Republicans in Congress and anti-Muslim bigotry

[lizkat]

I think there is also a group of white people who are struggling economically and the last thing they want to hear is that they are in fact living a privileged life via the centuries of racism of their ancestors. It’s kind of a “now is not the time” moment in that regard to them.

Which is why the Dems should stop following the Rs down the CRT-as-bogeyman rabbit hole and the "psychological distress of encountering certain ideas in library books on school shelves" rabbit hole and all those other culture-war rabbit holes, and instead talk 24/7 about the kitchen-table issues and what the Biden-Harris administration is doing about them.

For instance, pegging the cost of insulin at $35 max per month instead of a thousand bucks. Other developed countries don't make insulin-dependent humans go without enough heat or A/C or decent shoes or coats, or milk on the Cheerios, just so mom or dad can stay alive through the week.

Why are Dems not talking about that right now instead of arguing over what "teaching CRT" even means?

Culture wars are manufactured by respective advocates of opposing ideas redefined or reframed as extreme by both sides of any of the designated hot-button issues du jour. The (increasingly vain) hope is to sway votes of independents in the electorate. The response of the indies is often enough to stay the hell home.​

​

The point of building back America under the programs proposed by the Biden-Harris administration is for us to jointly retake and be stewards of the common ground --and help solve the problems-- that we've shared all along. Because collectively we have allowed the problems to be ignored doesn't mean any of us are now exempt from either owning those problems or helping to frame concrete solutions.​

​

So a lot of that is about pocketbook issues, and that's because everyone experiences them. It's true enough that every man is a dollar short on the day before payday. In the Great Recession, plenty of people living in million-dollar homes discovered the hard way that being "well off" doesn't necessarily translate to having liquid assets enough to put food on the table. Ask the food pantries in suburbs, still trying to recover from the double whammy of the covid pandemic.​

No ordinary American thinks it's okay for insulin to cost a thousand bucks a month in 2021.

So that's the kind of stuff the Democrats should be talking about in trying to get the Build Back program across the finish line in 2021. Concrete problems and concrete proposals for rebuilding on common ground. Later for re-engaging with honesty on how to view and teach American history to Americans alive in the 21st century... and whether banning books from school libraries in Texas is even feasible, when every kid with a phone and a WiFi connection can find someone reading a "banned" book out loud for free on YouTube.

 

[SuperMatt]

Which is why the Dems should stop following the Rs down the CRT-as-bogeyman rabbit hole and the "psychological distress of encountering certain ideas in library books on school shelves" rabbit hole and all those other culture-war rabbit holes, and instead talk 24/7 about the kitchen-table issues and what the Biden-Harris administration is doing about them.

For instance, pegging the cost of insulin at $35 max per month instead of a thousand bucks. Other developed countries don't make insulin-dependent humans go without enough heat or A/C or decent shoes or coats, or milk on the Cheerios, just so mom or dad can stay alive through the week.

Why are Dems not talking about that right now instead of arguing over what "teaching CRT" even means?

Culture wars are manufactured by respective advocates of opposing ideas redefined or reframed as extreme by both sides of any of the designated hot-button issues du jour. The (increasingly vain) hope is to sway votes of independents in the electorate. The response of the indies is often enough to stay the hell home.​

​

The point of building back America under the programs proposed by the Biden-Harris administration is for us to jointly retake and be stewards of the common ground --and help solve the problems-- that we've shared all along. Because collectively we have allowed the problems to be ignored doesn't mean any of us are now exempt from either owning those problems or helping to frame concrete solutions.​

​

So a lot of that is about pocketbook issues, and that's because everyone experiences them. It's true enough that every man is a dollar short on the day before payday. In the Great Recession, plenty of people living in million-dollar homes discovered the hard way that being "well off" doesn't necessarily translate to having liquid assets enough to put food on the table. Ask the food pantries in suburbs, still trying to recover from the double whammy of the covid pandemic.​

No ordinary American thinks it's okay for insulin to cost a thousand bucks a month in 2021.

So that's the kind of stuff the Democrats should be talking about in trying to get the Build Back program across the finish line in 2021. Concrete problems and concrete proposals for rebuilding on common ground. Later for re-engaging with honesty on how to view and teach American history to Americans alive in the 21st century... and whether banning books from school libraries in Texas is even feasible, when every kid with a phone and a WiFi connection can find someone reading a "banned" book out loud for free on YouTube.

The Build Back Better bill is focused exactly on “kitchen table" issues. It is terrible for the Democratic Party and for America that senators Manchin and Sinema have blocked it for personal political and financial gain.

Unless something changes, Republicans will win Senate seats in 2022 and Manchin and Sinema will be completely irrelevant to national politics. Do they even realize that? Such behavior ruins the Democrats’ chance to champion issues important to all Americans and gives space to the GOP for their culture war nonsense, of which this anti-Muslim bigotry is front and center.

Shame on them.