Who Can Tell the Future of the Democratic Party?
The defeat of Hillary Clinton has revived with new intensity the conflict between proponents of identity politics — focusing electoral attention on African-Americans, Hispanics, women and the L.G.B.T. community — and those who advocate what they describe as a more universal strategy.
.. Lilla called for a “post-identity liberalism”
.. Clinton famously pointed out that
Taxes were lowered on the wealthiest people whose incomes were rising, and raised on middle class families as their incomes fell. And through it all, millions of decent, ordinary people who worked hard, played by the rules, and took responsibility for their own actions, were falling more and more behind, living a life of struggle without reward or security.
.. Anderson Cooper asked her: “Secretary Clinton, how would you not be a third term of President Obama?”
Clinton replied:
Well, I think that’s pretty obvious. I think being the first woman president would be quite a change from the presidents we’ve had up until this point, including President Obama.
Clinton’s comments at the debate and in Nevada were accurate but told voters nothing about how a Clinton presidency would improve their lives in ways that the Obama presidency had not.
.. One lesson of 2016 is that opposition to multiculturalism has become an extraordinarily powerful mobilizing tool for the right. It has spurred the emergence of a white lower- and middle-income Republican party while simultaneously invigorating the formerly insignificant alt-right and white supremacists generally.