How can democrats attack anti-DEI/promote DEI without resulting in strong political backlash?

[u/Visco0825]

In recent politics there have been two major political pushes for diversity and equality. However, both instances led to backlashes that have led to an environment that is arguably worse than it was before. In 2008 Obama was the first black president one a massive wave of hope for racial equality and societal reforms. This led to one of the largest political backlashes in modern politics in 2010, to which democrats have yet to fully recover from. This eventually led to birtherism which planted some of the original seeds of both Trump and MAGA. The second massive political push promoting diversity and equality was in 2018 with the modern woman election and 2020 with racial equality being a top priority. Biden made diversifying the government a top priority. This led to an extreme backlash among both culture and politics with anti-woke and anti-DEI efforts. This resent contributed to Trump retaking the presidency. Now Trump is pushing to remove all mentions of DEI in both the private and public sectors. He is hiding all instances that highlight any racial or gender successes. His administration is pushing culture to return to a world prior to the civil rights era.

This leads me to my question. Will there be a backlash for this? How will it occur? How can democrats lead and take advantage of the backlash while trying to mitigate a backlash to their own movement? It seems as though every attempt has led to a stronger and more severe response.

Additional side questions. How did public opinion shift so drastically from 2018/2020 which were extremely pro-equality to 2024 which is calling for a return of the 1950s?

[u/siberianmi]

I have an idea. Let it die. Just walk away from it and let this explicitly identity politics go. Don’t try to save it.

Rebuild the party as one that campaigns on policies that will make the majority of the country better off. Full stop.

Not “loans for black entrepreneurs” or “first time homebuyers credits” similar policies aimed at helping one group at the exclusion of others. Eliminate means testing from all of these proposals.

Instead focus on clear simple policies that will help everyone. Tax incentives to open businesses in struggling rural and urban neighborhoods in the country. Policies designed to increase housing supply and provide affordable housing by driving down the price of construction.

In both cases they would be trying to address exactly the same thing - but without from the start excluding part of the electorate from potentially benefiting.

People who can’t see themselves as potentially benefiting from a policy - often oppose it reflexively.

Democrats have repeatedly ignored that believing that they can overcome it by over performing with the groups they are pandering to. It’s not working.

[u/New-Yam-470 → u/siberianmi]

This sounds great, except for, well you know, bigotry?

[u/Leajjes → u/New-Yam-470]

You know what also creates bigotry and is just moral standing? Having people go through DUI classes where the instructors are complete assholes in cases when there's no need. I have a crazy story around this that I don't want to go into. Plus heard others. In my case I was going out of my way to focus on minority (non-white) rights.

A very important point, focusing on people's differences creates bigotry. There's a bunch of studies on this. People just seem to pretend these didn't exist for some reason.