.

It doesn't have to be very long to greatly affect this country. The next decade could see a restructuring of society due to automation and resource ownership.

 

[nostradumbass]

Bit of a misconception there. Or maybe more accurately, an intentional misrepresentation.

In 2016, would any of you actually claim that Hilary Clinton was the identity politics candidate and Trump was the policy candidate?

Yes. Her slogan was "I'm with her" and she believed she was owed votes just for being a woman, then let's not forget her wonderful speech where she accused half of voters of being "depolorable racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic" and then of course blamed sexism is addition to her other long list of excuses for losing. Trump ran on border security and trade.

For the OP, they were already spending too much time talking about their intersectional shit, but were at least still mixing in trying to buy votes with hollow promises of handouts. Seems now they'll be spending the next year on orange man bad as they try to impeach the president and will be stuck having wasted all their effort after that fails.