Episode 67: The Gate-Keeping, Power-Serving Tautology of Electability
\u201cHow to Choose the Most Electable Democrat in 2020,\u201d advises Politico. \u201cAmy Klobuchar's best argument for 2020: Electability,\u201d CNN reports. \u201cIs Electability The Only Thing That Democratic Voters Want?\u201d WGBH, the Boston NPR affiliate, wonders. These articles, all from a one-week stretch this February, speak to a prevailing compulsion in our politics, boosted by our media.
Time and again we hear about the primacy of \u201celectability,\u201d a nebulous but self-evidently important criteria, when selecting a candidate. But what does \u201celectability\u201d mean exactly? How can someone have, in effect, been elected in our minds before an actual election takes place?
This week, we will drill down the origins of the term "electability": how it\u2019s a concept embraced by brain-dead, horse-race-obsessed pundits, why it has inherently racist and sexist implications, and how it\u2019s designed to draw voters away from candidates they actually agree with to ones more in line with the agenda of the corporate wing of the Democratic party party.
Our guest is Anoa Changa, host of the podcast The Way With Anoa.