The Presidency of Donald J. Trump, Episode VI: No Witnesses, One Defector, No Checks or Balances

I’ll clarify where I stand on this, because I was one of the ones responding to you but I think we’re mostly in agreement.

I like the messages that Bernie pushes out and his balance of economic vs social justice and think it is a good strategy. Bernie is my #1 candidate and iirc he is yours as well.

Where I think we disagree, and I disagree strongly with what I think you are arguing for, is that I think you are advocating for going silent on social justice issues because that would alienate racist voters who might otherwise be sympathetic to economic messaging alone. That’s where I do not want to pander to their racism, and that is where I actually think AOC is much better at messaging than even Bernie–she is able to hammer economics while also hitting social justice. I do not think dog whistling to social justice is enough, both because I don’t think it would be effective and because I think it is allowing racists to define our messaging in a way that makes it worse.

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