Race Baiting. The Race Card. Southern Strategy. State’s Rights. All are code words for racism. The Democratic party is at a historic time regarding race: we aren’t dependent on the racists in the former Southern Democratic party to help us win elections. We can own the race issue.
The MSM and its corporate masters have to lie about what the Democrats are about. The Democratic party has shed its racist legacy. We have MLK and the civil rights movement for helping to clear out the racism from the party. We are the party for ending racism, sexism, and discrimination against disabled and LGBT people.
We should be attacking Republicans for their racist policies and legacy. Reagan, announcing his candidacy in Mississippi where three civil rights workers were slain; Bush I mentioning 1000 points of light--a vague reference to Nazism; Bush II fomenting new hatreds upon those of Arab descent. Our brand is better and fits better with the multiethnic nature of this country. We’ve always been multiethnic and we’ve suffered as a result of racism.
By ending racism and attacking the racist repugs, we can truly give folks hope. What are some things we can do? Ending profiling. Let’s investigate LAPD and get some feds in there to enforce civil rights laws. And in every other city, because the cops spend more time harassing African-American citizens, even in liberal Portland. Decriminalizing drug possession. Let’s help the people in prison who have lost hope and get them treatment, not turn them into professional criminals.
Let’s reinstate rehabilitation in the prisons. Let’s start researching recidivism and get at root causes. We know more than the last time this was tried in the 60’s and 70’s, so let’s apply what we know. Our goal toward a just society is to get the prison population to resemble the general population. This would let us know we have gone a long way toward ending institutional racism in the legal system.
Let’s roll back the war on the poor begun by Reagan cutting benefits to poor, through Clinton’s work to welfare programs, ‘ending welfare as we know it’ through to GWB further cutting food stamps. How about reinstating some food stamps and other assistance programs including cash benefits, unemployment and housing assistance all gutted by 27 years of conservatism.
Here’s a novel idea. Let’s set up the government offices so the recipients of the programs don’t feel like lepers when they have to apply for benefits. Let’s not demean them so much that they say ‘I don’t need your fucking assistance’. Let’s not kick poor people when they are desperate and trying to do the right thing by getting help for themselves and their families. Let’s just be fucking kind. Is that too much to ask?