What is wrong with previous Democratic voting blocks??

[Tom Rinaldo]

27. I suspect this will be controversial

I am raising an "uncomfortable topic" as one factor, among many others granted, to consider. It reflects a basic part of human nature, the tendency to fiercely compete for scarce and important resources. It is part of what makes divide and conquer strategies work. Relative have-nots get pitted against each other.

I remember living on Long Island during the 70's noticing frequent media coverage of NYC politics that focused on political rivalries at the time between New York City's African American and Puerto Rico communities, literally for access to power inside NYC's Democratic Party dominated government. Of course there were also always strong voices calling for unity among the oppressed rather than competition, and that helped contain, but not totally eliminate rivalries at the time.

Flash forward to several years ago when I began to increasingly notice a lot of high profile media attention being given to the fact that African American women represent the core base of the Democratic Party. It manifest on DU also, but I saw it everywhere. Factually it was/is accurate. African American women have been the most loyal Democratic voting bloc, but a fear in the back of my mind began to stir. On the most basic level it concerned something that could almost be reduced to jealousy. When attention gets paid disproportionately to one group (or individual), other groups can have an adverse reaction, rising from a feeling of being taken for granted.

NONE of this is fair. Even in the current social-political environment the contributions of African American women to both the Democratic Party and the overall fight for justice in America are undervalued. Still, during the 2020 political cycle especially, the role of African Americans, and African American women in particular, was given high profile treatment relative to the importance of the Hispanic community in our greater Democratic coalition. The fact that Democrats nominated the first African American woman for Vice President played into that, along with the publicity given Biden's pledge to nominate an African American woman to the U.S. Supreme Court. Biden's Hispanic Administrative appointments were similarly relatively low profile competed to high level African American appointments.

People don't like to address it, but the legacy of slavery in America also produced as a byproduct some complexities in the relative public roles played by Black men and women that are ripe for skillful manipulation by outside malevolent forces.

I know that even at a maximum all of the above could only be contributing to a very small part in the drifting apart of some parts of the Democratic base, but no one even addresses this as one possible factor, so I'm putting it out there.