"A half-century later, how could progressives try to rebuild the Bobby Kennedy coalition? Kennedy’s appeal was based in part on being the brother of a revered and martyred president, of course, and the most salient issues were different in 1968 than they are today. But Kennedy stressed fundamental themes that travel across time and transcend specific policy issues. First, to appeal to a sizable number of white working-class voters in 1968, Kennedy did not forfeit his basic principles or change his positions on civil rights, or war and peace — and neither should progressives today. Ignoring the rights of women, gay people and people of color is both morally wrong and politically stupid if your aspiration is an inclusive populism. Second, progressives should fight for economic justice in a manner that is relentless rather than episodic. On the campaign trail, Kennedy consistently hit themes of economic inequality and named the names of wealthy individuals, like the oil tycoon H. L. Hunt, who paid little in taxes. By contrast, in the final weeks leading up to the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton de-emphasized economic issues in favor of attacks on Mr. Trump’s qualifications, according to research by Democracy Corps and the Roosevelt Institute, and his support among white non-college voters rose considerably. Progressives also need to vigorously punish Wall Street malfeasance. It is difficult to imagine that Kennedy, a tough prosecutor, would have argued, as some members of the Obama administration did, that some companies are "too big to jail." Third, progressives should explicitly signal the inclusion of working-class whites in their vision for change by applying civil rights laws to issues of class inequality, consistent with Kennedy’s view that “poverty is closer to the root of the problem than color.” I have long argued that we should extend the Civil Rights Act to prohibit discrimination against workers of all races engaged in labor organizing; integrate elementary and secondary schools not only by race but also by socioeconomic status; combat discrimination in housing by economic status as well as race; and adopt affirmative action programs in higher education for economically disadvantaged students of every color. Fourth, progressives could adopt policies that respect the values of working-class people under the banner of patriotic populism, as Kennedy did. They should unapologetically champion a strong American identity around the shared values espoused in the Declaration of Independence as an antidote to exclusionary white nationalism. An inclusive patriotic populism would be much more racially tolerant than Mr. Trump’s white nationalism, and it would be tougher on national and domestic security than the populism offered by Mr. Sanders. If Robert Kennedy, the civil rights champion, could attract Wallace voters at a time of national chaos, surely the right progressive candidate with the right message could bring a significant portion of the Obama-Trump voters back home. Doing so would not only bring electoral success but also make it easier to forge a more economically progressive public policy to address America’s dangerous economic divide."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Activists from the United StatesUnited States Attorneys GeneralAnti-war activistsUnited States presidential candidates, 1968United States presidential candidates, 1964
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Richard D. Kahlenberg in The Bobby Kennedy Pathway (16 March 2018)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_F._Kennedy
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Related Quotes
"What is objectionable, what is dangerous about extremists is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant.…"
"The free way of life proposes ends, but it does not prescribe means."
"One-fifth of the people are against everything all the time."
"In the words of the old saying, every society gets the kind of criminal it deserves. What is equally true is that eve…"
"The problem of power is how to achieve its responsible use rather than its irresponsible and indulgent use — of how t…"
"Ultimately, America's answer to the intolerant man is diversity, the very diversity which our heritage of religious f…"
"I thought they'd get one of us, but Jack, after all he'd been through, never worried about it.... I thought it would …"
"The Irish were not wanted there [when his grandfather came to Boston]. Now an Irish Catholic is president of the Unit…"
"To say that the future will be different from the present is, to scientists, hopelessly self-evident. I observe regre…"
"Just because we cannot see clearly the end of the road, that is no reason for not setting out on the essential journe…"