Thread by @PaulHRosenberg

GOP anti-gov't framing was used to attack M4A. Such framing has dominated media's political discourse for generations. Dems must pro-actively reframe US politics to win. Define things on their own terms, say @IanHaneyLopez,@AngieMaxwell1, @anatosaurus 1/17 salon.com/2019/10/20/bey…

Dog whistle politics has been key to advancing anti-gov't framing for generations, @IanHaneyLopez explains in new book *Merge Left* anrdoezrs.net/links/8331271/…
& my two-part @Salon interview with him: 2/17
salon.com/2019/09/29/how…
salon.com/2019/10/05/don…

So confronting dog whistle politics directly is key for Dems to win, @IanHaneyLopez argued in pre-debate NYT op-ed:
nytimes.com/2019/10/15/opi…
But so far this advice has not been heeded: 3/17

It would be easy for @BernieSanders & @ewarren especially to take the first step, when talking about families to add "white, black and brown" -- a small, but significant first step to build upon: 4/17

But regardless of race or ideological positioning within the Democratic coalition, *all* candidates share a common responsibility to combat dog whistle politics -- call it out & name it for what it is: 5/17

Race was just part of how GOP reframed US politics. Gender & religion were also key parts of "The Long Southern Strategy" as new book argues:
amazon.com/Long-Southern-…
@Salon interview here:
salon.com/2019/07/01/the…
Co-author @AngieMaxwell1 explained key role of Modern Sexism: 6/17

There are options in how to respond to Modern Sexism, @AngieMaxwell1 explained, and the four female candidates exemplified their full range. 7/17

1) “One can ignore the modern sexists and appeal to those who do not resent or distrust working and ambitious women,” @AngieMaxwell1 said. @KamalaHarris exemplified that approach: 8/17

2) “On the opposite end of the spectrum, one can don a traditionally ‘masculine’ energy and, in fact, channel some of that modern sexism,” @AngieMaxwell1 said, pointing to Tulsi Gabbard: 9/17

3) “Somewhere in the middle, is a candidate who is kind of the political version of a girl with a lot of guy friends,” @AngieMaxwell1 said, pointing to @amyklobuchar: 10/17

4) Finally, the most difficult to pull off: “Female candidates can sidestep modern sexism by appearing to be — again, for lack of a better term — gender-neutral or gender-invisible," @AngieMaxwell1 said. & @ewarren put on a master class: 11/17

The diversity of coherent responses @AngieMaxwell1 describes stand in stark contrast to how under-developed race-class responses are — a reflection of the more challenging task of forging cross-racial alliances. 12/17

Most challenging of all is reclaiming the very idea of America. Republicans have continually attacked Democrats as subversive, un-American. It's always been a lie, but never so ripe for refuting with Trump as the GOP POTUS, which is where impeachment SHOULD take us: 13/17

.@anatosaurus rejects the "savvy" establishment approach focusing just on Ukraine. "Selecting just this line of impeachment inquiry is both morally wrong and strategically foolish for a would-be presidential frontrunner," she says. They must "stand up for democracy itself": 14/17

While some candidates reflected pieces of what .@anatosaurus was saying, none captured the arc of Barbara Jordan famously, noting that she'd been left out of "We the people" at the beginning, but her "faith in the Constitution is whole": 15/17
americanrhetoric.com/speeches/barba…

Jordan's words in turn echo the more fundamental vision of Langston Hughes in “Let America Be America Again”:
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath—
America will be! 16/17
poets.org/poem/let-ameri…

America that never was, and yet will be — that is the defining narrative of struggle we must affirm to win the most fundamental debate. Full story here: 17/17
salon.com/2019/10/20/bey…