Avoiding the divide-and-conquer trap
by Tom Sullivan
We undercut our own message, Barber told the crowd yesterday, when we argue that their policies are morally wrong and then call our extremist opponents "right."
Moral Mondays leader Reverend William J. Barber II, president of the North Carolina NAACP, spoke yesterday at St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church in Asheville, NC as part of the Daily Kos Connects weekend that continues today. Barber gave an informal talk covering some old Moral Monday ground, including the history of fusion politics and what he calls "the 3rd Reconstruction." Plus some history behind the use of "left" and "right," labels Barber believes progressives should avoid. For fusion politics to succeed, we have to reject arguing on our adversaries terms. (Anat Shenker-Osorio would be so pleased.) Our opponents' policies are neither "right" not "conservative," but "extremist."
But to roll back the South's new Jim Crow, the change has to come, Barber argued, from the grassroots, not from Washington. People ask him to come to their state to lead their movements. He will not. But he will come and help teach them how to lead their own.
Barber expanded yesterday into how blacks and whites and LBGTQ and other progressive partners must work together to avoid opponents' divide-and-conquer trap. "When they ask, 'Is it about class or race?'" Barber smiled. "It is."
Fusion politics means we have each others' backs. The press might come to you because your issue is racial justice. But we can demonstrate solidarity publicly by answering instead, "I want to talk about LBGTQ issues."
The man is focused.