Letters to the Editor

This letter is associated with the following article:
Could 2008 be the year that Democrats finally admit an old sweetheart is never coming back, and stop pandering to the white male voter?
  • Is the Democrats's intellectual mediocrity related to chasing the White male vote?

    i am strongly disappointed in what I have read. This article is a display of identity politics at its worst. There is a lot of the kind of demographically hocus-pocus that is sinking American public discourse into oblivion. So much, in fact, that there is no way to tackle the issue. However, I hope thise few sentences will suffice to state my point:

    "Tens of millions of white men still vote Democratic, of course, and not just Prius drivers, eggheads, grunge-band leaders or Warren Beatty's Hollywood buddies. Most notably, working-class white men who are current or retired union members cast their votes for Democrats, in the stubborn belief that only Democrats will protect and promote their economic interests."

    Shall I say that these sentences read like an inventory of sociological clichés? It happens that long ago to be liberal, conservative, or progressive, stopped being a matter of skin color or ethnic identity, and even of social class. The GOP strategists have been taking care of that. This is not my point, my point regards the fact that we still explain the dispointing political incapacity of the Democratic Party, who I regretfully happen to be a registered member, in terms of ethnic issues when the moves of the Democrats regarding the war in Iraq, General Petraeus's frolics included, suggest that the problem is not an issue regarding identity politics, but sheer intellectual mediocrity in exploiting available political opportunities. Let's face it, the Democratic Party has become the Cinderella of corporate capital, while the GOP still plays the role of the ugly half-sister who gets all the perks.