Y’all are not gonna want to hear this, but I’m gonna say it anyway.
This anti-billionaire stuff is mostly populist claptrap. I am not saying billionaires are great people. I’m simply saying that legislating them out of existence wouldn’t pay for all the unrealistic promises being made by certain politicians right now. (Plus there are other practical barriers to that, but I’ll leave discussing those for another time.) The unicorns we are being promised cost trillions over what can be raised.
But that’s not even the main issue. The main issue is that most of our problems are not caused because we can’t afford to fix them. They are caused by racism, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, and so on. None of that will be fixed by free college, student loan forgiveness, or even a deeply flawed UHC plan.
No, each of those problems needs to be addressed with specific practical legislative solutions, ideally by people who have made inroads into those issues over decades. Because that’s how big social problems are solved in a democratic republic: one thoughtful law at a time. Remember, nearly every solution being promised by every candidate has to get through two houses of Congress before it even gets to the president to sign. (Y’all may not remember the fight to get the ACA passed. I do. Forced M4A has many more opponents, many of whom have good reason to oppose it. And those people will be calling their reps and senators, as is their civic right and duty. We can and should get everyone health insurance, but forced M4A almost certainly would not pass.)
I’ll tell you something else too.
Most black people don’t really care about billionaires. Their problems are caused mainly by structural racism that is so baked into our world that billionaires are barely relevant. Money alone wouldn’t even begin to fix the social inequities they experience on a daily basis. Higher rates of incarceration. The most poorly funded public schools with high dropout rates. Higher rates of unemployment and smaller paychecks. And medical racism, which not even the best health plan will fix.
Why should you care? First, because you’re a decent human being. Second, because black people—women especially—are the heart of the Democratic Party. I mean that both philosophically and literally. They are the most disadvantaged group, by race and gender, in our country and are at the center of the struggle for equality. And black women vote Democratic about 95 percent of the time. With black men the percentage is in the high 80s. Compare that to white people: about half of us white women and most white men vote Republican.
Democrats must stop centering the needs of white men if we want to win and keep winning. Black women, then black men, other POC, white women, the LGBTQ community, the disabled, and finally poor white people are who make up the bulk of Democratic voters. With, again, black women at the center.
Let me put this bluntly, though: they’re not gonna save our asses forever. What do you think would happen if even five percent of black and brown people who normally vote Dem see us nominate a candidate with little history of actually helping POC and decide to just stay home in 2020?
Republicans will clean our clocks, that’s what. No Russian interference needed.
On the other hand, if we nominate a candidate who inspires the heart of the party, a candidate with a solid, practical, Democratic history—if we show that we really stand with America’s most oppressed groups—turnout could be historic. That’s exactly what happened when we elected 44, President Barack Obama, in 2008.
And then we really could take significant steps toward addressing racism, misogyny, homophobia, ableism/accessibility, poverty, and yes, even health care.
See you at the polls.
