A candidate with strong party support, endorsed by a sitting president, who outspends their opponent by a tremendous margin loses the election to a candidate with a strong, central message that resonates with the working class. It happened last night in Alabama and it happened last November across the nation.
By some estimates, Moore’s opponent outspent him by a 25:1 margin when all the super pac stuff is figured in.
Will Democrats continue to treat the working class with disdain and instead, play nice with the .1% and the money that flows from that relationship?
Make no mistake about it, Moore’s appeal to his voters was also deeply rooted in racism, bigotry, and the rest…..but I cannot accept the notion that the working class voters in Massachusetts, much less the entire USA, are only possible to reach with messages of racism and bigotry. If I am wrong, the republic is doomed.
History proves that the working class is possible to reach with a central message. We need look no further back than FDR or for that matter, Bernie Sanders.
Most recently in Massachusetts, in a recent state senate race, the party insiders wanted Edward Philip, a “moderate” (meaning a neoliberal) and not the Sanders style guy: Paul R. Feeney, . Feeney won.
TLDR: We need strong working class candidates more than we need money and GOTV.
We enthusiastically agree that vile appeals such as those of Mr. Moore are not the only way to reach working-class voters in Massachusetts, much less the entire USA.
Roy Moore is an unabashedly racist, homophobic, and misogynist who comes from the state that chose another segregationist, George Wallace, as its governor for as long as it could and then put his wife in the same office after that. As observed in the thread-starter: “Moore’s appeal to his voters was also deeply rooted in racism, bigotry, and the rest”.
No matter how much we might want to, we simply MUST NOT DENY the reality that Mr. Moore’s appeal to his voters is deeply rooted in racism, bigotry, and the rest. We also MUST NOT DENY that a significant portion of the Alabama voters who just cast their ballot for him do so because they respond positively to that appeal.
I hope we agree that we also must not deny the nauseating role that racism, homophobia, and misogyny play in today’s America. Alabama is certainly different from Massachusetts. Still, sadly, we do have racists, homophobes, and misogynists even here in Massachusetts.
It does no harm and much good for every Massachusetts Democrat to loudly, explicitly, and frequently reject the racism, homophobia, and misogyny of “the new GOP”. Those white working class Massachusetts voters who are not deplorable will not object to this public rejection. Those working class Massachusetts voters who are non-white, or are not heterosexual, or are women will welcome this public rejection.
What we must not do is ignore these deplorable attitudes.
Okay, agreed. How should that affect a campaign strategy to win a governor’s race in Massachusetts or the White House in 2020?
Also, a point of order.
Mr. Feeney won because he had significant support from organized labor (emphasis mine):
We need strong working class candidates. Those candidates need both money and GOTV.
Point taken.
Agreed, but as we have learned over and over, without the former, no amount of the latter will matter.
So, John, when are you declaring your candidacy and for what office?
Roy Moore, Rand Paul, Joni Ernst……why is it that the right can run and WIN with these sorts while Democrats won’t even go there on our side and run someone who is not “centrist” and afraid to upset the folks on Wall Street?
I mean, yeah, Elizabeth Warren is someone willing to attack Wall Street and for that, even Democrats call her a “radical”. She ought to be mainstream.
What’s up with the party?
I’m disappointed that Roy Moore is the first name on your list.
Our party stopped pandering to the racists like Roy Moore and his supporters in 1968. That’s why Alabama is Republican today. Our party has changed since the civil rights era. Too many voters in Alabama have not.
Running a prospective candidate who is “not ‘centrist’ and afraid to upset the folks on Wall Street” is VASTLY different from choosing to “go there on our side” when going there means Roy Moore.
This diary, started by you, is about Roy Moore. I certainly hope that you are not suggesting that we emulate the campaign tactics of Mr. Moore.