One part of the strategy is to split the Trump forces; challenging the policies of the truly dyed-in-the-wool racists, sexists, homophobes, and Islamophobes, while responding with empathy, caring, and respect for those who are not.
The "nots" are those who have been moved to the Right by the deep psychological and spiritual crisis of Late Modernism, even though their economic interests are better served by the Left.
Among the pains of Late Modernism is economic insecurity, which used to lead to the creation of powerful labor unions and social democratic movements. But in the past 40 years, there's been a significant increase in the degree to which people have come to believe in a self-justifying ideology of the capitalist marketplace - that we live in a meritocracy.
Those who aren't among the 1% who have benefited from exponential upward concentration of wealth in the last 40 years find their belief in a meritocracy giving rise to intense self-blame.
Yet ironically, at a fundamental level, most people hate being in a world dominated by materialism and selfishness. They yearn for a life in which love, caring, and contributing to the common good serve a higher purpose than "look out for #1."
The Movement Conservative/Fundamentalist Christian Right has offered that sense of community to many - but at the cost of embracing a message of right-wing extremism that blames the "other" as the reason that there is economic insecurity and that the world seems full of selfishness and materialism. The reason that people continue to cling to these beliefs is that they offer an effective - albeit distorted - way out of the often unconscious but pervasive self-blaming that results from the myth of Meritocratic Capitalism.
In a cruel twist, those who are victimized by Social Darwinist Corporatism are often taught to articulate their distress in ways that demean the "other(s)" who they've been told have victimized them (minorities, gays, immigrants, etc.) rather than the oppressive system itself.
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The other part of the strategy is to correct the mistake that many high-profile progressives tend to make in shaming those who follow the misguided belief that fears and blames the "other"; think Hillary Clinton's awful "basket of deplorables" comment.
Those progressives engaged in this reactionary shaming only compound the distress of those who are already deeply engaged in self-blaming (even though it is often at a subconscious level). There is a marked difference between progressives correctly denouncing racism, sexism, inequality and dismissing the real socioeconomic distress of those who are taken in by the Right Wing's other-blaming rhetoric.
It is precisely by acknowledging ALL the different forms of suffering felt in Late Modernism - even those who react to that suffering in hurtful or oppressive ways or materially benefit from the suffering of others - that we have the best chance of building a lasting transformation of our society to one based on justice and love.
The full article is available here
