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The American Ethnicity and Consequence [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-03-18

Growing up in Wisconsin I never felt a direct link between peoples political party affiliation and their race. I certainly noticed it from a socioeconomic stand point, but I knew just as many white Democrats and Republican, it was an even split. People within Milwaukee County voted Democrat and people in the suburbs voted Republican, but that had to do a lot with their special interests. From an ethnicity standpoint, people were still mostly proud of whatever their Grandparent’s European country of origin was. People were proud of their state and their sports teams and honestly we didn’t think highly of the South and their culture. My experience was that Nationalism like seen in 19th Century Europe wasn’t possible in the US, it never even crossed my mind.

During Covid I moved to Northwest Florida, very Republican area, but I’m also surrounded by Midwesterners and military. Down here though Nationalism is a thing and has been since the 1800s, for most white people in the south there is no other party but the GOP. Nobody cares about German, Polish, Irish or whatever country your grandparents came from it’s basically black and white.

I’m now realizing that the survival of Democracy in this county owes a lot to our foreign loyalties. Enough of us have considered our roots their nationality and just focused on politics and policies instead of identity.

All of a Sudden Nationalism is a Nationwide Undercurrent

Maga isn’t an accident, what was mostly a Southern White phenomena has spread. Enough time has passed, most people in the North, South, East and West now consider themselves “Americans” as an ethnicity, but of course it’s now “white and everyone else” dividing us.

Battling immigration has become the common cause but belonging and identity is the driving force. When you look at history, what made Germans, Italians and Russian’s so nuts, it wasn’t the ideology it was the Nationalism. People seldom agree on politics but they agree on race and the political forces don’t need to spend too much to stir up nationalism and scapegoating. We saw Trump team use immigration and transphobia with ease to rally the masses.

Donald Trump and his cronies took advantage of a common sentiment that was going to come together under the GOP banner. It had been moving that way it just might not have been as apparent 10 years ago when elections still seemed to be more about actual policies.

So Now we have a Nationalist Dominated Party to Deal With, How do we Stop It?

Sport Team affiliations is a healthy expression of a kind Nationalism, basically pride for no reason other then belonging to a group. There are many sports teams, no one can ever become too popular. In Europe they have many political parties, and form coalitions after the election. That would be great, but not an option for us. The concept is there though we need to break up the current monolith that MAGA has become.

The Techbro’s and Populists are a shaky marriage. You can say you don’t want either on your side, true, but the Dems can carve some off the populists by driving home the pain they are going to experience to their pocketbook. We need them to feel betrayed (like they are) and we need to welcome them and make them feel like they have a place with the Dems. Also regarding the Techbro’s we need equally visible billionaires on the side of Democracy. Bill Gates, Marc Cuban and Warren Buffett to name a few, but the more the better as long as they are empathetic to the plight of the populists (except on the racist stuff)

Dems are going to need to do some things in the short term to directly confront this Nationalism, if they don’t, it’s not sustainable, you can’t have this kind of split between whites and everyone else. Sure there are always going to be good people like us that reject the GOP regardless of color, but there’s not enough when so many Americans seem total apathetic to everything. We need both parties to appear patriotic and welcoming to the people who are going to start to feel alienated by the Trump Musk attack on Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and the VA. We will have a limited time to destroy the idea that the GOP planted that white folks are only welcome in their party.

Time to go after the Lost Sheep

We can’t abandon the core of the Democratic party but they aren’t going anywhere, now we all need to seize the opportunity that the Trump Musk disaster has created. We must use the opportunity to use safe topics like the pain directly affecting them or people in their lives getting hurt, to reach them. If nothing else to show them that not all white people are in the cult. Ask them about Canada, Greenland and Panama. Ask them about abandoning Europe and Ukraine, ask them what they think of the weird Trump Putin Love. Ask them if they are worried about losing benefits or their retirement. Ask them about their 401k. These aren’t “do good first” voters these people care about themselves and the one good thing is that their leader doesn’t give a real care about them at all.

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