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What would actual socialism in America look like? And is this what the furthest far left actually want?
Is anyone ever going to be good enough for the most heavy-handed conservatives or progressives?
Will anyone in major federal politics ever get away with being openly moderate? Or will they forever have to pretend to be one way or another before being a moderate when it counts and then trying to mend fences later if they think it matters enough.
Am I asking the wrong questions if my aim is to get to the bottom of understanding what the average person in each of these political buckets actually wants from folks in office? I ask because I deal with this a lot in my work...a lot of folks swear that ‘management’ at my gig is so horrible and they can never do enough but if you press someone for non-fairy tale solutions or even a ‘well, what does right look like?’, stuttering and ‘I don’t know really but it’s not for me to figure out’ and other non-committal/peanut gallery non answers cometh.
>This is another example of what I call putting your
>progressiveness before your blackness.
>
>This will go viral and the kid will get some shine because you
>can always make a name for yourself in this country if you are
>black and sh*t on other black people in white media.
>
>This reminds me talking to my nieces and nephews and they got
>a lot to say about choices we made ("Why would you work for
>someone else?") and I literally got t-shirts older then them.
>All I can say is, you gonna learn.
>
>My first question to this kid would be, who are you impressed
>with if you aren't impressed with the first Black President?
>
>Update Edit: What's interesting I was prepared to read this
>and thought it would be an "Obama is a War Criminal" type
>article which I hate but I hate less because its base on
>policy and their is credence to it but this opinion is based
>on, saying "Defund the Police" hurt certain campaigns? And his
>conversations with LeBron? SMH.
>
>https://news.yahoo.com/m-young-black-not-impressed-230538303.html
>
>‘I’m young, Black and not all that impressed with Barack
>Obama’ | Opinion
>Malik Pitchford
>Tue, December 15, 2020, 6:05 PM EST
>
>
>
>Barack Obama has spent the past several months promoting his
>political memoir, “A Promised Land.” But the former
>president’s messaging is out of touch, tone-deaf and
>indicative of his personal and class interests.
>
>I’m Black and 20 years old. I wasn’t able to vote in
>either of Obama’s presidential races, but I can see his
>appeal today. In his television, radio and online appearances,
>Obama exudes presidential charm, while pushing narratives of
>respectability. This is unlike the ideals of “hope,”
>“change” and “progress” that he ran on in 2008.
>
>But let’s not forget how Obama chastised former NFL
>quarterback Colin Kaepernick for the “pain” he caused
>others in taking a knee during the national anthem. And, more
>recently, the NBA rejoiced when Obama urged the Milwaukee
>Bucks to call off their strike protesting the Jacob Blake
>shooting.
>
>- ADVERTISEMENT -
>
>Obama also showed how out-of-touch he is with young
>progressives in a Dec. 2 Snapchat interview. “Socialism is
>still a loaded term for some folks,” he clucked. “We
>should focus on talking about getting certain things done.”
>
>The truth is, among young American adults, socialism is as
>popular an ideology as free-market capitalism, according to a
>2019 Gallup poll. Maybe labels and ideology aren’t all that
>important. After all, voters in Florida — which went for
>Donald Trump — supported raising the state’s minimum wage
>to $15, an issue President-elect Joe Biden ran on.
>
>In Obama’s recent Breakfast Club appearance, host
>Charlamagne tha God read an excerpt from “A Promised
>Land.” He asked if Obama felt it was still necessary, still,
>to soften “blunt truths” about racism in America, for
>white people’s benefit. Obama didn’t answer directly.
>
>Instead, mentioning polling after the murder of George Floyd,
>Obama said, “Many more white Americans were willing to
>acknowledge problems in the criminal-justice system based on
>race.” He said Black people need to build “coalitions”
>to win votes, and, “as a consequence,” must “pay
>attention to how other folks are feeling.”
>
>Obama has often lectured others against “snappy slogans”
>like “defund the police,” arising in response to decades
>of anti-Black policing. He’s told Black communities that he
>does not like our tone in how we call for safe communities —
>via divesting from policing and investing in Black communities
>— because it isn’t marketable to others.
>
>While polling does show that support for defunding the police
>is low, but polling does not accurately measure opinions on
>the Black Lives Matter movement’s concrete goals.
>Regardless, calls to “defund the police” were never
>supposed to be a political line for Democrats to run on. Yet,
>Democrats increased their voter registration in light of BLM
>protests.
>
>It’s clear Obama and Democrats don’t want to jeopardize
>white suburban and rural support. This year, Democrats
>performed better with both white men (with and without
>degrees), and college-graduate white women, compared to 2016.
>
>And though Democrats took white voters from Trump, it was at
>the expense of voters of color, including Black people. With
>the exception of a handful of battleground states, the
>Democrats underperformed in Black, Latinx and Asian
>communities throughout the country.
>
>Obama’s book tour is just that, a book tour. Treating him as
>a thought leader for young people, or as the last “cool”
>president, is incorrect. His politics have always been that of
>a cautious centrist. His support for reforming broken systems,
>rather than the “Yes we can” attitude he fostered in 2008,
>makes him an inspiration best left in the past.
>
>Malik Pitchford is a journalist and student at DePaul
>University in Chicago, where he studies political science and
>the African and Black diaspora.
>
>©2020 Tribune Content Agency
>
>**********
>"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then
>they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson
>
>"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"
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