Which Way for the Left? Economics or Anti-Racism?

Ploni Almoni compliments me on my article Letter to a Leftist Friend.

By the way, good letter by Robert. I wonder, what proportion of self-identified American leftists feel this way? I’d guess it’s less than 1 in 10.

It’s got to be less than 1

I mean, come on. We’ve named all these streets after MLK and Cesar Chavez, we made MLK Day a holiday, on and on. But helping Hispanics and especially Blacks out economically is worth more than 1000 MLK Boulevards or 10,000 shrill antiracist articles or speeches.

Think about it. Economics is what really matters to Hispanics and especially Blacks. Racism I think is a much lesser concern.

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0 thoughts on “Which Way for the Left? Economics or Anti-Racism?”

  1. Robert do you have any advice for someone who is a leftist on economics but who is into class consciousness rather than race consciousness? I am a traditional leftist meaning I advocate on behalf of the working classes regardless of their race but the modern American left seems hung up on race stuff. What is a normal leftist like me to do in this situation?

    1. Come join us! We are forming a movement for economic populism. For starters, for the bottom 95% and against the top 5%. How does that sound? Let’s make alliance with all economic populists of the right, left and center around a solely economic project. The Left in the US is very small. We are going to need to make some alliances outside the Left to get anything done.

      And let’s just forget about race. About race, racism, antiracism, basically the less said the better. This stuff is way down on the list after economics. By screaming about racism all the time and prioritizing race, all we do is make working class Whites vote Republican. These Whites are racist. But so what? They are still working class people, and they should be part of our movement.

      1. @Robert Lindsay

        “Come join us! We are forming a movement for economic populism. For starters, for the bottom 95% and against the top 5%. How does that sound? Let’s make alliance with all economic populists of the right, left and center around a solely economic project. The Left in the US is very small. We are going to need to make some alliances outside the Left to get anything done.”

        I don’t think the US public would be for that as they hate anything that even resembles Communism/socialism.

        I don’t see how you can go after the rich they would just transfer all their wealth overseas buy up political influence in London were an army of NGO’s would undermine your government just like what happened to Russia once Putin came to power and kicked out the Jewish Oligarchs.

  2. The Republican/Democrat war is more of a cultural conflict especially with the Tea Party thrown in the mix.

  3. I would side with the left on most economic and social issues but side with the right on cultural issues.

    1. I would side with the left on most economic and social issues but side with the right on cultural issues.

      Same here.

      Just out of curiosity, GSG, for you, what’s the difference between “social” and “cultural” issues?

      1. I’m a traditionalist. I believe in restoring old values. Some behavior should just not be considered acceptable in society and good behavior should be enforced. I don’t believe that any government can or should enforce traditional values on its citizens but society should take steps towards restoring traditional values and building a more respectful society. There are certain things that can be done, like stronger code of conduct in schools or in the workforce. I don’t believe in censorship of anything that is not considered to be respectful but it should not be actively promoted and society as a whole can shun it. I grew up Orthodox and I’m not very religious now but I respect and identify with Orthodox Jewish culture rather than secular Jewish American culture. Religious people of all faiths as a whole have a higher birthrate than the secular so that’s where I think our society is headed.

  4. The “left” used to be labor. Now it’s people who get paid for the discretionary expansion of government — welfare recipients and people with jobs like diversity compliance officer. (Not to be confused with people who perform necessary government functions, like police and the EPA.)
    The economic political spectrum is no longer just a line with the investor class at one end and their employees at the other. It’s a triangle, with “government beneficiaries” representing the third point.

    Which point of the triangle doesn’t own a political party? The workers — everyone from the counter clerk at Wendy’s to the LAN engineer who’ll be out of a job when his project is complete. They need to take back politics, and stop accepting the “choice” between parties that distribute their income to the rich who haven’t earned it, or the poor who haven’t earned it.

    1. Indeed, a very good analysis. It sounds like a fascist view, in the very best sense of the term, not the pejorative way it’s usually meant.

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