Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/07/23/clay-shirky-to-white-liberals.html
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I hope that when the US finally fractures along its cultural fault lines, we’ll remember the lessons of Yugoslavia: having the nice, forward-thinking, multi-cultural liberal elite in your camp is great, but it doesn’t actually count for a lot when the Other Guys have most of the military bases, munitions factories and heavy armor on their territory.
Still, if we’re really lucky, maybe the United Nations will write a sternly-worded letter or two on our behalf.
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The < privilege + equality = feels like oppression > is spot on. Add racism, job loss, wage stagnation and a cynical opportunist to light the fuse…and it gets scary fast. We do need to get off our asses and get out the vote!
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Thank You, Brown People, And I’m Sorry.
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One thing nobody counts on is that black folks know their votes are being suppressed, and they don’t like it. The last time this topic was on the news was in 2008, and (along with obvious factors) black voters turned out in record numbers to stick it to the Republicans.
I’m actually not too worried about voter suppression. The backlash worked pretty good (until 2010).
I’m not sure if Shirky’s Tweet that “He is the voice of people who hear ‘hard-working’ as a synonym for ‘white.’” is a callback to Clinton’s infamous 2008 race-baiting boast against Obama. And if so I’m not sure if he’s giving liberals fair notice that she’ll be doing more of this in 2016 to peel off some bigot votes or if he’s telling Clinton that it’s no longer a good strategy for her since her opponent has that rhetoric locked up.
Otherwise a good piece describing the growth of right-wing populism not all of us see first hand. He’s especially right about the ACLU, which is fighting the good fight against GOP voter suppression efforts.
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As callous as it sounds - voter suppression in a red state is unlikely to swing the presidential election, it does affect the house in very bad ways though - and that’s (in my opinion) more important.
The idea that Hillary has this in the bag is scary as fuck and an idea that needed to die a month ago. I’m in a blue state - that has been blue for a very long time - you could even say dark blue. I do not know a single person that voted for Hillary in the primary - she still won (somehow). I can tell you for a fact - that this ‘dark blue’ state for president - has red house and senate members - and most of the people that didn’t vote for her that I know - are still not voting for her. Ignore that to your peril.
I mean - my state only has 20 electoral college votes - it’s not considered a swing state… but oh boy being smug that it’s locked up and missing the very real white anger is a recipe for disaster.
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I can think of one pretty simple thing people can do to help prevent him from winning.
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Can’t we all?
Can’t.
We.
All.
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Primarily by making heavy use of pre-poll voting.
Which the Republicans responded to by doing as much as possible to eliminate that option.
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The DNC has given multiple middle-finger salutes to the working class and to liberals. The DNC ‘knows’ that it doesn’t have to do anything to get their vote because ‘There Is No Alternative’.
Wanna bet? It’ll be a Brexit vote in the USA in November. I’ll state it here, now: Trump will win.
Didn’t you’all learn anything from how Shrub got elected? Twice??
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Not without Ohio, he won’t. And he’s doing a spectacular job of pissing off the governor and the people of that sate.
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She has to fight this as if her opponent is Reagan himself returned whole from the dead instead of a ridiculous orange man-baby with a cut-rate campaign. The frightening thing is that, despite an able and vicious and well-funded campaign organisation, Clinton and the DNC have a streak of the smug and arrogant complacency that sunk Martha Coakley in Massachusetts 2 years ago.
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Agreed. Voting is the only way to make sure Herr Dumpf doesn’t get power
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While I am not disputing the numbers (I assume that is correct), but I am wondering why would be when “in proportional terms, a far higher percentage of Republicans voted for this bill than did Democrats”. The voting line was more or less identical to the North/South line of the civil war.
I don’t think Democrats being known for civil rights was really a thing until more northern democrats were elected.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/10/politics/civil-rights-act-interesting-facts/
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…said the Emporer as Luke Skywalker stood above the fallen Vader, saber in hand.
Shall I cite three or four thousand other more reputable cautionary tales about the hero becoming the villian?
Agreed. She’s playing it cool, hoping Trump sinks himself. That won’t work. She needs to be super active, engaged, and non-fucking-stop.
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#No. He. WON’T.
But thanks for the big dose of defeatism; that’s just what’s needed right now.
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He was elected once and the second time he was appointed. Learn yer history!
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