2016 Postmortem

by arguing that reparations would reduce some of the things some white voters dislike.

As to free college turning people off, I don't think it actually did.

Yes, it would mean giving some people something now that other people didn't get...but that comes up with any social benefit that is ever established.

There are ways to reduce the resentment factor you are talking about, though.

Some folks who are too old to have benefited from this when they were of "college age" could still gain from it because it would give them a chance to reboot their lives.

Free college would also be of disproportionate benefit to the poor of all races and to people of color (two groups that are FAR from synonymous) because it would give huge numbers of people in BOTH groups a chance for education and advancement they would otherwise never have had.

There might be a way of coupling free college with a period of community service, which would also give people the chance to see the benefits of more people getting a university education on the very streets where they live.

And letting people get degrees without crushing debt would unleash the energy of young people to actually devote most of their tine to building the world we need, rather than having to spend the best years of their lives simply struggling to repay that debt, and having to abandon their principles and ideals in the effort to do so, which would significantly reduce the levels of injustice, uglinness and stress we all experience.