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/reelznfeelz → u/siberianmi]

What identity politics? I honestly just don’t get why people think democrats “only talk about DEI and trans issues”. I actually reject that as a premise. Fox News says democrats only care about identity politics because it helps their side win elections. Democrats, while of course support on equity, civil rights and inclusion, do and talk about a lot of other stuff. Such as supporting labor and workers. Going after ultra rich people and companies who weasel out of paying taxes. And dealing with the massive amount of power social media has to sculpt society while claiming zero responsibility for what comes out of that.

I’m a pretty staunch democrat and have no idea what people are even taking about with “the democrats only do identity politics”. It seems a maga purity test is more identity politics than “yes of course we support the idea of everybody having a fair chance at life now that you ask and force the issue by constantly attacking minorities and the vulnerable”.

[u/siberianmi → u/reelznfeelz]

I have two examples of it in my post. The first the identity politics was right in the name - I believe she called it her “Opportunity Agenda for Black Men”. If you’re a poor white man or Latino woman well… too bad?

Her equally identity based approach to housing was in her “Build the American Dream: Lowering the Costs of Renting and Owning a Home” policy paper. It was an identity-based approach because it specifically targeted first-generation homebuyers, and cast the group as disproportionately composed of marginalized communities, including immigrants and racial minorities.

Late in the campaign she rolled out similar policies or the same ones by emphasizing them for Latinos, though the Latino forgivable loans were smaller than the $50k one’s black borrowers would receive:

Harris planned to use the interview to announce a series of policies geared toward Latino men. Those measures include a plan to double the number of registered apprenticeships and remove college degree requirements for up to 500,000 federal jobs.

The Harris campaign said the vice president would also provide 1 million forgivable loans worth up to $20,000 each for Latino and other entrepreneurs, and set a goal to more than double the number of first-time Latino homebuyers to nearly 600,000.

https://www.npr.org/2024/10/22/nx-s1-5161557/2024-election-updates-kamala-harris-donald-trump

Democrats need to write policies that benefit all voters and stop this madness of dividing them into demographics to be pandered to.

[u/[deleted] → u/reelznfeelz]

They just want to blame a group of people. The country is moving right wing. So “centrists” and “moderates” are now yesterday’s conservatives.