This blew my mind to the point where I stopped it, rewound it and transcribed it.
Why is the Democratic Party such a wreck right now? Much of it is what I've seen saying since I've been on this board: This ridiculous, counterproductive dependence on PC and Identity Politics. Not ONLY did it feed the frustration and anger that brought us the former guy, it ALSO simply doesn't work as well on minorities any more.
Van Jones, this morning, on CNN:
MAGA are moving right on culture -- you know, CRT is bad, trans is bad, parents' rights -- so they're marketing their right wing move on culture really well. But they're also moving left on economics -- MAGA sounds like Bernie Sanders when they're talking about American tariffs, talking about American jobs, the way they're going after big tech companies. And so by moving left on economics and right on culture, that's appealing to working class voters, including black and brown voters. Democrats don't see this coming. They've over-reacted on the cultural moves, under-reacted on economic appeal, and you're seeing it pay off for MAGA. So this is a very important moment.
If Democrats want working class black and working class Latino voters, we're gonna have to change our strategy and respond to the MAGA threat. Listen, we're in danger of becoming the party of the very high and the very low. If you pull out the working class, you have people who are very well educated and very well off. Those people talk funny -- LatinX? I've never met a LatinX, I've never met a BIPOC (?), this weird stuff that highly-educated people say. Nobody talks that way in the barber shop, the nail salon, the grocery store, the community center. But that's how we talk now. That's WEIRD. And the people who are very low down on the economic ladder need a bunch of stuff. You wind up over promising -- oh, we're gonna give you reparations -- to the people at the bottom of the economic ladder, talking weird to appeal to the people at the top of the economic ladder, and the working class walks away from you. That is the data we're facing.
And there is a penalty you pay if you don't go along with the normal narrative. The normal narrative in America has been, all black and brown people hate racists, all Republicans are racist, so all black and brown people are gonna vote for Democrats. All of that doesn't make sense in the real world. All Republicans are not racist, and Republican appeals are not just racial, some of them are economic, some of them are cultural, and all black and brown folks are not liberals.
Listen, black and brown folks go to church A LOT. You want black churchgoers and Latin Catholics to vote for Democrats, you to do things that show that maybe you get those issues. Which are primarily economic issues, family issues, bread & butter issues. And if you're gonna talk about the cultural issues, you have to talk about them in a way that's gonna resonate with a working mom or a working dad, and not just folks who went to college.
Will Democrats take note? I doubt it.
Why is the Democratic Party such a wreck right now? Much of it is what I've seen saying since I've been on this board: This ridiculous, counterproductive dependence on PC and Identity Politics. Not ONLY did it feed the frustration and anger that brought us the former guy, it ALSO simply doesn't work as well on minorities any more.
Van Jones, this morning, on CNN:
MAGA are moving right on culture -- you know, CRT is bad, trans is bad, parents' rights -- so they're marketing their right wing move on culture really well. But they're also moving left on economics -- MAGA sounds like Bernie Sanders when they're talking about American tariffs, talking about American jobs, the way they're going after big tech companies. And so by moving left on economics and right on culture, that's appealing to working class voters, including black and brown voters. Democrats don't see this coming. They've over-reacted on the cultural moves, under-reacted on economic appeal, and you're seeing it pay off for MAGA. So this is a very important moment.
If Democrats want working class black and working class Latino voters, we're gonna have to change our strategy and respond to the MAGA threat. Listen, we're in danger of becoming the party of the very high and the very low. If you pull out the working class, you have people who are very well educated and very well off. Those people talk funny -- LatinX? I've never met a LatinX, I've never met a BIPOC (?), this weird stuff that highly-educated people say. Nobody talks that way in the barber shop, the nail salon, the grocery store, the community center. But that's how we talk now. That's WEIRD. And the people who are very low down on the economic ladder need a bunch of stuff. You wind up over promising -- oh, we're gonna give you reparations -- to the people at the bottom of the economic ladder, talking weird to appeal to the people at the top of the economic ladder, and the working class walks away from you. That is the data we're facing.
And there is a penalty you pay if you don't go along with the normal narrative. The normal narrative in America has been, all black and brown people hate racists, all Republicans are racist, so all black and brown people are gonna vote for Democrats. All of that doesn't make sense in the real world. All Republicans are not racist, and Republican appeals are not just racial, some of them are economic, some of them are cultural, and all black and brown folks are not liberals.
Listen, black and brown folks go to church A LOT. You want black churchgoers and Latin Catholics to vote for Democrats, you to do things that show that maybe you get those issues. Which are primarily economic issues, family issues, bread & butter issues. And if you're gonna talk about the cultural issues, you have to talk about them in a way that's gonna resonate with a working mom or a working dad, and not just folks who went to college.
Will Democrats take note? I doubt it.
