Democrats Embrace Social Justice, Reject Middle Class at a Homeless Shelter Rally

Last week Democrat councilman Chaim Deutsch held a rally against the homeless shelter on the border of Brighton Beach and Sheepshead Bay. Several Democratic candidates to replace the term-limited Councilman Deutsch also showed up, seemingly to show their support for an issue that concerns local residents.

But instead of defending the local residents in addition to the homeless population, Democrats embraced only the Social Justice framing of the issue. Clearly, the politicians felt that the concerns of the middle-class locals would bring shame to these politicians as they are afraid to be seen as immoral. 

Holding up “Homeless Deserve Respect” signs, the democrats spoke of the needs of the homeless, while completely ignoring the serious concerns of the residents. Certainly a compassionate society should care about the homeless. But it also should care about the homeowners who don’t want the value of their property to collapse. A compassionate society should care about the safety of its children. A just society does not just divide the world into the evil Bourgeoisie vs. the holy Proletariat. Instead, the interests of everyone – the homeless, the working class, the middle class, and the wealthy is taken into account, and nobody is ignored.

The only candidate at the rally who spoke of concern for all the people was Republican Inna Vernikov. “Of course the homeless need to be dealt with compassion and care, but we cannot accomplish helping the struggling while hurting our children and our neighborhoods.” She also discussed the harm that the homeless shelter will cause the property values of homes owned by the local residents, many of them immigrant families who came to the US penniless and are now struggling to pay their mortgage.

The Social Justice framing that divides people into groups whose concerns matter and those whose concerns are shameful needs to end. The concerns of the middle-class matter and they are perfectly honorable.

Any candidate for public office, here in southern Brooklyn or anywhere else in this country, who thinks it’s shameful to address the concerns of the middle class for the fear of offending Social Justice Warriors should be rejected by the voters whose views these politicians regard as too shameful to acknowledge.