re: #41 HappyWarrior

Very classy gesture on his part. And this right here is why I like the Democratic Party. A Dominican immigrant’s son is the chair of the party and an African-American Muslim is vice chair. The Democratic Party in both its hierarchy and its rank and file IS America.

…which, I think, contributed to the racist backlash trash fire that was 2016 :( You were correct when you said populist economic policies were most popular with the WWC when they were the only ones who benefited. The fiendish evil perpetrated by Nixon/Reagan was the Southern Strategy propaganda that a) Got these people to see the programs that helped them as “free-loading” for minority groups b) See the GOP as saviors of the white race, all the while gutting union protections and social services that helped the WWC have a decent life in the first place.

And then along comes trump, promising to restore the whites-only populism. No wonder it worked. The Democrats’ job moving forward? What Zeynep Tufekci says here:

@zeynep What do you want to do, be nicer to racists? Is that what you’re suggesting we do? We know they’re racist and that they’re angry.

— Jackie Treehorn (@CoralSeason8) November 10, 2016

Not be nice to racists. Create coalitions that are anti-racist & economic-justice oriented, peel away people to it. https://t.co/iQxtLyIY5K

— Zeynep Tufekci (@zeynep) November 10, 2016

You don’t (and can’t) win over the entire WWC. But I believe she’s right when she says you can peel away those on the fringes with the right message.