Ripped Apart: How Democrats Can Fight Polarization to Win - Softcover

Stoft, Steven

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0981877524 ISBN 13: 9780981877525

Verlag: Steven Stoft, 2020

Inhaltsangabe

Stoft has provided an incisive, highly-readable roadmap for Democratic success. A must-read for preserving our Democracy." --John Ballard, author of African-American Consciousness, introduction by Nelson Mandela

"Whatever you've done so far is not enough." So warned President Obama even with Biden at his peak in June. How can the Democrats possibly be struggling against such a vulgar charlatan as Trump? As Obama explained, progressives are shooting at their allies. That causes polarization inside the party. They also take positions that help polarize the country.

Steven Stoft, a 1960s Berkeley radical, has taken a close look at today's radicalism. But why listen to a voice from the 1960s? Because that's where the millennials get their radicalism -- from Bernie Sanders, his intellectual surrogate, Robert Reich, and even Elizabeth Warren. Stoft has their number.

He was at the epicenter of the political times that formed their thinking. But even then, while getting arrested for protesting the Vietnam War and for supporting the Black Panthers, he turned a skeptical eye on radical "strategy." Years later, while earning a PhD in economics, he helped start Berkeley Citizens Action, a progressive group like Sanders' Vermont Progressive Coalition.

The dangerous kind of polarization -- emotional polarization -- is powered by hate. This is what is tearing apart the country and weakening the Democratic Party. As Stoft explains, political hate often comes from the mistaken radical assumption that their view is obviously right -- and everyone must know it! That "everyone" assumption means that anyone who disagrees must be deliberately advocating something they know is wrong; they must be evil.

Seeing those who disagree as evil leads radicals to use purity tests, and Stoft shows by example how vicious these can be. They can lead to slanderous myths that circulate and weaken the party for years. For example:

• Joe Biden and Bill Clinton were racists. (Wrong)
• FDR was a democratic socialist. (He hated socialism.)

It's happened before. In 1972, radicals (cheered on by Stoft) took power and ran McGovern for president. He lost by a landslide and concluded, "I opened the doors to the party and 20 million people walked out."

This revelatory book will open your eyes to the hidden danger in our party. But it also provides a path to reconciliation. Sanders has convinced activist radicals to take FDR as their hero. He acquired this idea from a moderate Democrat. FDR has long been the patron saint of Democrats. So, in fact, our disagreements are only about "revolutionary" strategy. We just need to realize that we all share the aspirations of FDR's liberalism.

Ripped Apart shows exactly how polarization harms us... Read this book before it's too late." --Ying Lee Kelley, former legislative aide to Rep. Ron Dellums, a founder of the Congressional Black Caucus.

If you want a short version of this book, more focused on the election, see How Democrats Win. If you want a deeper understanding of polarization and identity politics, this is the book for you.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Steven Stoft
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2020
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0981877524
• ISBN 13: 9780981877525
• Einband: Tapa blanda
• Anzahl der Seiten: 314
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar