Thread by @ClintSmithIII

I’m always struck by ppl who express admiration for those like Douglass & Tubman while labeling policies that attempt to build a more just & moral society “unrealistic.” Do these ppl think abolishing slavery was widespread & popular policy proposal in the 19th century? It wasn’t.

The US had quite literally never existed w/o the institution of slavery alongside it. The first enslaved Africans arrived in 1619 & the US became an independent nation in 1776.

Abolition required imagining a country that had never existed, a radical reconception of the republic.

So when I see ppl who express admiration for something like the abolition of slavery, but who turn around & say that something like The Green New Deal is unrealistic, it seems to demonstrate a lack of understanding of how meaningful social change has ever happened in the country.

It’s not worth getting into positions of power just to propose policy that feels “realistic.” It demands changing the conversation & doing radical things bc that’s what a moment requires. Because sometimes people need to be pushed to understand that something better is possible.