Though it’s been a week or so since the election, I’ve still been processing the results in my head. I talked about them on the
Thom Hartmann show and a couple different radio shows. A great old friend of mine from Tennessee asked me what I thought happened, so I’m going to take one last shot at defining the reason for the Republican victory on Nov. 4th, 2014.
• Economy: Democrats do not win when they don’t talk about or produce on economic issues. The President talked about raising the minimum wage, but $10.00 is too low and he wasn’t echoed by others in the party. Democrats declared victory over the depression-recession while people are still hurting, losing homes and cars, working at low wage jobs. People now believe their kids will have tougher and worse lives than previous generations. Instead of fighting right-wingers over an economic program, Democrats gave into them. The right-wing knows there is a class war and they are talking about it while Democrats don’t acknowledge it. We must have an all out fight about this economy.
• Jobs: Almost half the new jobs created are poverty level.
• Wall Street: While our families suffer, nobody has gone to jail for the financial corruption that led to the Wall Street meltdown and the destruction of so much wealth. Two banks have had to pay $25 billion in court settlements, but no individual has been held accountable and the entire world has suffered.
• Racism: The radical right-wing Republicans decided to deny the President any victories, to hurt America, and they did. After refusing to acknowledge or accept his leadership, they blamed everything not going well on him and ran against him.
• Right-wingers nationalized the election so they could run against a Black President. The fight for freedom and justice is a long way from over.
• Republicans in Congress would never treat a white President this way.
• The Environment: We must fight against climate change, but we must do it with a policy that moves workers from jobs that hurt and kill us to clean, sustainable energy jobs. Workers are sick of suffering from policy decisions that ruin their lives.
• Unions: Over the past 35 years, America has seen the dangerous and precipitous decline of the labor movement. We must have a fight for the right to organize and bargain collectively that does not stop. We do not have those rights in today. The labor movement is shrinking. Democracy is not possible without a strong and powerful workers movement.
• The radical right is intent on killing the labor movement.
• Citizens United: With unlimited resources and unaccountable freedom to use them, the airwaves were flooded with right-wing propaganda and lies.
Photo source: @SenSanders