When Republicans realize it, there’s a deal they can push on Democrats:
Offer opposition to racism, in exchange for concessions on economics.
They’ll side with you against trump and neo-Nazis, if you consent to their agenda on yet more tax cuts for the rich. Pit racial justice and economic populism against each other.
And clearly, seeing how much discussion there is on this forum with Democrats fighting about ‘which is more important’, it’s not hard to see how they might recruit some Democrats to such a deal.
It’s a fool’s deal. The issues are complementary and splitting them only serves their political interests. They don’t care about race or much of anything else except money.
And they use that wealth for their own power and benefit to move us to plutocracy.
It’s a classic case of ‘divide and conquer’ if they were to do it.
It works, sadly.
We’re lucky they haven’t been better at it. They have opportunities. Another vulnerability they have is to pit the young against the elderly, claiming the elderly want expensive healthcare and other expensive benefits for those who have the most wealth — the elderly — at the expense of the poor youth — and they’re not entirely wrong, with Obamare mandates using the premiums of young people to cover expenses for the elderly they can benefit from later.
Convincing young people that austerity is a good idea, because they’ve been unfairly burdened with public debt — ignoring that the cause is the Republican tax cuts for the rich.
They could offer concessions on gender issues in exchange for the same economic concessions.
They could offer concessions on environmental issues for the same economic concessions.
It’s nice for them to have only one issue they care about — the money. Makes politics easier.
They could pick any issue of the left and use it for splitting the left against itself, if the left isn’t unified, standing together.
That’s why we need unity.
Whether you view race or economic populism as more important — view them both as non-negotiable and turn down offers from the right for a win on ‘your issue’ at the expense of the other.
Happily, I’m writing this before it’s a problem — but it’s good for people to be aware and dedicate themselves to unity to strengthen the left.