Tweety says we need to get the "Working Class" people back, saying we have been elitist. Hold on!

[LBM20]

(SEE THIS: https://www.msnbc.com/hardball and find the

I grew up in smalltown America. My mom was a nurse and dad was a plumber. Relatives and people I grew up around were commercial fishermen, carpenters, road construction people, small business owners, firemen and cops, custodians, electricians, etc. so I know a thing or two about this.

I will agree that there have been some mistakes in MESSAGING to working class people, but there sure as all shit have not been many mistakes on policy.
What we have to learn is how to talk to working people again and present what we are doing effectively. And we need look no further than people like Sherrod Brown, Connor Lamb, and PLENTY of others.

While many of them have voted for R's, the R's have ripped at their healthcare, threatened their social security, given huge tax cuts to the rich, and attacked their public schools. We have fought to expand healthcare, protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, worker's rights, education and training, etc.

Where we lose working class people is in not coming out and clearly and strongly saying, "We exist to fight for workers!" plain and simple. And then clearly and convincingly and STRONGLY say how we fight for their healthcare, jobs, education, etc.

We need to talk plain and strong, not like rambling professors.

And there is one major cultural issue we need to get straight. For working class and rural people, guns are NOT about violence. They are about MEAT IN THE FREEZER and they NEED THAT! Hunting rifles in rural America are not the same as handguns on the streets of violent inner city areas.

In the election last week, our candidates ran and won on healthcare, jobs, roads and bridges, education, etc. Some working class people did vote for us, but we do still have work to do with them. And we do it by running people who fit the districts, like Connor Lamb.

Yes, there are some working class people who we may not be able to reach because they're stuck on diversity hangups. But we can get more of them back, and not by changing our policies but by learning how to TALK to them again, tout our beliefs and what we are fighting for, and by LISTENING to them too.


So Tweety, guess what, we are NOT "elitist" and WE are the ones who have been fighting for working class people, not the god damned RePUKES!

[JI7]

1. working class people already vote democratic unless you don't think non white people

can be working class.

[GemDigger]

2. Not all of them. Trumps base, the ones that idolize him are working class people for the most

part.

[LBM20]

4. True, and a lot of them we won't get back. But can get SOME. But we have been losing them since

before Trump. It is a problem. There are disconnects.

How does Sherrod Brown do it? He talks straight to them, plain and simple and wins BIG.

[GemDigger]

9. Some is good. Some this year, some next year.

The party did a good job of hiding their self serving changes over the decades. Many of those people are still believing that this is the party of their fathers. It will take the next year for them to find out they have been lied too. When they get their income tax refund next year will be the first big eye opener.

[LBM20]

25. Yup. We did have a good number vote for us. Need to get more with clear talk on the bread and

butter issues.

[JI7]

10. so Russ Feingold didn't talk straight to them ? or was there something else about him

that they just couldn't get ....

[LBM20]

24. How does Sherrod Brown do it? Just won by 11 points. Not even close.

[LBM20]

3. YES, I said many do. (And I realize MANY nonwhites.) But we have lost too many too, and not because

of policy but because of other disconnects.

Need to tell Tweety that plenty of working people DO vote for us and just did.

[JI7]

5. they have a problem with civil rights and equality

[LBM20]

23. Some yes. Not all. Sherrod Brown doesn't win them by being against civil rights and equality.

[LenaBaby61]

7. Right Chris, becasue as we know treasonous tRumputin and Malaria et al are just regular ....

FOLKS who spoke to the working class people






Yep Chris, Boris and Natasha are just REGULAR folks who spoke to the working condition

[LBM20]

21. Right! But we need to do better saying this and showing this to folks. Gotta speak plain and clear.

[Takket]

32. i have this crazy fantasy...........

that mueller ceases all his assets and property and sells them off or the government repurposes them and drumpf dies penniless.

I would love to see mar-a-lago converted to some sort of home for the homeless.

[Garrett78]

13. Yep. As I've been saying for 2 years now...

...the white working class/economic anxiety narrative is both absurd and racist at its core.

We make a mistake when we frame the divide in the party as being over policy positions, or "far left" vs. centrist. This contributes to the dominant media narrative that says right wing extremism is normal but things like single-payer and free college are crazy ideas.

There is a divide, sadly, but it's over this notion that people vote Republican due to economic anxiety (that persons of color apparently don't experience) and that Democrats put too much emphasis on 'identity politics'. This bullshit narrative is subscribed to by leftists (like Bernie Sanders), centrists (like Tim Ryan), right wingers and media members. I've been deeply bothered by that narrative ever since it appeared on the scene.

[LBM20]

22. Does Sherrod Brown win them big by being racist?

[hlthe2b]

6. Tweety has been operating on Beltway conventional wisdom for so long, he's on cruise control...

He doesn't keep up and increasingly has to be educated on what has happened even that day or that hour by his guests.

It is a shame, but I guess he is either burned out or just resting on his "laurels" but I find him difficult to watch (even beyond his constant interrupting rudeness).

He surely doesn't have (or no longer has) any special insights-- at least in my opinion.

[Me.]

8. Says The Guy Who Earns 5 Million Yearly

[pecosbob]

11. Just my opinion...way too many former conservatives trying to steer the Dem Party these days.

Yeah, yeah, yeah...big tent and all that, I know. I really don't care...screw all of 'em.

[LBM20]

20. We just won with many moderates, not far left progressives. But certainly more progressive than

R's.

[leftstreet]

12. You call working class people 'them.' So you're not one?

[LBM20]

17. Yes, I am of what I call the working middle class. College educated but very middle class.

[Paladin]

14. Tweety's stuck in the past, drinking scotch with Tip O'Neill.

He's no more capable of accepting the current makeup and success of the Democratic Party than is trump. Ignore him.

[LBM20]

19. Tweety says some good things and some off base things. He is right we have lost tons of working

class people. He is wrong that it is because we are "elitist." We have had disconnect problems. Getting sick and tired of the elitist label. It is bullshit.

[Paladin]

38. Where did Tweety come up with the "elitist" accusation? His place on Martha's Vineyard?

Like somebody mentioned up-thread, this is a guy who's pulling in $5 million a year. And he's not earning it.

[Hoyt]

15. 6% of population hunts at least once a year. Not many are hunting for food.

And one doesn’t need an AR15 for that, a closet full of guns, one or two strapped to their body to go to town, and worse.

The rest of your post has merit, except for the sizable group of GOPers who are racists, xenophobes, and nationalists.

[LBM20]

18. Not saying people need AR15s. And plenty of us damn well do hunt for the meat.

[Hoyt]

26. 6% of population, most hunting once per year, does not bear that out. A lot of hunts are just guys

drinking, talking tough, spewing racist hatred, shooting helpless animals over baited fields, etc. Sometimes, it's even the excuse used by racists for militia maneuvers or crap like this.

?resize=750%2C934

[John Fante]

31. Their economic anxiety is palpable.

Maybe if we coddle them, they turn their backs on Trump.

[Hoyt]

33. Shoot, just help them quit smoking, diet, cut back once armaments, etc.,

Would put $10,000 in their pocket annually.

[Ferrets are Cool]

16. He is such a shithead. FU Tweety

[wryter2000]

27. I heard that crap on his show yesterday

I wanted to hurl.

We're so elitist we want everyone to get decent health care. Including people who need Medicaid.

I have news for Tweety. College graduates are largely middle-class. He's such a champion for the little people, but I'll bet he has a few university degrees. So did his hero, Bobby Kennedy.

[Cha]

35. I know.. that "elitist" Crap coming from

anybody is BullShit.

[dawg day]

28. "Working class" people are not all white or all male

This assumption that the "white working class man" has some special significance annoys me. The non-white working class primarily votes Democrat, and they are much more of a guide to what is sensible and healthy for the USA.
Alas, "white working class men" as a voting bloc do not vote in a sensible and healthy way, and shouldn't be followed. They will be helped most by our electing the ones they DON"T vote for.

[dem4decades]

29. Doesn't Matthews do his show from that working class enclave Nantucket Island?

[jcgoldie]

30. Tweety is wrong and so are you

Working class people voting for Trump has nothing to do with "elitism" in the way democrats speak... it has to do with racism and fear. They reject the big tent that democrats embrace. For that matter, they don't embrace guns and oppose all common sense gun control measures that would make our country and schools safer for "meat in the freezer" thats just ridiculous, you think handguns and AR-15s are putting meat in anyones freezer?... they do it for the same reason they vote for Donald Trump... fear and the desire to project their problems onto an "other"... mexicans, black people, "libruls"... whoever. They are scared of anyone not like them. I'm from a working class family in the midwest and a farmer in a deep red area so I also have some anecdotal evidence to support my opinion as you do.

[Iggo]

34. He left a word out.

Starts with the same letter as wink-wink.

[Norbert]

36. So because the Dems are elitists, the working class votes for the guy that poops in a gold toilet

Makes sense to me.

[DFW]

37. I've seen parts of his show on clips

Longer parts when I'm in the States. He is like a centrist version of a Fox host. Say something, listen to the beginning of a response, and then interrupt and talk over them. He is Fox Noise in everything but his political slant. It is painful to listen to. Maybe he calls it "Hardball" because it is so hard to get a word in if you are an invited guest.

I think of my brother-in-law back in the States--a college educated, Midwestern working class union guy in a precarious field. Jobs come and go, and the older he gets, the harder it is to get a gig with any kind of staying power. I doubt that Matthews knows the first thing about people like him and he would never ask one of them to go on his show. An educated, soft-spoken, working class guy with an intellect--not the stuff of which talk show guests are made.

[crazycatlady]

39. Let me get this straight

So in the last 3 presidential elections, the GOP nominated

1) A trust fund baby real estate developer. Lives in a penthouse, flies on a private jet with his name all over it, and sells the country club lifestyle to the masses. Not to mention everything he touches is covered in gold.
2) Private equity firm owner who 'likes being able to fire people' and has an elevator for his CARS in one of his (many) mansions.
3) A man who married an heiress who couldn't tell you how many houses he owned.

Want to go back further? How about a president's son who dreamed of owning a MLB team?

And DEMOCRATS are the elitists?

[jcgoldie]

40. Nailed it

"Elitist" is code for uppity educated women and minorities trying to tell me what to do. I remember when Obama was 1st elected president and he put out a public service announcement for kids in school about doing their homework and getting good grades... pretty much the most innocuous apolitical message imaginable and the redneck parents of kids in my class had a fit that we showed it in the classroom and they would not stand that elitist telling their kids what to do. Those people are now the Trump voting working class.

[ProfessorGAC]

41. Meat In The Freezer?????

Two words in reply:
Population density.

Suburban folks that vote R do not NEED to hunt for meat in the freezer. That's just silly.

[wishstar]

42. I call the Repubs' huge tax cuts for wealthy and racism "elitist"

I only caught his comment about elitist Dems because I don't watch the blowhard windbag's show land was tuning into Chris Hayes show a minute too early.

Matthews is full of BS, especially in light of the Democrats resounding wins in election, where their message succeeded.