Thoughts on Progressive Ethnic Politics and El-Sayed

Contemporary Democrats might benefit from thinking about how Democrats built winning coalitions during the New Deal and Great Society despite significant ethnic differences within progressive movements. Winning Democrats of the time understood that political actors are pulled by ethnic ties, that there is a difference between seeing the world from a particular ethic and religious perspective and wishing to harm members of other ethnic groups. Adopting such attitudes might help progressives in the second quarter of the twenty-first century distinguish between inevitable ethnic bias and unacceptable ethnic or religious prejudice. The Italian Americans in my neighborhood, I believed, had a soft spot for Italy and other Italian Americans. They were inclined to favor policies that unduly benefitted Italy and Italian Americans. They were slow to recognize when pro-Italian attitudes crossed over into ethnic or religious prejudice. They did not always criticize as quickly or as harshly as…

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