NYC Democratic Congressmen Blast Party for Identity Politics
(Bloomberg) -- Two Democratic congressmen from New York City said their party needs to move away from identity politics and focus on helping working-class people achieve financial success.
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US Representatives Dan Goldman and Ritchie Torres made their comments Monday at a breakfast discussion hosted by the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonpartisan fiscal watchdog. The meeting comes two weeks after Republican Donald Trump won every swing state in the presidential election and gained ground in traditionally blue states and cities, including New York.
“Identity politics does not work,” said Goldman, who represents parts of lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. “Those who are focusing on, you know, all of this identity issues and political correctness are generally not the ones who are worried about the price of groceries.”
Goldman, an heir to the Levi Strauss & Co. fortune, served as lead Democratic counsel in Trump’s first impeachment before he was elected to Congress. He criticized the party for not speaking out more strongly about the immigration crisis at the US southern border.
“We’re not gonna gaslight the American people into thinking that the border is secure,” Goldman said.
Even Latino voters, who have traditionally voted Democratic, supported Trump by unprecedented margins. Torres, an Afro-Latino who represents parts of upper Manhattan and the Bronx, said that when the pendulum swings too far left, people want to shift right.
“Donald Trump essentially built the kind of coalition that the socialists dream of building, uniting the White working class of rural America with the Black and Brown working class of urban America,” Torres said.
--With assistance from Laura Nahmias.
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