Conversation #52: The Other Maverick (August 26, 2018)

This week we got a very late start on our show, so we tried to keep it short. First, we spoke about an article from The Intercept by Briahna Gray entitled “Beware The Race Reductionist.” In this article, Gray details the way in which supporters of liberal establishment politics are making bad faith arguments against universal programs, claiming that they will do nothing to solve racism, sexism, and other “isms,” on the grounds that they don’t privilege people based on their identities. These arguments embody the cynical weaponization of identity politics We’ve discussed this topic previously, for example in Conversation #48 when we dove into Asad Haider’s book Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump. These strange arguments are multiplying, and embody a concerted attack by Democratic centrists on very popular leftist policy prescriptions. And like many wrong arguments, they contain a seed of truth: previous universal programs have in fact been administered with damaging biases built-in. But that truth is hardly a good argument for the status quo in health care, education, and safety-net programs.

Then, Grace remembers a maverick politician — Lowell P. Weicker — who, in his long career, served as a representative, senator, and governor. Weicker was an early advocate of rights for the disabled, and took Connecticut’s budget from deficit to surplus by instituting a state income tax.

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More Information

Briahna Gray’s article “Beware the Race Reductionist” can be found here.

Here’s the profile of Weicker that Grace mentioned.

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