Moslerfan wrote:
Generally agree with you here. If O’Rourke has a weakness, in my mind, it’s economics and the drag on the economy from economic inequality. Not to mention that if we want to fix racism (or sexism, or even have a meaningful democracy) we have to fix economic inequality–as Martin Luther King recognized clearly, and as William Barber recognizes. Elizabeth Warren gets this, as does Bernie Sanders.
I started a reply, and it grew.
Read on.
Yes. O’Rourke is not a trained economist…whatever that really means. God willing, if he becomes President he will listen to people like Elizabeth Warren and other truly progressive economists. But…to say that his “weakness” is “economics and the drag on the economy from economic inequality” is a long way away from where he really stands. “Economic inequality” is a product of racial and culturally-enforced inequalities, and those problems are the very base of the campaign that he is likely to run.
As the racial and social activist Bryan Stevenson noted in a recent New York Times interview (01.20.19) “Slavery didn’t end in 1865; it just evolved.” We live in a modified caste system in the U.S., moslerfan. It is not as rigid as was the case for centuries in India, but it’s based on the same basic principles:
Racial, economic, cultural and sexual markers that are used to permanently consign people to the lower levels of a given society.
Groups of immigrants and slaves/ex-slaves who were “marked” by physical and cultural characteristics…including language, accent, religious preferences, etc….were systematically banished to the lower end of the economic spectrum. Those who could…after a generation or two or three…to some degree “pass” as being of Western European descent were granted access to higher caste positions…working class, middle class, upper middle class and so on.
Those that couldn’t? Including women (Still!!!) and other people of various alternate sexual proclivities?
Tough luck, boysz and girlsz!!!
As Lenny Bruce so accurately observed as early as the late ’50s regarding the push for “equality”:
But…but…who’s gonna clean the shithouse!!!???
And there we still jolly well are, aren’t we.
O’Rourke is an outlier from this system. He has Celtic roots…as do I…that go back several generations and he seems to be acutely aware of them. The little week-long trek through the heartland that he recently made included the city where his grandfather and grandmother…both immigrants…lived. But he also has El Paso roots…he grew up in a Texas border city that is mostly Hispanic, Latino and Native American, and he speaks fluent Spanish.
Native Americans, Hispanics and Latinos of any race account for almost 81% of El Paso’s population, and it is the 19th most populous city in the U.S.
He’s no hick; he’s no dummy, and he grew up unsegregated from so-called “minority” cultures!!!
In short, he’s a natural “New American.”
Which is just what we need to take out the 30+% Trumpistas, as far as I am concerned!!!
He’ll get the Hispanic vote.
He’ll get the Democratic base.
He’ll get the youth vote.
Given his obvious dedication to his wife and children…and buttressed by his message on many levels, possibly including a female vice-president and most certainly including women in his cabinet…he’ll get a large female vote.
After all…he’s the anti-Trump, right?.
For real!!!
And…most importantly, I think…he’ll get a good percentage of the “non-voter” vote. You know…the 40% of folks on every level of this culture who (with good reason) no longer trust the mainstream Democratic and Republican parties that have so royally screwed up this country at least since the assassination years.
Just sayin’, moslerfan…
I think that he’s the real deal.
Watch.
Later…
AG
P.S. As prophylactic protection from the now apparently inevitable troll attacks of the resident DNCers on this site, I am going to include my usual dissent here to save myself the trouble of doing it later.
Here it is:
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A group…or perhaps better, a cadre…of people on this site have tried everything in their power to discourage criticism of the Democratic Party as it stands today. They automatically downrate such posts and have endlessly attacked several posters as liars, fools, pro-Trump trolls and/or spreaders of Russian propaganda. When effectively rebutted, they simply ignore the rebuttal and repeat the same attacks. These McCarthyite tactics are intended to exhaust the patience of the attacked posters and discourage others from reading or posting similar material. It has worked on a few posters, who have simply given up. It has not worked on me. I initially answered their attacks with attempts at reason. After realizing that this was a total waste of time, I have pretty much stopped replying to them. My comments and articles on this site are my replies. Read what I have to say; consider what they have to say and how it is said, and then make up your own minds. Thank you-AG
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