Dems wise up. GOP get stupid.

    "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood." 

Democratic voters are moving their party toward the center. They have begun pruning the crazies. Smart.

Republican voters are embracing the crazies. They have begun pruning the center. Suicidal.

I risk irritating Democratic readers. I assume I have already irritated Republican readers by describing Donald Trump as a skillful and persuasive marketer, flawed by being a profoundly dishonest, narcissistic con-man. Today's post is about Democrats. Tomorrow I will address Republicans. 

Good news for Democrats

Voters just recalled three San Francisco School Board members. Democratic voters are pruning their party.

The San Francisco School Board, during a pandemic crisis of closed schools and haphazard remote learning, voted to change the names of the Abraham Lincoln, George Washington schools. Americans, even progressive Democrats, have little desire to shame Lincoln and Washington as racists.

The Board also voted to replace with a lottery the test-based entry system for magnet high schools. The schools are for academically motivated and gifted students. The test created an awkward racial/ethnic result. Too many Asians scored well; too few Blacks and Hispanics did. Magnet schools for the academically motivated and gifted are a pathway to success for middle-income people who cannot afford private school tuition. A lottery devalued a core value, that hard work and and merit should be rewarded. Ambitious parents considered themselves victims of arbitrary racial prejudice. 

Democratic voters are re-directing their party. The visible spokespeople for Democrats have been people who get elected in bright blue polities. They have dominated the Democratic message. The message emphasized racial victimhood. Democratic voters are saying no to those thought leaders.

There is an opportunity here. A Democrat running for president can re-center the discussion of race away from a presumption of a deeply flawed and racist America. In that America, racism remains central. We are victims because of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual preference, or by being in the 99% cheated economically by the richest 1%. 

Heads up to Democrats: Most people don't want to wallow in misery. We prefer "hope and change." There is hope that we are making progress against a racist, homophobic, misogynistic past. Objectively, we are making progress. The glass is half full. That is what most Democrats believe. It is what they want to hear.

A national Democratic spokesperson can praise Washington and Lincoln. Surely, that one is easy. Democrats need not hide from patriotic symbols. The Democratic spokesperson can also say it is insulting and racist to presume that only a lottery will admit Black and Hispanic students. That is defeatist. It allows San Francisco to ignore substandard elementary and middle school preparation. A Democrat can argue a much happier thought, that talent and smarts exist everywhere. People have extraordinary potential, if given a chance. The solution is a liberal progressive one: early childhood education, access to health care for children, policing that creates safe neighborhoods.

"Equity" is a political trap. It rests on a foundation of persistent racial hierarchy, and close calculation of victimhood. It accentuates identity, not motivation and character. It has credibility within academic, non-profit, and professional circles that gain power from nurturing and measuring victimization. It imbeds the soft bigotry of low expectations. It is politically toxic. Black and Hispanic voters cannot help but see the condescension. Working class White voters feel the sting of prejudice. They don't consider themselves to be oppressors. Possibly in an authoritarian state people can be made to swallow "equity." Not in a democracy. We just saw proof of that in San Francisco of all places.

The Democrat need not retreat from a racial justice message. Democrats can change the message on how we achieve it. Presidential candidate Jessie Jackson's message three decades ago was that Blacks, Hispanic, and White working-people worked hard and played by the rules. "They take the early bus to work," he said. They aren't lazy and they they aren't looking for a handout. They respect work. They want an America where work is rewarded.

There is an opportunity here for Democrats. That message is a winner. Leaders can follow their voters.

Tomorrow: Republicans. The party is purging RINOs. They are being led off a cliff.

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