White Progressives Are Polarizing America

TheParser said:

Secretary Clinton did a great disservice to our country when she kept harping on "White privilege" during the 2016 campaign.

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nota bene said:

This piece by David French discusses a Gallup study on shifting Democratic ideology and data suggesting that left-wing polarization is "primarily driven by a “progressive activist” class that is disproportionately white, disproportionately college-educated, and disproportionately secular," and
argues that:

And ironically enough, a large part of this angry white activism is conducted on behalf of a black and brown population that is more moderate and more religious than their woke white champions. At a time when being a “white savior” is seen as a mark of insensitivity — denying the power and autonomy of nonwhite Americans — white savioring is practically the mission statement of woke Twitter.

Nothing I say should be construed to minimize the polarization inherent particularly in Republican populism and a Trumpian political strategy that so often depends on demonizing his opposition and doing his best to inflame his base (I’ve written about the perils of Trumpism at exhaustive length). But those who care about the health of the American republic cannot and must not ignore the fact that our most powerful cultural cohort just keeps radicalizing. And they’re radicalizing in the least tolerant way. American politics are dangerously polarized, and white progressives share a large part of the blame. White Progressives Shifting Democratic Party to Left and Polarizing America | National Review

My question is this: Is there a point that will prompt push-back?

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nota bene said:

This piece by David French discusses a Gallup study on shifting Democratic ideology and data suggesting that left-wing polarization is "primarily driven by a “progressive activist” class that is disproportionately white, disproportionately college-educated, and disproportionately secular," and
argues that:

And ironically enough, a large part of this angry white activism is conducted on behalf of a black and brown population that is more moderate and more religious than their woke white champions. At a time when being a “white savior” is seen as a mark of insensitivity — denying the power and autonomy of nonwhite Americans — white savioring is practically the mission statement of woke Twitter.

Nothing I say should be construed to minimize the polarization inherent particularly in Republican populism and a Trumpian political strategy that so often depends on demonizing his opposition and doing his best to inflame his base (I’ve written about the perils of Trumpism at exhaustive length). But those who care about the health of the American republic cannot and must not ignore the fact that our most powerful cultural cohort just keeps radicalizing. And they’re radicalizing in the least tolerant way. American politics are dangerously polarized, and white progressives share a large part of the blame. White Progressives Shifting Democratic Party to Left and Polarizing America | National Review

My question is this: Is there a point that will prompt push-back?

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To understand how far left (and how quickly) the Democratic party has moved, let’s cycle back a very short 20 years. If 1998 Bill Clinton ran in the Democratic primary today, he’d be instantaneously labeled a far-right bigot.

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SenorXm/Sirius said:

Has to be expected because WHITE Republican party shifted VERY FAR to the right...

There was going to be push back.. Especially considering the Moderate Republicans turned out to be cowards and allowed the GOP to shift far right and allowed an awful person like Trump to become the GOP's leader..

It was only a matter of time before the Dems moved further to the left.

So no, most of the blame for the division is with the GOP and the GOP Moderates who cared more about party and appointing judges than they did in the country.

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nota bene said:

This piece by David French discusses a Gallup study on shifting Democratic ideology and data suggesting that left-wing polarization is "primarily driven by a “progressive activist” class that is disproportionately white, disproportionately college-educated, and disproportionately secular," and
argues that:

And ironically enough, a large part of this angry white activism is conducted on behalf of a black and brown population that is more moderate and more religious than their woke white champions. At a time when being a “white savior” is seen as a mark of insensitivity — denying the power and autonomy of nonwhite Americans — white savioring is practically the mission statement of woke Twitter.

Nothing I say should be construed to minimize the polarization inherent particularly in Republican populism and a Trumpian political strategy that so often depends on demonizing his opposition and doing his best to inflame his base (I’ve written about the perils of Trumpism at exhaustive length). But those who care about the health of the American republic cannot and must not ignore the fact that our most powerful cultural cohort just keeps radicalizing. And they’re radicalizing in the least tolerant way. American politics are dangerously polarized, and white progressives share a large part of the blame. White Progressives Shifting Democratic Party to Left and Polarizing America | National Review

My question is this: Is there a point that will prompt push-back?

Click to expand...

nota bene said:

This piece by David French discusses a Gallup study on shifting Democratic ideology and data suggesting that left-wing polarization is "primarily driven by a “progressive activist” class that is disproportionately white, disproportionately college-educated, and disproportionately secular," and
argues that:

And ironically enough, a large part of this angry white activism is conducted on behalf of a black and brown population that is more moderate and more religious than their woke white champions. At a time when being a “white savior” is seen as a mark of insensitivity — denying the power and autonomy of nonwhite Americans — white savioring is practically the mission statement of woke Twitter.

Nothing I say should be construed to minimize the polarization inherent particularly in Republican populism and a Trumpian political strategy that so often depends on demonizing his opposition and doing his best to inflame his base (I’ve written about the perils of Trumpism at exhaustive length). But those who care about the health of the American republic cannot and must not ignore the fact that our most powerful cultural cohort just keeps radicalizing. And they’re radicalizing in the least tolerant way. American politics are dangerously polarized, and white progressives share a large part of the blame. White Progressives Shifting Democratic Party to Left and Polarizing America | National Review

My question is this: Is there a point that will prompt push-back?

Click to expand...

Kal'Stang said:

Do you consider John McCain or Mitt Romney to be far ..sorry "very far" right?

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TheParser said:

Secretary Clinton did a great disservice to our country when she kept harping on "White privilege" during the 2016 campaign.

Click to expand...

SenorXm/Sirius said:

The far shift to the right started in 2010.. So McCain wouldn't count.. Romney isn't far right, but if you think back to 2016 1 of the reasons for Trump was many in the GOP thought Romney was too moderate, and that's why he lost to Obama, so many of the far right stayed home and didn't vote in 2012.

So anyway let me ask you... Do you consider Trump to be far right? We are talking about the Dem's shift left now, do you think Trump's diversionary style is a reason for the push-back in the Dem party?

Or is all the division and polarization in politics today all the Dems fault?

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Kal'Stang said:

I don't consider Trump far right. I know many on the left consider him such though. But I don't see the racism, misogyny, anti-Semitic etc etc that so many accuse him of either. I also don't believe that Trump was elected in 2016 because people thought Romney was too moderate. Most on the right that voted for Trump did so because they believed he was not a part of the status quo. He was an outsider. He was not a career politician and said things whether they were PC or not and, perhaps most importantly, they believed that he would bring back manufacturing jobs and make citizens first in his agenda instead of everyone else in the world as has been the habit of the last few Presidents. To many that was a return to what politicians should be focusing on. That isn't a far right stance.

But lets take a look at those on the left. Lets start with McCain. This was a man that was once endorsed by the NRA. A man that voted against Bill Clintons AWB and for protections of gun manufacturers. Now a days he is completely the opposite. Wants "assault weapons" banned, and wants to repeal the protections he voted for previously. He also is now for UHC and free college for all. That's a pretty big shift to the far left wouldn't you say?

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OlNate said:

Bene, I respect the scrutiny, balanced by your admission of what takes place on your own side. I think we tend to expect each other to attack each other, giving no thought to our own "side", and you haven't done that here. Maybe it's that I'm not American that prevents me from a knee jerk response...a step removed, and all that.

I would suggest that polarization and tribalism have set in so completely in America that there is very little point in pointing out who is to blame - if you have two volcanoes blowing up side by side, who is to say which is hotter, and what does it matter, when you should just be getting the heck out of there? If America is ever to be truly great again, you need to get over yourselves and make uniting the "United" States a priority.

That said, if you guys didn't learn after Vietnam, or the Civil War for that matter, I'm not sure this is in the cards for you guys. I wouldn't have said this while Obama was in office, but now? Yeah, you guys are a hot mess.

Also, I'm sorry, but I reject the entire premise that being an ally to people asking for one is doing anything more than helping your fellow human. The whole "white people helping people of color denies them power and autonomy" thing is a sham. How does adding our voices to theirs to demand equal power and autonomy, in the face of glaring statistical disparities that neatly organize themselves along racial lines, rob them of power and autonomy? Especially when they have asked for that support in countless demonstrations, awareness campaigns, songs, articles, etc? How can you consider that work done, while those disparities exist? Frankly, many of us are sick of those disparities, and the consequences that come along with them - we all pay for those consequences, we all have skin in the game, no matter what color it is. Based on the cost of the consequences of these disparities alone, fixing them should be a top priority for the fiscally responsible conservative.

There are a lot of people running around calling themselves progressive that are anything but. These people are you problem, not me, and I get a little tired, as I'm sure you do as a conservative, with being lumped in with the worst of my demographic. You want to fix your country? Start by speaking out against generalization. After however long I've been in here, it's crystal clear, generalization, more than anything else, more than even Trump, is what is rotting your country out from under you, and both sides are rife with it.

Just my two cents, Bene - and that's in Canadian, so likely worth even less.

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Sampson Simpson said:

Oh shut the **** up already. More right wing projection. it's the conservatives that are the racists. It's the conservatives that threw a fit and were divisive when a black man was elected president, spending 8 years lying and making stuff up about him, trying to block everything he wanted to do,. It was racist conservatives that elected the most divisive POS ever as president.

Right wingers can shut the **** up about being divisive. Oh yeah, the people who fight for equal rights for all, fights for gays, transgenders, minorities, immigrants trying to make it here, yeah, they are really divisive.

Then you have the people who live in white only enclaves and hate anybody not exactly like them. Look in the mirror you pathetic conservatives, you are the divisive ones. YOu are the idiots

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ElChupacabra said:

Well stated. I think there is something to the point of push back against "white saviors" if that alliance becomes one that doesn't allow for minority groups to rise in the ranks and represent themselves. For me this is more about being aligned with issues than it is purely on race and ethnicity, but I think the expectation is it won't be people of just one group speaking for others.

As to your comment about generalization, I agree wholeheartedly. Division is easy to propagate when you think of people in these vague categories and think of them all as monoliths; whether it be white people being racist, or Hispanics being illegal aliens and what have you - it's all lazy thinking. I suspect it would take some national crisis to unify the nation again, but now i have my doubts even that would be a catalyst to unify the country. While I prefer being an optimist, this is one area where I can't really find much to be optimistic about because the situation keeps worsening. I suspect that a shift in political party after 2020 will only continue the growing rift. Political leaders should really be the ones taking the steps to end this by focusing on issues rather than benefiting from negative campaigns, but the sad truth is it's the easy way to rally people to your side. I'm not sure we're getting out of this spiral; what I envision is a country of two parties diametrically opposed to each other whose only purpose is to seize power for themselves. Effective governance isn't going to fare well for long under those conditions.

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SenorXm/Sirius said:

Has to be expected because WHITE Republican party shifted VERY FAR to the right...

There was going to be push back.. Especially considering the Moderate Republicans turned out to be cowards and allowed the GOP to shift far right and allowed an awful person like Trump to become the GOP's leader..

It was only a matter of time before the Dems moved further to the left.

So no, most of the blame for the division is with the GOP and the GOP Moderates who cared more about party and appointing judges than they did in the country.

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OlNate said:

The thing is, history has proven that human beings can sustain this kind of stress only so long, and then some major event takes place to calm everything down - usually a revolution or a war. Examples being the fall of the monarchies in Europe, through the rise of communism or revolution (example, the French revolution)….and of course the Civil war in America. At some point things become so bad that society course corrects with a dramatic event. Usually involving a lot of death.

I don't know if you guys will get that far, I'm not trying to pull a Chicken Little over here. The Vietnam era conflict was much more intense, with arguably a lot more at stake, and while people died, it was nowhere near the levels seen with other societal course corrections. But, the current trajectory is scary.

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American said:

White progressivism is basically self-loathing, white guilt.

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SenorXm/Sirius said:

You saying McCain is/was on the 'left' completely explains your 1st paragraph about Trump. Trump surrounded himself with far right people like Bannon and Miller but you don't see him as far right... You don't see him and those kind of advisers as racist and divisive..

I'm done here.. Have a nice day.

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Kal'Stang said:

Ugh, I'm such a ditz. I meant BERNIE, not McCain. :3oops: That folks is why you shouldn't post at 6Am in the morning after having not slept a wink all night.

As for Bannon and Miller, they didn't exactly last long around Trump ya know.

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Superfly said:

Many right-wing bigots brought this on themselves. Maybe they should have thought twice before posting pictures of Obama's face on a watermelon, or Michelle Obama as a chimp in a dress and heels, or being OK with babies being locked in cages.

That, in my opinion, is the polarization of America.

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