Remember how the GOP used Wedge issues at each presidential election to energize their base? Remember how Gay Marriage came and bit them on the butt when the public stopped viewing it as a wedge issue?
Same strategy, new topic:
[QUOTE=The Festering Tumor that is Steve Bannon]
“The Democrats, the longer they talk about identity politics, I got ’em,” the former head of Breitbart told The American Prospect in an interview. “I want them to talk about racism every day.”
"If the left is focused on race and identity, and we go with economic nationalism, we can crush the Democrats,” he added.
[/QUOTE]
Could I want to prove someone wrong any *more *passionately?! How cynical and crappy.
What do you think? Can we still get played this way?
You say that as if “wedge issues” are inherently bad. Perhaps the Democrats would be well served to find their own wedge issues, if they haven’t already.
I don’t know whether they have or not, but I hope they don’t. I don’t really want them to be well served, I want the country to be well served. For example, Republicans brought out their base in the 2004 election by bringing up gay marriage again and again (wedge issue), then when Bush won the presidency, he immediately got to work…trying to privatize social security.
So, I think wedge issues are inherently bad – they drive the electorate apart, make the country more and more partisan, and don’t lead to progress on any front. The people who would love wedge issues should be (1) politicians who seek power as an end in itself, and (2) libertarians and anarchists who want a government that’s hamstrung and ineffective.
I figured, from what you were saying, that he was going to follow up that line about the left talking about race and identity politics by gloating about how he’s going to hit back with ready talk of UNITE THE WHITE race and identity politics.
But then he’s glad because – when they double down on talk of race and identity politics, he’ll reply with talk of economics? That’s, uh, not the cynicism I expected.
Democrat. Voted for her. I find Trump and Bannon repugnant on many levels. But Bannon is right. The Democratic Party seems to focus almost exclusively on championing race and gender issues, at least enough so that the perception of the party is it is the party just for immigrants, gays, and African Americans. The white middle class union/skilled labor voter just doesn’t hear or see anything from the party that benefits them anymore. This past year’s election was proof enough, the Democratic Party lost much of the support it had from rust-belt, middle class, voters whom they used to have a solid hold on. There was no real message there to keep them voting Democratic Party anymore. It was all bathrooms, gay marriage, and BLM. In my opinion, most of these voters don’t have issues with those things but when they’re experiencing economic hardship, feeling left behind economically and politically by their party, and the party you’ve always voted for has nothing of substance to offer you…
I believe what the OP is implying is that that Evil Behind-The-Scenes-Genius Bannon is deliberately riling up the country with racial strife because he knows the Democrats will take the bait and begin focusing on race issues and thus leave the field clear for the Republicans to talk about the less divisive and more popular economic issues.
I think the fact that he is still in the White House is more due to the fact that Trump is afraid that he will turn Breitbart into a weapon against him if he kicks Bannon out. I would be very surprised if Bannon hasn’t threatened Trump with this directly.
Here’s the current Republican Party in a nutshell:
D: “We want to make education and jobs and health care available to everyone.”
R: “Even black people?”
D: “Of course we want to make those things available to black people.”
R: “So now you want to give stuff to black people. That’s racist to white people.”
D: “No, we didn’t say that. We said we want to make it available to everyone.”
R: “Then why do you keep talking about race?”
D: “Because you keep bringing it up.”
R: “Oh, now you’re calling me a racist. Typical.”
D: “We didn’t call you a racist.”
R: “You guys are so busy accusing people of being racist. Why don’t you try talking about important stuff like education and jobs and health care?”
D: “Okay, let’s talk about those things.”
R: “Why do you hate America so much?”
That’s pitch-perfect. Send it to every Democratic office-holder!
The Democrats need to realize that the R’s are the mean little playground bully: the mean little bully won’t fight fair. And the mean little bully has no actual plans for building either American prosperity or American security. All the mean little bully has is Name-Calling and Distraction. That’s it.
Dems should talk about American prosperity and American security in terms that emphasize equal opportunity and the need for good ideas from everyone, not just from those already at the top of the pile. When an R tries to distract with ‘you’re just for giving free stuff to black people/brown people,’ it might be best to ignore the distraction and just go on talking about Democratic programs to enhance our prosperity and our security, based on equal opportunity and bringing everyone into the tent.
That might work in an alternative universe as depicted by Little Nemo, in which the Democrats don’t talk about race but the Republicans keep bringing it up. The problem is that the elections are held in this universe, where the Republicans generally don’t mention race and the Democrats persist in bringing it up.
Oh, the Republicans mention race, all right. They may dog-whistle it (‘welfare’ and ‘food stamps’ and ‘illegals’ etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.)…but they mention it.
Democrats can be smarter about the way they discuss the benefits to a society of equality before the law, equal opportunity, inclusiveness, and diversity. They know they lost, last November. Many of them are not so determined to “persist” in using the exact same language as in the past, as you may be assuming.
Yes. Circular cynicism. I know Bannon didn’t invent wedge issues and that some can certainly be used for good. I just found his discussion of this approach in today’s weird climate to be surreal.
Trump has kept the chaos up, so make this approach can keep things even more off balance.
But that doesn’t work in the same sense that LN described it.
The problem is that these supposed dog whistles don’t involve overt mentions of race, and many people who hear them don’t think they’re actually dog whistles altogether. The people who do think they’re dog whistles tend to be Left Wing True Believers, who are not the ones who tip elections.
So - in marked contrast to the way LN portrayed it - the conversation would have to go like this.
R: We’re spending too much money on welfare and taxing the hard-working people to pay for it.
D: Hey, that’s just a dog whistle for racism. You’re a racist! RACIST!! RACIST!!!
Not that that approach is never effective. It has its uses, mostly at getting liberals and minorities riled up. But it can be counterproductive with swing voters, some of whom think that ever increasing taxes on hard working people to pay for increased welfare is actually a legitimate concern.
It’s only Left Wing True Believers who hear them as dog whistles, because the Right Wing True Believers for whom they’re intended just hear them as whistles. That’s the whole point of dog whistles.