LaVar Hosting Jeopardy July 26-30 Stan Account 👁

THAT SAID, the other thing is, some things are playing to the center for votes. Other things are putting x on the table because y is so important.

Passing the CR... eh, you can make a halfhearted tactical argument that they successfully removed the CHIP as a bargaining tool for Republicans but to me it was 95% seeing that the shutdown wasn't a winning issue and caving like cowards. Blameworthy.

On the other hand, putting the wall on the table for Trump in exchange for a meaningful DACA fix? That's playing politics. And yes, it's grotesque. But as a politician your JOB is to be the one to say "yes, I pick this great evil over this greater evil."

Right or wrong, that's the responsibility we entrust to them. And when you go into that negotiation, you go in with the hand voters have given you. Right now, voters (well voters + vote suppression + gerrymandering + sorting) have given Republicans a much stronger hand.

Anyway, I know I would be offended at people making all these apologias for whiteness. You want to say: they're the bad guys, we can't trust them, they need to change or get out of the way or both.

But also... I do make these apologias for whiteness. Bc so often we misunderstand our enemy. I don't see Democrats as an enemy the way I see whiteness as an enemy (not white people, but whiteness as an idea and a structure), but even if you do a clear understanding is valuable.

When I actually try to persuade white folks about racism (rarer and rarer these days, I'm afraid) I go into it with a serious, thoughtful analysis of what value whiteness has to white folks and how damaging it can be to give up the view of the world white supremacy offers.

So we need to go into prying the Democratic party (or some phoenix-transformed version of it) out of neoliberalism's cold dead hands with a serious, thoughtful analysis of not only the crony capitalist benefits of neoliberalism, but the historical electoral benefits of centrism.