Ruy Teixeira and John Judis are kind of (literally) whitewashing the history of the New Deal. They totally ignore the sausage making that went into the enduring legislation from that period and the dirty compromises necessary to get Southern segregationist Democrats to pass them.
What happened to the Democratic Party is that after the Sec…
Ruy Teixeira and John Judis are kind of (literally) whitewashing the history of the New Deal. They totally ignore the sausage making that went into the enduring legislation from that period and the dirty compromises necessary to get Southern segregationist Democrats to pass them.
What happened to the Democratic Party is that after the Second World War it began to take equality before the law for ALL people as a serious concept and a certain portion of the American people have never accepted or forgiven them for that.
American in 2023 is not the same country as it was in 1933! Admit it or not, we are now a multi-racial, multi-cultural country. Don't simply pretend that Democrats' appeal can magically revert to the racially segregated country that once was. And to a New Deal that essentially ignored race by, for example, exempting agricultural workers (largely black) from Social Security. Yes, this is a problem for Democratic messaging. But it won't be solved by a "Pretend America Is Like It Was A Century Ago" strategy.
Yep... newsreels of Paul Robson being treated like man and being warmly received by Soviet audiences in 1949 were powerful.
But the rhetorical ammunition was turned back on American Civil Rights activists in America by conservatives. J Edgar Hoover, had files and files of "dirt" on every major civil rights activist.
Perhaps most ironically it was the Republican Party at that time that was most interested in civil rights for all Americans.
And yet no one will ask "What happened to the Republicans?"
Ruy Teixeira and John Judis are kind of (literally) whitewashing the history of the New Deal. They totally ignore the sausage making that went into the enduring legislation from that period and the dirty compromises necessary to get Southern segregationist Democrats to pass them.
What happened to the Democratic Party is that after the Second World War it began to take equality before the law for ALL people as a serious concept and a certain portion of the American people have never accepted or forgiven them for that.
Re: Teixeira and Judis.
American in 2023 is not the same country as it was in 1933! Admit it or not, we are now a multi-racial, multi-cultural country. Don't simply pretend that Democrats' appeal can magically revert to the racially segregated country that once was. And to a New Deal that essentially ignored race by, for example, exempting agricultural workers (largely black) from Social Security. Yes, this is a problem for Democratic messaging. But it won't be solved by a "Pretend America Is Like It Was A Century Ago" strategy.
I didn't read that piece (I'm glad I didn't bother) but your critique gives me the main idea. Thanks
"Whitewashing" popped into my head while reading that, too.
Yep... newsreels of Paul Robson being treated like man and being warmly received by Soviet audiences in 1949 were powerful.
But the rhetorical ammunition was turned back on American Civil Rights activists in America by conservatives. J Edgar Hoover, had files and files of "dirt" on every major civil rights activist.
Perhaps most ironically it was the Republican Party at that time that was most interested in civil rights for all Americans.
And yet no one will ask "What happened to the Republicans?"