But I was not, in large part because I am an active Democrat. But consider this: When Obama was elected, there was a tremendous economic disaster present. It did not affect me to a great deal as I was fortunate enough to keep my job. My wife kept her part time job. It was scary, but we were safe. So what has happened over the past eight years? I lost my job for no reason given, but I strongly suspect that my age and wage was part of the problem. I learned quickly that I was not alone. At the same time, I watched the banks get bailed out and saw that virtually no one went to jail. I am told by our president that the economy is out of danger and that everything is rosy, but for some reason, my wife and I are really no better off than we were eight years ago. In fact, we’re struggling. We’re both working longer and harder and we hear that all the wealth is piling up, but where is our share?
Finally, as we are both in our early 60’s, medical tests and procedures become more common and with that, endless battles with the health connector, insurance companies, Obamacare, and no one, not one person along the way, not one doctor, or nurse, or billing clerk seems to understand this arcane system. We get bills for things that were supposed to be covered. We get calls that our policy is cancelled, then reinstated, then cancelled, then changed……and it’s been a year long nightmare.
And we are faced with Democratic nominee who promises that this will all continue and she will build upon it.
And we are faced with a Republican nominee who promises to tear it down and rebuild it to make our lives better.
But no, we both voted for Hillary. We’re both loyal Democrats and neither of us believe that Trump can do any better while he has the potential to be a real disaster, but that’s because we are loyal Democrats.
I hear a lot of talk and anger now, dismissing the Trump voters as misogynists and racists and those were the motivations behind their vote. If you believe that, you’re part of the problem with the Democratic Party and the reason we lost the White House.
While there were indeed a good amount of the aforementioned scattered among the Trump voters, their numbers were dwarfed by those who voted on one single issue, or as Jame Carville put it “It’s the Economy, Stupid”.
It’s the economy, my fellow Democrats and that includes the economy of Fall River, and Springfield, and Michigan, and Ohio, not just that of the well to do professionals in Wellesley.
Until we figure that out, so long as we place all our bets on women’s rights and minority rights, on social issues and little else, we’re toast.
The lies about “the economy” from Donald Trump and his supporters are just as flagrant as their lies about everything else.
EVERYBODY knows that it’s “the economy, stupid”. Nobody “placed all their bets on women’s rights and minority rights, on social issues and little else”.
Instead, tens of millions of Americans supported the GOP lies that:
– Our suffering is because of blacks
– Our suffering is because of immigrants
– Our suffering is because of Mexicans
– Our suffering is because of Muslims
– Our suffering is because of uppity women
– Our suffering is because of Bill and Hillary Clinton
– Our suffering is because of Barack Obama and the Democrats
Here is the truth that our media would not broadcast, that Donald Trump would not admit, and that Hillary Clinton said and was not believed:
– Our suffering is because a tiny group of mostly white men have SO MUCH more than the rest of us
This week, America chose the lies of Donald Trump and the GOP. They went low, we Democrats went high, and America chose the guys who kick people in the nuts and grab women by their pussy.
I have never challenged the suffering that you describe. I and my family are experiencing a very similar reality (I am 64, my wife 58). I reject the “solutions” you or Donald Trump offered for that suffering. Sweeping the few remaining crumbs left under the table out of reach of women and minorities and into the mouths of white men doesn’t solve anything.
Until we face the reality of what is happening to us, and then do something to change that reality, we will be going through this angst over and over and over and over again.
I will concede that it’s a waste of time to argue about whether Bernie would’ve done better or to continue Monday morning quarterbacking about where the Clinton campaign went wrong. I won’t do that anymore. We simply don’t have enough information yet to know what she could’ve done differently.
What I will say is that I saw a lot of similar reaction after Brown won, that this state was screwed or that we were headed in a conservative direction. It ended up being a peculiar result from an outlier of a campaign cycle. I would argue this destructive campaign cycle was similar to that one on a much broader scale. Minority turnout was expected to be higher than 2012 and ended up being lower, a key demographic was not expected to be decisive and ended up being decisive in this lower turnout environment.
So how do we move forward? I think one thing we can agree on is that Trump dominated the 2016 conversation. The election, like many things he touches, was all about him. I think we can’t let our movement be defined as strictly an opposition one. Our party is committed to governing, it is committed to governing in an inclusive vision that helps everyone access economic opportunities.
We believe no one should be denied an opportunity for a good quality of life because of their gender, race, creed, orientation, identity, or faith. We also believe that everyone in this country should be rewarded fairly for their labor. BOTH values inform the other and have to be articulated with equal strength. Not in opposition to anyone, but in affirmation of their core truths. I won’t argue about whether Clinton did that or not, what I will argue is that going forward every candidate we put up has to make that argument consistently and simultaneously with authenticity. That is how we take our government back.
I never called Brown DUMB and with good reason. He may have been in over his head at times and too conservative for many of us, but also had a bit of a MA GOP streak as well. His win was disappointing and maybe a little surprising, but he was one Senator and nowhere near the outrageous nightmare I fear from Trump.
The plant’s closed thanks to Bill Clinton signing a trade bill and their house was repossessed thanks to Jeb and his merry men, and their health care insurance is costing them a bundle and offering them little in return. Spare me the “go low go high” nonsense. And that “tiny group of white men” you mention? They helped fund Mrs Clinton and you were okay with that, remember?
I am not saying that Trump is an honest guy who will deliver. Yeah, he’s more likely a con man, but tell the average Joe who saw his house taken away while Obama bailed out the banker and he’ll tell you they’re all son men and at least, Trump is anew kind of con man.
What do they have to lose?n It’s all gone anyway.
The plants would have closed anyway. They didn’t close because Bill Clinton signed a trade bill. The reality is that Bill Clinton signed a trade bill because he saw that the world was leaving us behind.
The tiny group of white men funded everybody. They jump for joy when they watch you and I fight about Hillary Clinton while ignoring what they have done and are doing to both of us.
I remind you that it was the policies of the party we just handed America to that took that house away from that average Joe. What we’ve just done will cause millions more Joe’s to lose their homes.
The suffering that you complain of has been felt by women and minorities for decades. Funny how it seems you were less concerned about it then than you are now.
About the plants closing anyway and the global economy….blah blah blah…
That tiny group of men stayed clear of Bernie, or did you miss that?
Our party did very little for the demographic that went Trump. All the gains from the last recession went to that tiny group of men, or did you miss that as well?
It’s the truth, and it sounds like you can’t handle it. You keep saying the same things over and over, and you keep refusing to past your prejudices and bias.
…with your best Jack Nicholson impersonation?
That would be funny. Really sir, give it a break. This is boring.
How is telling middle America to learn a new skill set and stop being racist working out as an electoral strategy? Doubling down on what Hillary did wrong won’t win the next campaign and ensures eight years of this disaster instead of four. Sorry Tom, globalization and creative destruction aren’t popular causes to defend right now. We tried the candidate of globalization and lost. Let’s try something different, we can do that without reneging in our commitments on social equality and internationalism. But the rhetoric has got to change.
Even Trump can’t can it. How do you two get on the same page and how do we all get on the same page to defeat Trump and restore progressive government? Saying the country should’ve voted for Clinton and is stupid doesn’t seem like the way forward, neither does hoping to bring 1992 back.
…a moral strategy (stop being racist) and acknowledgement of reality (globalization) ARE the points on which we need to lead, consequences notwithstanding.
It doesn’t matter whether its popular or not.
Globalization is a done deed. It can’t be stopped, it isn’t going away. Bill Clinton didn’t cause it and Donald Trump can’t stop it. It appears that the know-nothings of both the UK (regarding Brexit) and the US (regarding Trumpism) will have to learn this the hard way.
The rhetoric literally doesn’t matter if it attempts to advance a position that is factually wrong. “Good jobs for people without college degrees” isn’t going to happen. No rhetoric from any party will change that.
The suffering that nearly all of us feel is not caused by “illegals”, it is not caused by “blacks”, it is not caused by “Mexicans”, and it is not caused women. The fact that nobody paid any attention to suffering until white males started feeling the pain is itself racist and sexist.
If our electoral strategy involves pandering to, rather than leaving behind, the racism and sexism so prevalent in our society today, then the result is not worth the effort.
I insist that we speak from facts and reality. That is the only change in rhetoric that matters. The facts are that the single most important factor driving the suffering in America today — of all races, ages, and genders — is wealth concentration. America needs to claw back the wealth that the top 1% have plundered from the rest of us.
That is the only target worth pursuing.
And Brexit never happened and Hillary Clinton will win in a landslide.
…while George W. Bush was still President (though I admittedly don’t recall how then-Senator Obama voted on TARP)?
This guy is making a forceful case why, the election results notwithstanding, it isn’t worth pursuing these people.
He is STILL complaining about TARP– like Bernie Sanders did. (Here was a pretty good reason I am STILL glad that Bernie isn’t President. Nothing like throwing a few tens of millions out of work and into foreclosure for ideological reasons. No thanks.) This is useful evidence that he doesn’t know anything or care to know anything, he just goes on how he feels. No matter that without TARP, we would have cratered far harder than 1930– sending someone to jail was the priority dammit. These are like people who complain after the fire department demolishes a building in order to form a fire break that prevents a whole city from burning. They’re dumb.
And complaining about globalization. Yep, not popular now. But, mostly not popular because people believe bullshit if it suits them. It still is not something that could or should have been prevented. Really, the best you could do would be to manage it, which both Clinton and Obama tried their best to do, though both with a Congress that gave precisely zero fucks about the concerns of working people. Pretending otherwise is evidence that the speaker is ignorant. As if by putting on big tariffs in 1992 Bethlehem Steel would still have three shifts of 20,000 workers rolling steel.
I had a client that made machined metal parts, and was a fairly old concern. I noticed once that in the 50s and 60s, they employed a few thousand people, many of whom were skilled machinists. Now, they employ fewer than two dozen, and those people are all essentially software engineers, and they produce FAR more now then they did then. And those software engineers make WAY more than a machinist. Will a Trump trade war bring back thousands of machinist jobs? No. It’s still cheaper to run a DNC machine. What it will do is put a few dozen people out of work, and take a chunk out of our local economy.
I do not want a government that caters to these nitwits, because that would be a government that does very stupid things. We are about to get a government like that, and it is going to suck. I don’t want a government that does things because some moron halfway through his suitcase of Bud thinks it should, based on his “common sense.”
Dems have had these horses(asses) at the water trough for decades and decades and decades, and they won’t drink. Why? Because Dems “abandoned” them by deciding that people of color, and women, and gays, have rights. So they vote for Republicans, and have done so for decades. He says it explicitly right above. Hillary campaigned “exclusively” on minority rights. What he really wants is no mention of minority rights at all, so that guys like him have a place of privilege over those “others.” Geez, why wouldn’t the Democrats look for votes elsewhere?
Hillary didn’t lose because she didn’t appeal to these people. Any candidate worth anything won’t appeal to them, because the only way to appeal to them is to engage is stupidity, at best, and evil, at worst. Hillary lost because she didn’t enthrall the rest of the Obama coalition, and so they stayed home.
It appears that millennials stayed home in the most significant numbers, which is the most appalling thing. Because millennials will bear the harshest brunt of what is about to come.
Maybe it makes the Democrats a minority party. Fine. But if the way to majority is to appeal to the johntmays of the world, I say forget it, because there will always be a Republican who can sell stupid and racist better, and you’ll still lose.
John, I think this is on the whole a very good post. However, I was a little thrown by your closing paragraph.
Here are two minorities that I don;t think you had in mind when you wrote that.
White males. Trump voters
If I voted for Trump out of anger or despair or revenge against a system that had abandoned me, I would not like being called a racist either.
But someone who votes with white supremacists for a man with an expressly racist program should at the very least recognize that he or she bears the onus of proving, by present and future action in the same sphere, that the shoe does not fit.
There will be some real opportunities for that in the days ahead, I’m sorry to say.
And I think he has lots of opportunities to do so. The question I have is, do we have enough progressive (populist) Democrats to take over once he falters?