I wish Dem leadership would spend less time worrying what white male conservatives think, and Dem pundits would spend less time worrying what white male leftists think. That’s not our base. And in case you haven't noticed, the base is kicking ass.
I’m kicking around the idea that this ⬆️ and our inferiority complex ⬇️ are both tied to what’s changed, and hasn’t changed, since the Southern Strategy.
Before 1964, both parties centered straight white guys. The GOP stayed that way, only more so. But because their Southern Strategy peeled a lot of white people and especially white men, the Dem base became more female and black.
But society as a whole, and the media, was still centering straight white guys. This put the Dem leadership in the awkward position of simultaneously wanting to put white guys first, and centering the actual base.
Different Dem politicians handled the math differently. All of them were working against a headwind - the dominant cultural/media idea that the GOP was more manly and more “American” (aka more white and patriarchal).
And instead of saying this idea was bullshit to its roots, a lot of Dem politicians tried to play the game on Republicans’ cultural terms. It didn’t always go well. 
Simultaneously, a lot of white male left-wingers noticed they suddenly weren’t the undisputed center of the Dem universe. And instead of seeing this as a function of the Southern Strategy, a lot took it as being abandoned by Dems.
Gary Hart, Bill Clinton and Bernie Sanders might be very different in a lot of ways, but each went after these “abandoned” white guys hard. Each talked about blue collar white guys in ways that were often actually aimed at non-blue collar white guys.
We often talk about culture war like there are two sides. Hardcore pro- and anti- straight white male supremacy. But there’s another side that’s hugely important in our society/media- people that accept straight white male supremacy and just don’t want to be total dicks about it.
My sense is this third group is the dominant one in America. It’s a comfortable place for white people. And because we’re still a white male supremacist country, that attitude gets over-represented in the media and political leadership. Even or especially on the left.
And although that mentality prides itself on not being outright racist and sexist, it still internalizes the same racist, sexist ideas of who’s a Real American and who’s leadership material.
And if you think like that, you’re naturally going to be insecure if your side doesn’t have as many “real Americans” and “leaders” as the other side. You’re always going to feel a little like Mike Dukakis in a tank.
The antidote to this is to reject the framing that some Americans are more equal than others. America has always been a battle between our ideals and our reality. This is a time in our history when that's a partisan fight. We're on the right side of the fight. Take pride in that.
