As I said in another thread, I think Democrats need to be willing to speak to some whites who just might be a little racist. I don’t mean pander to them or go along with their worldview - not at all. But they should stop trying to cleanse their party of people who don’t exactly fit their mold. They should be the party of equal opportunity and the party of economic fairness, and yes, they should be the party of diversity and inclusion, but I would stop short of saying that they should be the anti-racist party.
I think racism and race consciousness will recede to some degree if Democrats can show strength and unity on the economic front. And I disagree that Democrats can’t be boldly progressive in that regard. The take-away will be that Democrats can’t have any proposal that might be labeled socialist, and I think that’s b.s. Rather, propose something tangible that will improve people’s lives, and then explain why it’s not only not any more “socialist” than farm aid or disaster relief or social security, but that it’s something we can do collectively to improve people’s lives and give them a shot at succeeding or rebounding from hardship.
Democrats frequently, all too often really fuck up badly at messaging, and that tells me that, in one sense, the criticism that they don’t understand all of America is true. If you can’t figure out a way to sell healthcare access to all, then you really don’t understand all of America. You understand the concerns of some members of your constituencies, but you don’t understand the concerns of people who oppose change. We have to understand both.