Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

radius777

radius777's Journal
radius777's Journal
December 4, 2020

+1. Dems ignore our base at their own peril.

Hillary lost because of depressed turnout of PoC, youth and urban areas - Biden won because he brought it back to normal levels (even if not as high as Obama levels).

People fixate on the Spanberger type of districts. But the fact remains, Democrats are a metrocentric party that cannot win any statewide or national race without heavy turnout from our urban base. Just look at any electoral map by county, and it is evident that Dem votes are concentrated in urban (ie diverse) areas, for whom progressive issues such as policing, systemic racism and income inequality are front and center.

December 4, 2020

Urban districts like those represented by the Squad are why Biden won.

This idea that somehow those districts (and the people who represent them) are irrelevant to Dem politics is absurd.

If Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Detroit, Philly, Atlanta etc didn't turn out a huge Dem vote then Biden does not win those states.

Dems can't win any statewide race without strong urban turnout. The modern day Dem party is a metrocentric party.

December 3, 2020

K shaped recovery, the rich get richer while the rest get poorer,

also why 'the stock market' and 'the economy' are not the same thing. The market has been booming while people are on food lines.

Trump and the RW ignored the virus and forced people into the pandemic to die for the 1 percent, history will show.

December 3, 2020

Cops are greedy right-wingers who just want to get paid.

Alot of what police budgets are all about is extorting the tax payers. Lots of them just hang around doing nothing most of the time, or writing tickets to meet their quotas - in between their killings/beatings of blacks and browns (and others, suprising number of whites also are abused, yet I guess they don't care about protesting it). Then the cities/towns have to shell out tax payer money when they get sued for the bad actions of the police.

That's why 'Defund the police' is a provocative slogan that gets the conversation rolling in the right direction. It's not about some weak sauce 'reform' (that has been tried for years with no effect) but about busting up and remaking a fundamentally corrupt and entrenched institution.

As I said, I prefer the slogan 'Remake the police' or 'Reimagine the police' - but I get why BLM activists use the 'Defund' slogan - at it hits at the heart of the issue.

December 3, 2020

Exactly, Jamaal Bowman is much more connected with the base

than Obama currently is. 'Reform the police' is weak sauce that the cops just laugh at.

https://twitter.com/JamaalBowmanNY/status/1334553541961261058


Personally I prefer 'Remake the police' or 'Reimagine the police' because that is what needs to be done.

But make no mistake, as Bowman stated, this is not about some slogan but allowing us to be controlled by RW framing, instead of fighting back. Kaepernick kneeled silently and respectfully yet was demonized because White America pedestalizes the police and views blacks and browns as 'ungrateful'. That's the core problem and until that is addressed nothing will change.

December 3, 2020

There should always be a paper trail, period,

so that the votes can be audited against the machine count. Handmarked ballots fed into tabulators (scanners) are the best balance of security and speed.

December 2, 2020

Historically both parties have been complicit in systemic racism and policing issues.

You can't solve this problem without massive action that busts the police unions - essentially breakdown and remake the police based upon hiring of qualified individuals suited for the job, with proper background checks to weed out the psychopaths and bad apples. Alot of what the police currently do should be done by social workers and mental health people, etc. Police have no business in most of the calls they respond to. 'Remake the Police' would be just as disliked by the pro-police crowd as much as 'Defund the Police' is. It's not about slogans but about scared White America not wanting to hold the police accountable.

December 2, 2020

Exactly. FTP is the slogan I would use. But seriously

the RW and anyone sympathetic to the 'pro police' view doesn't like any criticism of the police at all. They don't like the very concept of BLM - has little to do with the wording of 'defund the police'. Kaepernick kneeled silently and was demonized by White America, many of whom view the police as their 'personal security force' to keep PoC down.

December 2, 2020

Obama lost downticket badly during his years, and

if you listen to his entire speech he said we need to listen more to AOC and younger voices.

Funny how Katie Porter is never to told to 'close her mouth'.

December 2, 2020

Weird how AOC is told to be quiet while Porter is cheered on.

Notice how the Squad is told 'be quiet, focus on your district, stop making yourself a national figure' while Katie Porter (also a relatively new Congresswoman) is cheered on and encouraged to have a national profile.

Profile Information

Member since: Sun Sep 11, 2016, 10:37 PM
Number of posts: 3,635
Latest Discussions»radius777's Journal