Progressives can’t win back the working class. Their values have completely and utterly gone in another direction compared to what the average working class person cares about.
The fact that “pride” politics are considered more important than revitalizing “flyovers” Is all the proof you need of that, and I say that as a trans woman myself. I am personally more worried about making sure I don’t go into debt than whether or not corporations are trying to appeal to me with rainbows and flags.
I consider myself a progressive, and in the circles of discussion and news I find myself, we usually discuss poverty, economic revitalization, the housing crisis, and cost of living.
The discussion of LGBTQ pride is usually couched in the opposition of regressive, anti gay legislation. I’d rather talk about broader issues, but I live in Florida. Anti gay legislation is an existential threat to my family and friends.
Tldr: If Republicans weren’t trying to put my family and friends in jail, I wouldn’t care much about pride.
But there’s no contradiction between LGBTQ tolerance and having good leftist pro-worker anti-corporate policies. Politicians definitely need to commit much more to the latter, or more realistically be voted out in favor of people with those commitments, but that’s no reason to take down your rainbow flag.
True, but priorities matter. As the article and report itself say that all voters regardless of political affiliation or economic status resonate with theoretical candidates who focus on jobs. LGBT issues are important, especially right now, but that’s simply not what most working class people care about.
The alternative is doubling down on current progressive messaging, making it more likely for the GOP to win, which just pushes back LGBT acceptance with people like DeSantis at the helm.
This is a great article imo, I certainly feel everything they put in there was spot on, and I’m definitely working class and middle American.
I agree the jobs stuff should be the headline, but you can’t really run away from having a position on the culture war. It’s better to call out the GOP’s craziness than to act like you have something to be ashamed of.
Is it better, though? The more you feed it, the more it burns. It’s popular amongst both parties because it’s something easy to talk about and it requires very little from the politicians in terms of action.
At the end of the day, everyone that’s been or is currently being oppressed will have a much easier time dealing with it if they also have access to affordable housing, affordable (if not public) healthcare, and access to mental health services. At least, much more so than if they have their preferred bathroom at walmart.
You’re conflating the use of culture war positions to get out of talking about other issues with having and expressing reasonable positions on those culture war issues at all.
Is that not how it’s often used? How many democrats will hate their elected officials’ policies but say, “Well, at least they aren’t persecuting the trans community.” Or how often does a Republican disagree with their party’s positions or actions but say, “Well, at least they’re protecting my kids against drag queens.” In my experience, both online and in real life, this happens a LOT. I’m not saying these stances are equal, but they serve as effective distractions in either case.
Yes some people with other bad positions use their support for LGBTQ stuff to distract from it. But mostly people just support LGBTQ rights because it’s the right thing to do, and there isn’t really anything to do for those people to do beyond continuing to be pro-tolerance and taking flack for it from the anti-tolerance side.
