Kamala Harris blasts critics of 'identity politics'

[JCanete]

49. But if we aren't reaching Trump voters, then the argument for shying away from progressive

populism is even worse. Then there's no excuse really. Why wouldn't we want to excite our base? Failures aside, we are already the party identified as focusing on ending systemic racism and sexism. Clinton put a whole lot of eggs in the basket of breaking that glass ceiling. We shouldn't stop being that party. But we can't reduce ourselves to being the party of a more inclusive elite, who believe in "opportunity" for everybody, rather than actual economic justice for everyone. We have to deal in a big way with economic stratification.

But why don't you think they are reachable anyway? Some voted for Obama and then voted for Trump. How did that shit happen?

Sure, these voters are voting for their perceived cultural/social interests which have been fed to them for their whole lives, and again, its that economic component that has to be disrupted. They are being distracted on purpose with bullshit, and we should be turning the people doing that work into the boogie men. We should be giving these people a different villain. That is the narrative. This villain is robbing them blind, fooling them stupid, and laughing to the bank. Instead, we play into it and go after the minions. We attack the "deplorables." We end up contributing to the divide rather than finding ways to bridge it.

Dangle real relief right in their face and see if they turn that down in favor of their bigotry. I assure you that if they truly understand what they are getting, that its not some vague nonsense involving bringing bankers and other bigwigs to the table to hash out somethign that's good for everybody...they will snatch at it. Maybe just 3 to 5 percent....maybe only a couple percent. But it isn't a message that is bad for democrats and the democratic base, and it is a message that could grab just enough reachable people on the other side.

Who are the people who don't want a 15 dollar minimum wage? those who make 10? Who are the people who don't want free college tuition or actual healthcare? These things all poll well.

Also, as I already posted to this OP, I wholly disagree that there isn't a criticism to be made against a certian kind of identity politics campaigning. It is not effective to say there's a special place in hell for women who don't vote for Clinton. It is not effective to say that Welder should just throw away his campaign and betray his supporters because a Native American woman entered the race. That is the kind of "identity politics" Sanders attempted to narrow the definition down to. He said it was about how these candidates fight for issues that affect those communities, not about how they themselves identify, and he's right about that.