Not to be missed among
all of the analysis about yesterday’s elections in Virginia and New Jersey, is
a new report on 2016 voter trends from the Center on American Progress that suggests it might finally be politically
profitable for political candidates to talk about , hunger, poverty and related issues
that impact our most vulnerable and voiceless citizens.
One
conclusion of the report is about the opportunity to “go beyond the ‘identity
politics’ versus ‘economic populism’ debate to create a genuine cross-racial,
cross-class coalition that supports economic opportunity, good jobs, and decent
social provisions for all people and makes specific steps to improve the
conditions of people of color, many of whom continue to suffer from the legacy
of historical and institutional racism.
The full
report can be found at https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/democracy/reports/2017/11/01/441926/voter-trends-in-2016/ There is an excellent summary by John Cassidy
in The New Yorker @ https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/what-democrats-have-learned-in-the-year-since-losing-to-donald-trump?mbid=social_twitter
For
decades, neither Democrats nor Republicans have had much of an appetite for talking
about anything other than the middle class, which by all means needs to be
expanded and strengthened. But the “cross-class coalition” referenced above
goes beyond that, and if the report’s analysis gives future candidates for office
the courage to really tackle inequality and social justice issues, it might
point American politics toward a new and healing path.
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