So, I lived in the Appalachians, right around the time that West Virginia went from being a swing state to being deep red, a shift that happened shockingly fast. When I talked to people around there,…... A lot of the older people considered themselves Democrats, and had for decades. Now, I’m talking about people who ……. were anything but liberal. So, why were they voting Democratic? Very simply, because they understood that Democrats supported the policies that helped them economically: ...
Turns out, for most working class people, theoretical issues like abortion and same-sex marriage, even if they have strong opinions on it, take a back seat to how they’re going to put food on the table.
And this, to me, is one of the big ironies of the modern Democratic party. It’s frequently been noted that, when Democrats try to pass policies to help the poor and working class, they’re opposed by Republicans, who are often voted in by rural white people who are poor or working class. This frustrates the hell out of Democrats, but they tend to react by assuming that all of the white, working-class people who vote Republican are just too dumb to see their own self-
interest.
Somehow, brushing off potential voters as stupid isn’t a great strategy.
And yes, this isn’t an easy problem to solve, but Democrats need to start by recognizing the problem. Democrats love to talk about economic inequality (as well they should), but the progressive wing of the party wants to make the fight about social issues: representation, proper use of pronouns, preferred language, etc. etc. As well as issues that are never actually going to go anywhere, like gun laws.
Here’s the thing: Republicans LOVE when Democrats do that, because it allows them to shift the debate away from economic issues ... and instead paint all Democrats as a pack of radicals who working-class voters see as basically alien. Why do you think Republicans have been pounding the notion of CRT so hard? ….
Democrats are flummoxed by all of this stuff, but they take the bait, every single time, and spend multiple news cycles going over it, satisfying themselves that, yup, Republicans are crazy, how can anyone ever vote for these people? In the meantime the Republicans are using the same cycle to paint the Democrats as out-of-touch progressives who spend all their time on kooky issues instead of actually paying attention to issues that impact working people.
The irony is, Democrats do tend to worry about the plight of the working class, and get frustrated when they don’t get credit for it. But then they let the Republican party dominate the conversation so those things are never discussed. …….
For my money, what Democrats need to do is reach out the big group they’ve lost over the last couple of decades: working class, non-college educated white people, and convince them that you’re on their side. Democrats have largely dismissed that as impossible, because they assume that this group is universally racist and homophobic, and so you can’t win them back without abandoning your principles. Personally, I think that’s bull. ……….. if you can convince them that you’re going help them make a better living and get access to healthcare, then you might be surprised at how many of them are willing to set that other stuff aside.
And look, there are a lot of political issues that are important, and sticking to your principles is important. But economics is the primary issue to many people out there, probably most. If you’re on someone’s side, economically, and that person is voting against you, then you have a serious, serious communications problem. Political strategy should be about convincing the maximum number of people that you’re going to make things better for them. No matter how important other issues may be to you, if you’re hammering an issue that doesn’t matter to them, they’re never going to listen.
dlsamson’s comment — focusing on economic issues will almost always carry more weight than social issues. While there are plenty of American’s that will happily try to impose their version of “morality” on the rest of the planet, there are not nearly enough of them to win elections. My profession seems to include a lot of conservatively minded people — tending more libertarian than religious extremists & whenever politics comes up the rhetoric that I hear time & again from these “conservatives” is a repetition of the whole CRT & LQTBQ+ propaganda. Most of these people are not particularly intolerant or stupid but they have a fear about “progressives” imposing some distorted version of “left wing” morality & sadly the right wing media has effectively found examples that can be distorted to feed their narrative.
If we want to win elections we need to focus on basics. Bill Clinton knew this all too well in ‘92 & ‘96. Obama had GW Bush’s failed economy to run against in ‘08. Sadly, Hillary had the weight of 24 years of hateful rhetoric along with a general public disdain for the “elites” that has been one of the few truly bipartisan points of agreement of the last couple of decades. Biden won largely because he was running against Trump — who it should be noted did actually get more votes than any other candidate in history other than Joe Biden — & only part of that total is because there were 11 million more registered voters than in 2016. A lot of fools still thought of Trump as an outsider who could help to “drain the swamp.” Why they couldn’t see that he just brought in a new set of bigger & nastier swamp rats is still beyond me (never underestimate the power of denial).
Our challenge in ‘22 is going to be partially a matter of turnout but the baggage of inflation along with the hate & fear rhetoric on the right is going to take real effort to overcome. Even abortion as an issue is likely to not help as much as we’d hope. At the very least, we should use it but we shouldn’t count on it.
The economy will always outweigh every other issue in politics. We need to hammer the GOP obstruction on the programs that help rural & poor Americans. For all of the problems faced by people of color, I strongly recommend trying to keep the electoral focus as colorblind as possible. The best way that we can help minorities in this country is by keeping the focus on economics. Economics affects everybody regardless of their race or gender orientation. The first priority in our bipolar system (D & R are really the only choices on a national level) has to be to get Democrats elected. Once we have firmer control of a Congress that is willing to work with Biden, & only then, can we start to implement policies that will actually help the majority of people in this country & prevent some fascist like DeSantis of having good odds in ‘24