Prabhakar affirms Wilkerson's thesis that caste is a richer framework for explaining America's troubled history of racism; especially post-Civil Rights where strict pigmentation-based racism has been replaced by more nuanced forms of discrimination. However, he argues that America is actually now a dual-caste system.
The original "nativist" caste system that harkens back to the Founding Fathers is alive and well. That focus on race, religion, and riches has become the backbone of the Republican Party since the days of Ronald Reagan.
However, he claims the Democratic Party is just as wedded to a second "cosmopolitan" caste system, which obsesses over redistributive economics, education, and elitism. Democrats may sincerely believe they are helping the poor, but are blind to how their policies fragment families and funnel people into a zero-sum educational rigged in their favor.
Conservatives don't understand irony.Republicans value adherence to abstract principles over the welfare of real flesh-and-blood human beings.
Democrats value the welfare of idealized, hypothetical human beings over that of actual flesh-and-blood human beings.
Stay tuned for next week to hear Bruce's response!
