Ellen Willis Quotes

A lot of people think that intersectionality is only about identity. But it's also about how race and gender are structured in particular workforces.

The Republican Party is saying that the president of the United States has bosses, that the union bosses this president around - the unions boss him around. Does that sound to you like they are consciously or subconsciously deliver the racist message that, of course - of course, a black man can't be the real boss?

There is constantly a war going on between the two parties for the populist vote. The populist vote is always the swing vote.

Middle class voters are the mega-prize in American politics.

Major parties have lived more for patronage than principles; their goal has been to bind together a sufficiently large coalition of diverse interests to get into power; and once in power, to arrange sufficiently satisfactory compromises of interest to remain there.

The party out of power gains by all partisan conduct of those in power.

Democratic politics—that is modern mass politics—is a battlefield in which the most important move is that which decides what the battle is about, what the issue is.

There are certain districts where you need a pro-life Democrat to win.

Politics is a matter of day-to-day improvisation, and it often seems as though the major parties are guided only by the desire to stay in office and not by any philosophy that might justify their doing so.

The Republicans always do a good job of dividing and conquering. They do a really good job of making black folks, poor white folks, and Hispanics not like each other.

The further away you get from being a straight white man, the less freedoms you have to figure out who you are and negotiate what you mean to society.

That's what Democrats do best: breed black votes.

If you're anything other than a white, cisgender, able-bodied dude, people are going to project narratives, imagery, and context onto you that you might not necessarily see for yourself.

Identity politics is not politics at all, since it precisely negates the political as such by re-construing political positions in ethnic terms, subsuming 'ought' under 'is.'

Partly, identity politics is a result of economic failure.

Feeling trapped in identity isn't just the purview of women and minorities.

So much of what blacks and women contend with is centered in how we view, and how the world views, our bodies. Gestures, voices, affect.

It's not like a choice to have an identity politics discussion when you're living it all the time. And if it's uncomfortable, well then maybe the way that we need to deal with that is by letting things be uncomfortable.

Nor did Americans believe that Republicans had been waging war on minorities, women, or gays - especially given that Republicans have held the House only since 2011 and have been out of power in the Senate and presidency since 2009.

Affirmative action ignores our society's real minorities - members of the disadvantaged classes, no matter what their race. We have this ludicrous bureaucratic sense that certain racial groups, regardless of class, are minorities. So what happens is those "minorities" at the very top of the ladder get chosen for everything.

Incredible how unnecessary it [questions the legitimacy of President-elect Donald Trump] was, because John Lewis was articulating something that most Democrats simply aren't, calling Trump illegitimate.

The Democrats pretended to care about black people for about five minutes to help their electoral process, and then civil rights suddenly became abortion on demand, gay marriage, rights for the homeless, etc.

I always took note of them, because I think if you're in the black or brown body, you're negotiating them all the time. It's like women taking note of sexism. It's a kind of incoherency that you are constantly negotiating.

Identity politics is the mother's milk of the Democratic Left.

What's the real difference between Republicans and Democrats? Let me tell ya the real difference ... Republicans will always take on people in the interest of power and good democrats will never fear to take on the power in the interests of people.