Should the Democratic Party disavow identity politics?

[RINO Tom]

The question (and answer) is obviously too simplistic, but I do think 2016 showed that Democrats can't win elections by "picking" the groups that are *worthy* of being in their coalition and disavow those they find undesirable.  Great work standing up for LGBTQ and women's rights only means so much if out of the other side of your mouth you're spewing hatred toward rural people because of the actions of a few of them.  For Christ's sake, even Republicans avoid saying things about all Black people after there's some random bad event involving Black people.

It's easy to demonize those who vote solidly against you, but it's foolish.  Coalitions change, swing states change and parties need to have foresight.  The White working class used to vote for liberals, now they vote for conservatives.  They can be swayed, just as can almost any group of people.

[RINO Tom]

You know how teachers in school always said "the only way to stop history from repeating itself is learning from it," and it always sounded kind of corny but you knew it was true yet you didn't really believe deep down that it was STILL true??  If Blacks can go from supporting the Party of Lincoln to being the bedrock of the party most associated with the Confederacy, if those in the Mountain West can vote solidly Democratic upon statehood and someday become the base of Republican power, if Southern Whites can go from "supporting a yellow dog" on the Democratic ticket all in the name of not voting for Republicans to being the GOP's most loyal voters, ANYTHING can happen.  Period.  You can debate the ideological reasons behind those shifts, the antics used to make them happen, etc., but the parties have at the very least stayed the same in name, and groups have come and gone.

Things can and will change again.

[RINO Tom]

Yes, the GOP is beating them at that game now. Working-Class White has transformed into the single largest political identity of them all.

You mean the Southern Strategy?

It has expanded to rural white voters across this country, not just the South.

Yeah, not like Republicans ever won rural Whites in the North before now or the Southern Strategy!!

[RINO Tom]

Yes, the GOP is beating them at that game now. Working-Class White has transformed into the single largest political identity of them all.

You mean the Southern Strategy?

It has expanded to rural white voters across this country, not just the South.

Yeah, not like Republicans ever won rural Whites in the North before now or the Southern Strategy!!

"Southernization"? Agrarian Populism?

I'm saying neither of those had to happen or have anything to do with the equation for rural Whites in the North to be Republican.  At least some of them have ALWAYS been.

[RINO Tom]

the most hilarious thing to me is that REPUBLICANS think they don't use identity politics all the time.

I wouldn't say most Blue avatars would say that (maybe I'm wrong), but the GOP is 1) better at it and 2) seems to do it in a way that makes the folks they're appealing to feel better about THEMSELVES while trashing others rather than convince their audience JUST how bad the other folks are.

[RINO Tom]

Yes, the GOP is beating them at that game now. Working-Class White has transformed into the single largest political identity of them all.

You mean the Southern Strategy?

It has expanded to rural white voters across this country, not just the South.

Yeah, not like Republicans ever won rural Whites in the North before now or the Southern Strategy!!

That's beyond the point, what's pertinent is that rural whites have coalesced into a national political group with consistent political identity traits that carry across regional lines, and they are overwhelmingly voting for Republicans, hence why Democrats need to shift strategy since Republicans now have the single largest identity group under their possession.

Okay, that's fair.  I just hate the misconception that Republicans didn't used to have a TON of rural strength in the North, regardless of where that was.  There was NEVER a time when the Republican base was urban areas.  Period.