No. of Recommendations: 4
Is opposing decriminalization of certain drugs racist?
I don't see a connection to race there. I'd prefer to follow the science on the effects of various drugs that are criminalized or de-criminalized.
Is opposing affirmative action programs as implemented a few years ago racist?
Opposing all forms of affirmative action? Probably. Questioning whether affirmative action programs are accomplishing their intended goals or whether any specific program is still necessary? Not racist. Again, I would follow the dismal sciences of sociology and economics to deal with those questions.
How about advocating for increased policing or longer jail terms for property crimes?
Again, statistics and science. How do longer jail terms affect recidivism? Does increased policing reduce crime rates? Is the cost of more police more or less than the losses from crime?
Or more rigorous border enforcement against illegal entry?
Illegal entry? No. Deportations for minor infractions after legal entry? Possibly. Depends on the statistics again.
Or even that colleges should still use the SAT,
That's up to the colleges, not the politicians. I'd again defer to statistics and on the ground facts.
or allow buildings to be named after Thomas Jefferson?
That's a tough one that I'm not going to answer off the cuff.
But none of those are situations to which I was referring. I'm talking about things like refusing to rent apartments to blacks simply because they're black. Or calling the police because a black man is walking along the street. Or calling ICE to report two people conversing in Spanish.
These are forms of blatant racism in the here and now. There will always be struggles in the gray areas. But there are the ends of the spectrum where racism is clear and always deplorable. Trying to use the gray to hide the black and white leads to the one thing that Jedi makes sense on - which I'd describe as pointing out the speck in your neighbor's eye while ignoring the log in your own.
If Democrats want to be relevant again, they've got to highlight the black and white issues and not get bogged down in the shades of gray. And if they DON'T get relevant again, I fear we're going to fall off the cliff of fascism that we're standing on with our toes hanging over.
--Peter
