Purge neoliberals and ensure actual leftists and progressives control the party. Watch as elections start being won again.
That’s just about the opposite point of the article but ok
Agree. LGBTQ and other issues are important, but they are fringe issues. Democrats should be focused on appealing to the average voter, whoever that is by focusing on issues that affect MOST people like wages, healthcare, housing, childcare, labor rights, etc. You only get to take care of the fringes if you have power and that means winning over the non-fringes.
Despite the opposition, you are correct. We need to focus on issues that will win elections, not issues that affect a miniscule minority. The best help for those people is a government that will support them, so they have to understand that getting out of the way, and allowing their supporters to get elected is the best thing they can do.
If transgender people and their supporters want action, then stop demanding that the focus be on them, and support other Democratic issues that will lead to getting elected. THEN they can advocate for their rights with people who will actually listen.
How is saying we are deserving of human rights demanding the focus be on us? The only fucking reason we have been so in the news is solely because of the right trying to make our very care and existence in public illegal? Should we just say “we shouldn’t advocate for our rights until the Democrats win?” Because then what’s to stop the Democrats from “winning” by throwing trans people under the bus and saying we deserve to be ostracized? The left-ish party won in the UK and they’ve been shitty to trans people too.
We shouldn’t just stop fighting when people are literally trying to make us kill ourselves and to make our existence illegal. All democrats need to say is “Trans people are deserving of human rights, they should be treated like everyone else, should be allowed to have care and be accepted into society and do whatever anyone else can do. Now let’s get back to how I want to make it cheaper to live”.
We had a candidate in Harris who barely mentioned trans people and that allowed the right to go unchallenged in that area. You can’t just abandon or ignore us, a simple heartfelt defense is all that is necessary, have it in your platform, and then move on to the other more impactful for the rest of the populace policies.
Edit: we’ve been around for forever and only just recently been so present in the news because of the right wing. That’s not our want. We would rather be able to live and exist without the world looking on us as an “issue”.
not issues that affect a miniscule minority
I am a straight white dude and the attack on trans people very much affects me. It affects all of us. They aren’t going to stop there. I’m not willing to toss our friends and family to the wolves because we apparently have better things to focus on. We can speak to pocketbook issues while protecting people at the same time. It’s not a binary choice.
I’m not saying those people aren’t important, I’m saying they shouldn’t be the highest priority when deciding which issues to highlight during a presidential campaign. Sure, transpeople need our support, but their issue personally affects a far smaller segment of the population than an issue like healthcare, which affects literally EVERYBODY.
The First Rule of Politics is Get Elected, and that means highlighting the issues that will bring you the most votes. Once elected, then you can do whatever you want to help whoever you want. If you are one of those people who needs that sort of support (not just transfolk), then focus more on what it will take to get your advocates into power, instead of just using the campaign to highlight your own personal issues. Get your people elected, and then pressure them to help you.
This is what politics is, and why it often gets smarmy in practice, but that’s the game. If you want to win, you have to play it.
Get ready because you’re about to get dragged through the streets for stating simple common sense. We don’t like winning elections around these parts.
You are a fringe issue. As is your mom.
This is the state of a constituency which thinks progress is impossible without leaving the marginalized behind. The failure in expectation is the leaders’ faults too.
Democrats want new leaders for their party, which many feel isn’t focusing enough on economic issues and is over-emphasizing issues like transgender rights and electric vehicles, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found.
over-emphasizing issues like transgender rights
I know this isn’t the point of the article, but it’s distressing that the average Democrat voter also believes that minimal defense of trans rights from existential threats is over-emphasis.
Trans rights isn’t a winning political strategy.
I say this as a trans person. Americans don’t care about 1.3% of the population, they care about themselves.
People want economic progress, that’s why they elected a strongman conman.
It just doesn’t actually seem like the democratic party does anything for trans rights? As an outsider looking in, it just seems like the republicans are screaming about trans people and how horrible they are, and how horrible the democrats are for supporting them, while the democrats completely ignores everything about trans people.
I think it’s more that we have problems affecting large amounts of the population and people are probably tired of trans being 1% of the population but taking up more than 1% of the discourse. And largely only to the end result of being used as wedge to hurt trans people.
The sad reality is, it would be better for trans rights for the left to win, and the left isn’t going to win by ignoring tactics and strategy in a game that the right is metagaming into oblivion with voter suppression and gerrymandering.
It’s not the conclusion someone should draw from this poll, but it’s the thing these authors want front and center. They won’t show us the actual poll results, but that is far from the only disconnect and certainly a minor one since few Democrats think that’s a primary focus, but it’s the only example they provide of issues respondents believe are more broadly prioritized by leadership than the actual responses. It’s at most a minor point, but the authors elevate it to first paragraph material even while the other discrepancies are much higher.
I think that says more about lack of coverage/attention to economic issues than anything. At least in my charitable reading of it.
Extremely depressing to read that. People don’t understand that you can’t have a society that truly respects everyone’s rights except those people. Trans rights are the frontline of the fight for everyone’s rights, not some optional extra.
Yes. It’s tough for many to believe, but trans rights is the same fight as due process for all.
Justice is blind. Not by design, not by choice - by the literal definition of justice. If “justice” sees some people as deserving of rights and not others, there is no justice for anyone, there is only a temporary illusion of safety.
