Mangy Jay Profile picture
15 Dec, 7 tweets, 1 min read
It's an unfortunate set of affairs, but Democrats must have a more vested interest in bipartisanship than Republicans due to a variety of factors including, but not limited to: desire to help people, caring if people suffer, & commitment to a functioning government
It's also broadly true that--even in their most idealized senses (rather than concrete manifestations in political parties)--progressivism presents greater challenges than conservatism, given change can be more difficult to enact than preserving the status quo (or regressivism)
So, in this sense, left-wing/center-left parties can typically face greater hurdles in implementing their policies than conservative parties.
In the U.S., these core challenges are exacerbated by the fact that the "conservative" party is not just regressive in policy, but also uncommitted to democracy itself. &, in fact, "uncommitted" is an understatement, given the GOP maintains power by actively undermining democracy
Finally, these challenges are further compounded by the fact that our "conservative" party not only feels free of any moral obligation to mitigate suffering, but is also rarely held accountable for these failures, both by the media & by their own thoroughly radicalized base.
In any case, I'm not saying anyone should be happy about all of the compromises Democrats make or calls for "bipartisanship" w/ fascist-wannabes. At the same time, it doesn't work to say, "Mitch McConnell doesn't compromise, so we shouldn't either"
McConnell's goals were perfectly well-served during the Obama administration by being unrelentingly obstructionist. Democrats' own goals cannot be served in this same fashion.

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More from @magi_jay

15 Dec
There are a lot of issues here (minimizing sexism being a big one), but I would like to note that this claim about working class voters is entirely evidence-free, as far as I know. And if white people are going to talk about the votes of POC, they better have some evidence. Image
I think it will likely be the case that Dems lost % ground w/ working class Latino voters, but that this effect is moderated by gender, region, & country-of-ancestry. It's possible we might see a much smaller effect of the same type w/ Black men, but I see no evidence of that rn.
In any case, what is *possible* is different than what we have evidence for. And given how atrocious we are generally at analyzing subtrends in minority voters, you better have some evidence before you start bloviating.
Read 5 tweets
14 Dec
The Sanders/Tanden stuff is only a small part of this article, but of course it gets highlighted in the tweet b/c nothing is better for clicks than bizarre twitter battles that are wholly disconnected from reality.
The aspect of the article that would be concerning is whether or not Civil rights leaders were frustrated by Biden's picks & whether the cabinet was not diverse. However, the article doesn't actually cite Civil rights leaders + notes the cabinet is diverse just apparently too old
As far as I know, the chief criticism of Biden from Civil rights leaders thus far has involve Vilsak at Agriculture, rather than Fudge. This makes total sense to me (not that it matters what my opinion is), but isn't discussed in a meaningful way in the article.
Read 4 tweets
14 Dec
The comparisons between Stacey Abrams' actions/words after the 2018 gubernatorial election and Donald Trump's actions/words following the 2020 presidential election are reflective of both intellectual flaccidity & racial blindspots in how we analyze our democracy.
Abrams was not trying to undermine democratic processes, but was rather pointing to anti-democratic actions such as voter suppression. She wanted every vote counted + cast. Trump, otoh, is actively trying to undermine the election by arguing millions of votes are invalid.
While Abrams was trying to combat voter suppression while identifying racism in the system, Trump is trying to advance voter suppression through exploiting racism.
Read 6 tweets
13 Dec
I have many privileges due to how society values my identity. I am cis. I am white. I am straight. It has never cost me a single thing to listen to people who belong to groups over whom I have societal privilege. I don't get why this is so hard for some other people.
I can give an example. Once, on a blog, there was an article about racism & sexism directed towards a Black woman. White women were responding w/ an attempt at empathy, saying, "I experience sexism, so I cannot imagine what it's like to experience both sexism AND racism."
This was my natural reaction too. But then I saw that Black women were getting fed up w/ it. I asked why. One woman explained to me (bless her) that it felt like a decentering of the convo about the specific issues facing Black women & it was worse b/c it was happening en masse.
Read 6 tweets
12 Dec
I agree that what the GOP is doing right now is both horrific & historic. But we also need to be cognizant that they have made it their cause to undermine democracy for years. Previously, their efforts were directly targeted at Black people so white people didn't notice.
*How can they try to overthrow the results of an election?*

Shocking, I know. But also ask:

*How can they try to undermine citizenship & participation in democracy based on race?*

There's a pretty clear connection here.
How do you get to the point where democracy is so in peril? You never fully commit to democracy in the first place. You undermine the votes of given groups, demonize these same groups, put up every obstacle you can so they cannot vote, & then call their votes illegitimate.
Read 4 tweets
12 Dec
Our democracy is at a precipice. We would not have gotten to this point if our nation's history were not riddled w/ actions aimed at undermining citizenship, beginning w/ the right for white humans to own Black humans & extending to terrorism & apartheid upon slavery's abolition
In many ways, this current moment is both historic & horrific. But in other ways, it should be utterly predictable. How strong can a democracy actually be when its systems have systematically upheld unequal citizenship & when such inequality is treated as a reasonable position?
The history here is long & how it has culminated in this moment is multiply determined, but to give one specific example: how can we expect our democracy to not be hobbled when the right 2 vote for Black citizens is under constant attack & these attacks are treated as reasonable?
Read 5 tweets

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