Well ... thanks.
I mean, the Democrats have said that women have been oppressed for decades. That part is clear to me. I’m just not sure what you're referring to in terms of the shift
away from that already established stance. Is it the George Floyd and Black Lives Matter protests or something? II think the current working theory among more progressive circles is that people can be victims of one kind of discrimination but still privileged in regards to another kind. You know, basic intersectionality stuff.
I’m not very familiar with Gloria Steinem. She seems to have been a much more high-profile figure back in the day, but that was before my time. Also, I think that your reasons why people dislike Ellen now is a bit incomplete. It’s been happening for years:
the whole non-union home studio production team,
allegedly toxic work environment and typical show biz hypocrisy,
sexual assault allegations towards producers, and her complaints about quarantining in her mansion. I think those were factors that also contributed to the tipping point. If you disagree, that’s whatever, I don’t really want to argue about Ellen DeGeneres in a thread about the election anyway.
Moving on.
As for your point on Black Lives Matter, I do agree that violent protests are wrong, my username is not “pacifism” for nothing. I think the Democratic Party has been too permissive on that front. But I think it’s important to keep in mind what is at stake. If a random person starts throwing bricks, starting fires, or beating people up, that’s a form of violence that can be easily stopped and charges pressed. It’s also something that can be started by any single person. If only a few police officers are quick to use force and brutality,
that’s still a far more difficult form of violence to stop. The police are able to dig in their heels, willing to defend bad apples, and double down on their behavior with a large segment of the public having their back. It’s a lot harder to stop law enforcement from being needlessly violent than it is to stop non-law enforcement from being needlessly violent.
Despite all these people protesting,
not a whole lot has really changed. Police are nowhere near in danger of being defunded, so I can see why some people are willing to overlook incidences of violence during protests: they see it as an eyes-on-the-prize, focus-on-fighting-the-bigger-problem sort of thing.
But what is happening is that the protests are enjoying an
unusual amount of support. Compared to the original civil rights protests back in the 1950s and ‘60s, George Floyd protests have more widespread support. Polls back then showed many people expressing support for the idea civil rights, but disagreeing with taking any direct action against racism up to
around 1970, but by then people only really cared about Vietnam.
Speaking of which, I would also point out that the 1968 presidential election was a realignment in ways that 2020 simply is not. The New Deal coalition was officially over: southerners started abandoning ship once LBG promoted the Civil Rights Act, a strongly anti-war faction emerged, and labor unions were shrinking as we started to shift towards a more serviced-based economy (and they were split between Humphrey and Wallace). Vietnam was the hot issue, and even though there was no incumbent president, Humphrey had a hard time distancing himself from the existing administration that he was VP of. He really only needed California, Illinois, and Ohio to win,
which were all somewhat close.
My point is that presidential elections are not really won or lost by any one factor. George Bush won in 2000 due to West Virginia and New Hampshire as well as Florida. I think that the big issues of 2020 just don’t really line up with the ones in 1968,
except for civil rights protests and riots. Incumbent presidential candidates usually win, but Trump was not a very strong incumbent from the start. The response on worsening COVID and the increasingly popular BLM protests have only made it harder for him to get a broader appeal. It's a lot harder to pull off the anti-establishment pitch when you're the sitting president.
Since Joe Manchin and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are in the same party, I'd argue that the Democratic party covers a wider ideological spectrum than the Republicans do right now, but the point is that I think there are still radicals and moderates in both parties.