So, Tim Black went on a rant on his youtube channel went on a rant about why black voters aren't enthusiastic for Biden and why he's struggling to win them over again. And I kind of have to agree with this and add to it.
Basically, the mainstream narrative is that it's perception = reality. People don't care about the objective numbers, they care about feeling, and those people are wrong. And Tim Black goes into a rant about how this is talking down to black voters and all.
And as someone with my own take on this, I kind of have to give my stance here. My honest belief is that "the numbers" are just snapshots of what the economy is, and where it's at, and that most people dont necessarily feel that. Black voters are probably more sensitive to this phenomenon. Because a lot of them are poorer than white Americans. And it doesnt matter how good the economy is...for white Americans who live in certain locations, they live in crappy areas with no jobs and crushing poverty, and it doesn't matter if we're in a recession or boom, or if a republican is in charge or a democrat, they're not feeling like their lives are getting better. Biden is trying to argue they are, but many disagree.
And you know what? I cant blame them. I keep saying it. I live in a minority majority neighborhood. Im the only white person on my block. My city is actually mostly Latino these days, with whites being the second biggest demographic, and blacks being third. But we face a chronically bad economy. Now, my own take on this is that it's basically "the war on normal people' at work, with areas like mine simply declining in prosperity due to the way the economy has gone over the past several decades, but as we know, a lot of racial minorities, like blacks, are WORSE OFF. And whatever prosperity is going on, they're not feeling.
A lot of white americans feel the same way by the way. We had talks of the "white working class" in 2016 feeling left behind by these same changes, and a lot of democratic lecturing at them too, which...drove most of them to Trump, even if many voted for Obama. The fact is when you become this party that obnoxiously panders to minorities in superficial ways and then try to win over the economic elite, you lose working class voters. And it seems like black americans who voted for Biden and aren't feeling like they're better off are waking up. Welcome to the club, by the way.
The fact is, we know what the issues with the economy are. And it doesnt matter what the numbers say, because capitalism is always going to fail some portion of the population. Historically, minorities have disproportionately suffered more, but in recent decades, yeah, whites are too. And we should, you know, really be working together, rather than being at each others' throats over identity politics, which are really only designed by the elites to keep us fighting amongst ourselves rather than uniting to actually fix the problems.
And that's what I always wanted. We need a multiracial coalition that focuses primarily on economic issues that unite us all together. We shouldnt fight amongst ourselves. And you know what happened the last time we were in a position when the numbers were this good? It was 1968-1970, we were just coming off of the war on poverty with johnson, and we kinda realized people were still poor. So Nixon launched an investigation into this. And his team concluded that capitalism would always fail some portion of the population, and that if we wanted to solve poverty, we needed a UBI.
So...why don't we just unite to try to get a UBI? It would solve poverty. Did you like Biden's child tax credit while it lasted? I know that cut child poverty in half. Imagine what we could do if we gave everyone enough money to stay out of poverty? I have no doubts that we will have to break out of our old ways of thinking to make this reality. We'll have to get over our fetishization of jobs, our crab mentality surrounding forcing others to work (which is why our safety net is so crap in the first place), and we'll have to get over this racial antagonism that happens between social justice types and the alt right. The fact is, we gotta stop fighting amongst ourselves based on our identities and come together because we recognize that whatever platform we support is good for all involved. Black, white, latino, martian, it doesn't matter. All this crap is designed to keep us fighting amongst ourselves, and what we really need are solutions that bring us all together.
Really, if you wanna fix the economy, you need a UBI, period. It doesnt matter how good the job market is. It's a game of musical chairs. And jobs arent great anyway. We just brainwash people to think that they are.
So yeah. UBI, universal healthcare, free college education/student debt forgiveness, climate change plan, and building more housing. That's what unscrews our country economically. That's what raises the bar to ensure even those worst off are not poor. That's what breaks us out of this mindset of grinding and grinding and grinding but never getting ahead. Thats how I would fix the psychological malaise that seems to grip our country in recent years. As Bill Clinton said, its the economy stupid, but honestly, we kind of need to rethink what the economy is, and what it should look like. Just because the numbers are good doesn't mean people arent suffering. And we shouldnt discount the fact that people are suffering and pretend everything is fine. That's how you lose elections. That's how the democrats lost 2016, and that's how they'll lose 2024, if they lose it.
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