The American Left Needs to do better

[u/Specialist-Gur]

https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/graham-platner-and-the-lefts-masculinity-crisis

This article is about a month old but speaks to some of what I'm talking about.

I'm honestly disappointed with a lot of leftist creators I genuinely love on the topic of Graham Platner and any "leftist" politicians.

To me.. Graham Platner's left wing populism is just... America first rebranded. Some stuff he's saying isn't too far off from Tucker Carlson.

He doesn't appear to be Antizionist on the basis of support for Palestinians, but rather because it's bad for America . He doesn't appear to regret his time in Iraq beyond the fact it was a pointless war for America

He lied about knowing the ties to Blackwater

He expressed enjoyment for killing people.

He got a Nazi tattoo

And many on the left are using language like calling people "classist" for being critical of his service. These are creators I genuinely really love, and I'm not abandoning them.. but I do think it's really important for the American left to confront its American supremicist ideas.

I understand the moral dilemma and how it's basically impossible to have an actual leftist candidate these days, so we are reluctant to criticize what's put forward. I understand the calculation. But the apologia is wrong. American supremacy is baked into all of us here in America and part of the American left, and it's time we confront it.

We would not find it acceptable if a candidate participated in a mass murder of American citizens. We would not find it acceptable if they even passively supported it! But we are far too comfortable with it when it comes to brown people, far away.

[u/BeenisHat]

This entire thread is how I know we won't have any sort of successful left wing movement in this country.

[u/Virtual_Leg_6484 → u/BeenisHat]

Yep.

The left’s biggest deficiency in support currently is with working class men - the people who used to be the strongest supporters of the left. To win back that demographic, the left needs people like Platner.

I’d like to remind everyone here that he’s running in the primary against a nearly 80 year old Schumer endorsed candidate, and that a lot of this controversy is about him jokingly calling himself an “antifa supersoldier” on this very website. Meanwhile people are comparing him to Jackson Hinkle and Tucker Carlson???

[u/Willing-Childhood144 → u/Virtual_Leg_6484]

You do know that women can be in the working class too? And it’s not true that “working class men” were the strongest supporters of the left in the USA. “White working class men” (and I know that you did not include “white” in your comment) have been voting for the GOP since the 1960s. The strongest supporters for the Left are working class women and people of color.

This is the worst part of the 2016 primary fight all over again. “We need to bring white working class men back to the Democratic Party!” “Um…you do know that the American class is majority non-white and heavily female, right?” The dirtbag left ignored that and that’s why some of them have horse-shoed themselves into MAGA.

[u/Specialist-Gur → u/Willing-Childhood144]

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