From the Washington Post:
Can American democracy self-correct? The pervasive, distorting power of white-male privilege.
By Jared Bernstein
Jared Bernstein, a former chief economist to Vice President Joe Biden, is a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and author of ‘The Reconnection Agenda: Reuniting Growth and Prosperity’.
Note that this author’s claim to fame is that he was an aide to that prominent Woman of Color: Joe Biden.
October 8 at 6:00 AM
As a service to my readers, I try to stay in my political-economy lane, sticking to the intersection of politics, social justice and economics. …
One of the most revealing moments of this dark, historical moment occurred on the day when both Christine Blasey Ford and Kavanaugh testified about his alleged attack on her decades ago. While she was calm, credible and forthright, he was the opposite, a towering inferno of privileged, white, male rage. …
Consider this same dynamic — affluent white men judging those who’ve suffered some form of oppression — in other political debates. …
Such examples reveal that Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court is not some anomaly. It’s merely the latest case of how the distorting power of white privilege defines today’s politics and policy, at great cost to women, minorities, immigrants and any other subset of Americans not represented by the majority senators on the Judiciary Committee and their partisan brethren. …
I just spoke to a family member, a sister who has always been driven by an acute and empathic moral compass. Though she’s never gotten deeply into politics, I’ve never heard her so angry, woke and politically activated.
Our conversation reminded me of Rebecca Traister’s new, timely book, “Good and Mad,” in which she zeros in on this “nexus of women’s anger and American politics, about how the particular dissatisfactions and resentments of America’s women have often ignited movements for social change and progress . . . how an impulse that many women have taken pains to hide or disguise or distance themselves from — the impulse to be really mad — has been crucial in determining their political power and social standing, how women’s rage has played parts in revolutionary social movements …”
We are again at a historical moment where such anger is powerful, important and justified. The question is whether American democracy has devolved to a point where it can no longer self-correct, where there is simply no channel or mechanism left by which those longing for justice can achieve it.
In just about a month, we shall have one answer to that question.
If the Democrats manage to boot away this midterm election that they ought to dominate, will it occur to them that all their screams of hate at the white race didn’t help? In particular, would Jewish Democrats have the self-awareness to notice that they’ve got a worsening problem with their animus against white gentiles?
