We have two candidates who are great on racial and gender issues. But racism and sexism are....

[Armstead]

...wedge issues in the primary campaign.

That's just sickening.

[Vattel]

1. Most people aren't falling for it.

[bravenak]

2. Racism is not important? Or sexism either?

Just a 'wedge' issue you say?
Hey y'all!! We are just WEDGE issues!!!

[Armstead]

4. It's certainly a valid issue...But not as a wedge issue in this primary

You want to talk about race in the general Election against some Republican who wants to cut the safety net, disenfranchise black voters, push a "law and order" agenda, keep out and track Muslims, cut off all programs intended to advance minority rights, deport immigrants and deny the path to citizenship, etc. I'm with you.

But in this primary with these candidates? No. Their differences are not over those issues.

[bravenak]

5. We need to talk about it all the time apparently

Giving a free pass to ignore the issue in the primaries does not help US one bit at all. We should never stop bringing it up every day, it exists everyday, it effects us everyday, it harms us everyday, so f that we gon discuss it in primaries. Y'all don't make up the rules for us. Thats too easy.

Then we gon talk about in the general too. We ROP. We run our own program.

[Armstead]

6. You run whatever program you like. And I'll say whatever I like...

and I'm getting damn sick of it being used as a divisive issue in this particular primary.

[bravenak]

7. I'm not sick of it. I was sick of it being swept under the rug

[Armstead]

9. You can be sick of what you are sick of...And can be tired of what I am tred of

that's called democracy

[bravenak]

11. Get used to discussing these wedge issues during primaries

Cause If I'm alive, it WILL COME UP

[Armstead]

12. I sorta figured that out a while ago

[bravenak]

14. I know

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

3. Mostly because certain people like to stir shit

[Avalux]

8. It is sickening. The big issues affect all of us and we need to see that.

These wedge issues are just that - wedges - to drive us apart so that the powerful can maintain their power.

[Armstead]

10. Exactly

[bravenak]

13. So racism is not a BIG ISSUE?

Funny. It's a big issue to BLACK PEOPLE

[Avalux]

16. It is a societal cancer that won't be solved on the campaign trail.

It won't be solved by the next president either. Racism is woven into the fabric of our society and must be driven out by all of us over time. Not any single one person can fix it, there's no panacea no matter what Hillary tells you.

[bravenak]

19. And it won't be solved by not bringing it up either

And hillary tells me nothing. But the fact that folks want us to shut up about it and minimize it as not important tells me that they are not the side who will ever even try to do anything

[TIME TO PANIC]

15. They should be discussed during the primaries.

Sure, some people use racism and sexism to be divisive, but we can't ignore the differences between our own candidates on these issues. How will things ever improve, if we brush these issues under the rug?

[Armstead]

22. Not when it's used in a phony opportunistic way to stir the pot for votes

[TIME TO PANIC]

23. I agree, and I thought that's what you were getting at.

[SoLeftIAmRight]

17. Bill Clinton was right.

It is the economy stupid.

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. I disagree slightly

forgive me but after doing a shit load of reading into things like 1996 Welfare Act, if one side insists in using it as a wedge, it is time to point out the damage that has done to single AA women, and their children and the growth of poverty. And how fundamentally that was a way to reduce the rolls from people who were traditionally denied access to welfare.

[Armstead]

20. You have a point in one sense

Punches require counterpunches.

I am just sickened by the whole dynamic of it all being casyt in those terms....Much as I get worked up about the arguments about "socialism" and stuff, they at least are valid points of dispute.

In regards to 1996 Welfare Deform, for example, while it may have had that effect disproportionately, it had a larger impact, and typified the gutting of the social safety net and the shrinking of opportunities for anyone to get ahead.

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. Well I know that at a more higher level story

this election is about 1996, and the Crime Control Act of 1994... as well as Reagan and even both Bushes.

This is a battle for the soul of the nation. (Why I am working on that hard reading) I need to get my ducks (data) on a row as it were.

But I think that we are getting to the point that if that is the road some want to hoe... well somebody will have to answer and it will not be nice.