Article with interesting premise: neoliberal Dems are the real "Alt-left".

DACA is a case in point, along the lines suggested by the author. Neoliberal Dems, among others, see Trump’s action to undo it as some grave humanitarian crime, but still accept the idea of DACA itself. Clearly, Trump is doing this to pander to his white nationalist fan base, and it’s despicable for that reason.

However, Obama’s act itself was largely chickenshit in the first place. Notice what DACA stands for: Deferred Action. It creates a form of purgatory for the innocent, and never actually gets rid of the threat of deportation. Beyond that, it’s a fraction of the total undocumented population (800K out of 12 million).

The real answer here, the one that strikes me as the most just, humane and rational, is to grant full and complete amnesty to all undocumented peoples, empty out all of our detention centers (cough, concentration camps), offer everyone a clear path to citizenship, and close the books on them. No more following them around. No more spying on them. They’re citizens now, with full rights.

Using the author’s dissenting terminology, the “alt-left” view is to put a bandaid on the issue, kicking the can down the road, instead of actually solving it. The real left would just say, amnesty and full rights and be done with it.

Perhaps instead of “alt-left,” it should be faux-left? The DLC folks. The Clintonians, etc.

Some more riffs from the article:

In general, centrist Dems appear to want to reduce discriminatory practices against blacks and other minorities in our judicial, carceral systems. To even things up, etc. But, to me, they reject the idea of really getting at the root of it, because they’re locked into the idea of equalizing groups within an oppressive system, rather than ending the oppressive system itself.

As in, you could end all racially discriminatory practices within the penal system, and still have truly odious, ugly, evil and oppressive stuff happen to the innocent across the board. The far better way to go, IMO, is shut down the ability of that system to inflect harm on ANYONE. That takes care of oppression toward racial, ethnic and sexual minorities at the same time. The same can not be said if we simply try to ensure a kind of equality of oppression.

To get a bit more specific: Legalize all non-violent, victimless “crime.” Empty our jails of everyone under that umbrella. End the jailing of anyone who once would have been thrown in jail for that set of actions. In that case, you would no longer have racial discrimination in play regarding the wildly unequal harassment, arrest and conviction rates, or the length of the sentences — in those particular cases. No one would go to jail for those things (drugs, basic “vice squad” stuff), so you can’t have systemic racism in effect for that particular kind of “crime.” It’s no longer a crime to begin with, etc.

Same thing goes in the broader economic realm. Instead of trying to make our neck-breaking hierarchies better reflect the diversity of America, instead of making the people within the various tiers of Haves and Have nots better reflect it . . . let’s get rid of the neck-breaking hierarchies altogether. Let’s make it illegal from the getgo for a society to sort itself into the Haves and Have nots.

Doing that takes care of the racial crap too. If you no longer have ANY “have nots,” you immediately do away with the foundation for oppression, which, under the system of capitalism, is predominantly economic in nature. You defang racism and other pathologies/bigotries, and you deal with them in the most realistic and effective manner. As in, we can’t police hearts and minds — nor should we want to. But we CAN take away the power of racists and other bigots from inflicting their warped views on others.

IMO, our focus should be on power, not attitudes. Though, I think it’s also self-evident that a truly egalitarian society would change attitudes over time a hell of a lot more effectively than our current steeply hierarchical system.