RBInMaine
RBInMaine's JournalTrump shits in his supporters' mouths and they think it is ice cream.
Trump is the consummate bullshit artist. Always has been, always will be. We tried to tell people he was a fraud and con artist. He said he'd drain the swamp and all he has done is fill it with unqualified billionaire swamp monsters. Hillary will not be locked up. There will be no Great Wall Of Mexico Paid For By Mexico. There will be no 30 million jobs. Thousands of companies will not return. Tons of coals mines will not be re-opened. He said he would put tariffs on companies and instead, with Carrier, he did a tax cut giveaway for a company with 7 billion bucks in annual profits. The R's are going HARD after Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and 20 million people (MANY of whom are Trump voters) are going to lose their health plan instantly. And now he is telling his supporters that all that crazy stuff he and THEY did and said in the campaign is OVER now that he was won because now he needs them to be "calm" and behave in a way that makes him seem more presidential.
These voters got SO had. They got taken to the cleaners. They got ROYALLY DUPED. Hopefully at least some are starting to wake up.
And now we need to do our job. REFORM the Dem Party BIGTIME and tell the people just how DUPED they got from this lifelong professional bullshit artist who shits in people's mouths and they suck it down like it's ice cream.
Bernie filled stadiums. Much as I like Hillary, she just wasn't an exciting candidate.
Enough of the Bernie bashing. That's ridiculous. He filled stadiums. He brought millions into the party. He excited people with a CLEAR and COMPELLING message. I wish I had a dime for everyone I know who said they would have voted for Bernie if he had been our nominee.
Please don't get me wrong. I really like Hillary and really wanted her to win. But the hard truth is Hillary could barely get a thousand people to attend her primary rallies and had mostly pretty small general election rallies too. Her primary campaign was just plain lackluster. She was seen as the past and the establishment in an era where people are just sick and tired of insiders. They wanted someone new. She and her team made huge mistakes not campaigning where necessary, not having a CLEAR and COMPELLING populist economic message front and center, and trying to win over moderate suburban Republican women who were SOFT in their support instead of shoring up the working class base. She also spent too much time with donors or off the campaign trail in August and September. Very bad moves!
Polling indicates that Bernie had a much better chance of beating Trump than did Clinton. Would that have happened? Not sure. Bloomberg was talking about getting in if Bernie had done so and that could have ruined him with a split vote. But in a head to head I think both Hillary and Bernie would have won (the third party candidates screwed it up for us too), and Bernie would have won by more than Hillary and probably much more.
Right now the party needs a MASSIVE re-boot with a return to the 50 state strategy, and the message of JOBS FOR EVERYONE EVERYWHERE (including small town America which is HURTING)!!
We are in an era of OUTSIDER POLITICS, and Hillary, sadly, was the ultimate insider.
To just write off white working class folks or ANY group ANYWHERE is STUPID. Here is why:
* In the 60's, so many of these small towns and rural areas were doing SO much better economically than today. Many are now in very dire economic straights, and Trump's message of re-opening factories and attacking bad trade deals definitely resonated. No denying it.
* Obama won MANY of these working class voters that now went for Trump. So MANY do vote primarily on economics. We can't win all white working class voters back, but we can win many back with the right economic arguments and respect of their culture. WE MUST END THE DISCONNECT WITH THESE FOLKS!
* The "either/or" argument is a load of horse shit. We are talking about boosting economic populism and having a strong, compelling, resonating jobs message for EVERYONE, not abandoning social progressivism. And, just because saying you agree with the right of legal and safe gun owners to hunt and target shoot is not abandoning progressive ideals in any way, shape, or form. A bleeding heart liberal can also be an avid hunter.
* We MUST return to our working class roots and stop being the party of corporate-lite!! And we need to be more than a party of liberal social issues. Those issues are important, but people MAINLY vote on ECONOMICS, not social issues. Any survey will tell you that JOBS AND THE ECONOMY is always the number one issue. People want something tangible for their vote.
* If we are to be the "party of the people" that means ALL the people EVERYWHERE, not only certain groups. Yes, we need to embrace all people and value all people, but that sure as heck doesn't mean ABANDONING white working class or ANY voters. Just writing them off is STUPID.
* Writing off working class rural and small town folks is the very kind of thinking which has hollowed us out at the state and local levels and has now led us to being the minority in the national government too.
* Sure we need to go after gerrymandering, but we can't do that without winning state majorities and that means we need a message for small town and rural voters too. We also need to bolster our traditional voting blocks including young people, and we do that with a powerful JOBS message too. We can not just win on identity politics and liberal social issues. We need a strong, compelling, CLEAR, working and middle class economic message too that we put FRONT AND CENTER!!
The more you call white working class voters "racist" the more you will LOSE elections.
Just because someone voted for Trump doesn't mean he or she was a "racist." In fact, labeling someone you don't even know just based on how he or she voted is so simple-minded and ridiculous that anyone who would say such a thing needs a brain transplant.
MANY people voted for Trump not because of the race politics but on ECONOMICS and/or other cultural issues beyond race. Some voted for him because they are lifelong R's so stuck with their party. Others because they perceive him as a strong leader. Others because they are fed up with the establishment and want to shake up Washington. Others because they didn't like Hillary. Others because they are sick and tired of elitists who don't respect them and because of political correctness on steroids. MANY because they are beaten down economically and Trump is a business guy who promised job creation.
Please, don't be simple-minded. People vote for a given candidate for a variety of reasons.
Want to win back MANY white rural working class voters who used to vote with us? First, LISTEN to them and RESPECT them. Next, give them CONCRETE and TANGIBLE benefits for their votes, such as infrastructure jobs, a good plan for bringing back manufacturing if even on a small scale, a good plan to ACTUALLY drain the swamp in Washington, etc.
We are supposed to be "The Party Of The People" right? Well, that means ALL the people including white working class folks. Ignore them, as we just saw, at our PERIL!
The Democratic Party is for social AND economic justice. It isn't an "either/or" situation!
Enough of this nonsense about claiming the Democratic Party is wrongly shifting away from social justice in favor of economic justice everywhere (including the industrial Midwest). No one, I repeat, no one is saying that Democrats should "abandon" urban concerns or should in any way, shape, or form "abandon" fighting for full inclusion or fighting against racism or sexism or discrimination against ANYONE.
You know, it is actually possible to have a strong, compelling, MORAL, populist economic message for EVERY area of the country and to respect ALL cultures in the country while still standing up for the civil rights of all Americans. How anyone could possibly think this is some kind of "either/or" proposition is ludicrous.
A national party needs a big tent and can have messages that unite all parts of the party. People of ALL races need an economy that works for them. Social and economic justice go absolutely hand in hand. Economic disparities cut across racial and geographic lines. Unemployment rates among urban minorities and rural white folks are BOTH much too high and BOTH are disgraceful and must be addressed.
So we can fight for the civil rights and human dignity of ALL people which goes hand in hand with fighting the corporate oligarchy and for economic justice and improvement for all people everywhere. We MUST do BOTH, and we can!
What the party needs to do, plain and SIMPLE:
It is so SIMPLE. We lose because we do not have the powerful clear strong populist message that people are begging for. It is always, always, always, always about THE ECONOMY STUPID!
Want to win? Do this:
* Get every corporate Democrat the hell out of the party and be the party of the working and middle classes in grassroots America.
* SHOW UP in all 50 states and all AREAS of them.
* Send the money to state and local party entities not to consultants and pollsters.
* Clean the ENTIRE house at the DNC and put in populist progressives.
* LISTEN to rural and small town folks and UNDERSTAND THEM! They are HURTING and want to be listened to and they want an economic future. We CAN create jobs there. SAY IT AND DO IT!
* Respect the rural culture as well as the urban culture.
* Have a VERY LOUD STRONG and crystal clear compelling and exciting populist economic message that is all about KILLING failed trickle down economics, KILLING rotten trade deals, and KILLING the oligarchy's control of the economy and the government. (In politics you need an overarching narrative, values message, and VILLAIN TO ATTACK. This is the message that gives us what we need.
* Tell older folks it will be a cold day in hell before we privatize social security and medicare.
* Say loud and clear that America is Of, By, and For ALL THE PEOPLE and not just the rich, and our mission in life is to give the country back to ALL the people again. "MAKE AMERICA EVERYONE'S AGAIN!!"
* Unite urban and rural folks around the populist economics message bridging social justice with economic justice. People of all races and genders can not advance without economic justice. BRIDGE THE TWO!
Do these things, and we will come back. Do the same old same old SHIT that FAILS, and we will not. Simple as that.
Boneheaded, Dumbheaded, Braindead elitist thinking is killing the Democratic Party!
We have been hollowed out all over the country because we refuse to offer clear, strong, compelling ideas to small town and rural people who VOTE in ALL elections including mid-term elections. Elitism is a staggering FAILURE. The election of Trump was mainly a self-inflicted wound and anyone with an IQ of 2 can see it. The party needs to be a party of EVERYWHERE again and needs to talk compellingly to EVERYONE or it will be relegated to second-class MINORITY status PERMANENTLY! The winning formula is a resounding, clear, strong, compelling populist economic message that will resonate across demographics and across all other issues. EVERYONE, regardless of race or gender, is being screwed royally by the corporate oligarchy. Jobs are gone. Income inequality is staggering. People in many places are justifiably angry and fed up with an economy and government that does not work for them. Trump spoke much more clearly to this anger and anxiety. Democrats need to speak with clarity, passion, strength, and FOCUS about THE ECONOMY STUPID and stop wandering around in the wilderness of complete POLITICAL STUPIDITY.
Of course I strongly supported Hillary, and we got more votes overall. But those votes are concentrated on the coasts and in the big cities. That is nowhere near enough. We have to speak to ALL of America again if we want to be a national party that actually wins national elections. It is just as simple as that, and it is absolutely indisputable.
Fuck the braindead notion that we can say "Fuck the white working class."
The election of Trump had many causes: A qualified but nonetheless flawed Democratic candidate marred by the email scandal; the electoral college; racism; sexism; SHIT corporate media; a completely piece of SHIT Democratic National Committee; a flawed Democratic strategy and lack of the right message; a general desire among some people simply for ANY kind of change; failure of too many of our voters to actually come out and vote.
However, the MAIN reason is because of the working class economic anxiety in the upper midwest, and that is the indisputable fact. The party and our candidate simply did not connect with these voters, many or most of whom were traditionally Democrats and many of whom still are by party registration. And they have left us.
The economy, as always, was the NUMBER ONE ISSUE of the campaign, and working class small town America has been economically RAVAGED. They are rightfully angry, and many of them feel they have no future and that we do not understand or respect their plight nor their culture. Again, MANY of these people, in some places the majority, used to be Democrats. And the party forgot how to talk to them. The party needs to talk to them again and offer compelling ideas and economic hope for them again. AND, the party needs to respect and support their culture. It is just fine to respect and support the very long hunting heritage in rural and small town America.
Working class America doesn't give a flying shit about pure food laws and solar power when it needs JOBS. JOBS JOBS JOBS is the NUMBER ONE ISSUE. And they also want straight STRONG talk and leadership, not meely-mouthed pathetic wimpy WEAK SHIT that is not leadership.
And this is by no means an either/or situation. The Democratic Party is and will always be the party that fights for the rights and betterment of EVERYONE in America, full inclusion, and will always stand strong against bigotry wherever it exists. BUT, being the "Party of the People" means, in fact, ALL THE PEOPLE including white rural and small town people.
JOBS JOBS JOBS and creating an economy that works for EVERYONE is the issue that transcends all else because social justice can not happen without economic justice. Social justice matters little if you don't have a job and can't make a decent living. And ALL people, regardless of race, color, gender, or creed are deeply impacted by the corporate oligarchy that works for the 1% and doesn't give a damn about anyone else.
Want to know how to win? Listen to Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren today and FDR and Harry Truman in the past. BE STRONG! SPEAK WITH CONVICTION! SPEAK CLEAR! MAKE THE ECONOMY THE NUMBER ONE ISSUE ACROSS THE BOARD! AND BRUTALLY ATTACK THE CORPORATE OLIGARCHS AND THEIR REPUBLICAN SERVANTS AT EVERY TURN. These are the issues that BIND us all.
Offer people JOBS JOBS JOBS and tell them just how you are going to create them so they feel they have a FUTURE instead of economic DESPAIR. Do that, and we win again because right now the party is like a self-inflicted deaf, dumb, blind, and brainless person wandering aimlessly through the political desert without a message for ALL the people.
Predictwise has Hillary at 88% and TrumpenStein at 12%.
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Member since: Mon Aug 1, 2005, 07:24 PMNumber of posts: 13,570
