Why arent Animal Rights ever an issue in presidential politics?

[TXCritter]

69. What election have you been watching?

Have you not noticed that there is a candidate - an entire party willing to throw whole genders, races and classes under the bus? In fact, if you're not white, male, christian, American and middle class or richer there are over 100M+ people in this country who don't want YOU to have some rights. In to that environment, how do you expect a population to reach out to extend rights to non-humans when they refuse to recognize fellow humans as human?

Once upon a time women were legally PROPERTY.
Once upon a time Africans (and others) were legally PROPERTY.
Once upon a time Native Americans legally 3/5 of a human being.

And while the legalities have changed, the culture has not. If the culture had changed Black Lives Matter would not be a movement or, at least, you would never hear the knee jerk defense that 'All Lives Matter'. If the culture had changed women would not be blamed for getting raped. If the culture had changed there would be no battle going on at Standing Rock right now.

The culture is not ready for Animal Rights as a presidential campaign issue. More than that, the Animal Rights movement is not ready to take on that level of action. It's too fractured.

The AR movement has become dominated by a vegan agenda. In some cases, seemingly, to the exclusion of all else. People who might believe in AR are denigrated as "Welfarists" if they refuse to be vegan. In one AR group I've been associated with I keep my non-vegan status quiet because some in that organization have openly declared that people like me should be expelled. You don't build a movement by expelling allies - you look for common ground.

On the far fringes of the AR movement you have people advocating for separating predatory species from prey species, exterminating predatory species, forcing predatory species onto vegan diets and, in the most extreme case I've encountered , advocating that predatory species be genetically re-engineered to be vegans. Unfortunately, these fringers sometimes get media attention they don't deserve. So the debate becomes about whether AR people even understand biology as opposed to debating whether or not living beings deserve respect.

Or culture doesn't just see animals as property, individuals see animals as food. No politician will ever seek to take food from the mouths of their voters. In the hierarchy of needs, food is #3 from the top. So, in all seriousness, if you want AR to be taken seriously at the top of the political agenda, you need to de-veganize the issue.

So, why isn't AR a presidential issue? For the same reason that Jill Stein is running 4th in the race. You don't start at the top with a new issue. You start in the legislatures of the states or in the city councils and build up from there. People have been fighting for Universal Health Care in this country for 70 YEARS and we still don't have it. Women have been fighting for respect for centuries. African Americans have been fighting for their humanity in America across 5 centuries. Workers have been fighting for workers rights decades.

Climate change? We've known about climate change for 120 years and one of our candidates STILL claims it's a HOAX.

Compared to these issues AR is an infant and it has a long way to go to claw it's way through other issues demanding attention. You need to settle in for a life-long fight.