If you support Hillary and still think the WWC can piss off...

[Yurovsky]

you might want to read this from Politico...

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/12/hillary-clinton-2016-loss-democrats-214570

This passage in particular:

It has long been a commonplace that Hillary Clinton’s retail political skills are not the equal of her husband’s, and her senior advisers would chafe this year when Bill Clinton pressed to campaign more aggressively in white working-class areas of the Great American Middle, arguing that such voters had been lost for good by the Democrats—or at least for this year, during which disappointment over Obama’s inability to deliver for them had congealed into support for Trump. The truth is that Hillary Clinton did recognize the problem, even if she was unable to translate her awareness into an effective campaign message that would appeal to working-class whites.

After all, it was in the same speech to the elite Manhattan fundraiser where Clinton dismissed half of Trump’s supporters as a “basket of deplorables,” that she also said this, about the rest of his backers: “But the other basket—and I know this because I see friends from all over America here—people who feel that the government has let them down, the economy has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what happens to their lives and their futures, and they’re just desperate for change. It doesn’t really even matter where it comes from,” Clinton said. “They don’t buy everything he says, but he seems to hold out some hope that their lives will be different—they won’t wake up and see their jobs disappear, lose a kid to heroin, feel like they’re in a dead end. Those are people we have to understand and empathize with as well.”

So yes, both she & Bill saw the importance of the WWC (especially in the Midwest), and John Podesta and Robby Mook really shit the bed in the closing weeks of the campaign. While we're assigning blame or making excuses postmortem, we need to ensure we don't let Podesta & Mook off the hook for their epic failure. And yes, we still need to reach out to all potential Democratic voters. We don't have to sell our souls or compromise our principles to do it, and we shouldn't. But giving the middle finger to people who are still open to our message is foolish and a recipe for political disaster (and yes, it can get worse).

[blue cat]

1. Really?

The middle finger? A bit of hyperbole.

[Yurovsky]

2. Take a good look around...

There are more than a few folks on DU saying that (or worse). I'm not saying we can reach the Klan wing of Trump supporters, but there are counties and precincts that voted for President Obama in 2008 and 2012 that went for Trump in 2016. That tells me, and anyone else willing to keep an open mind, that there are swing voters who may well vote Democrat in 2020, giebn a strong candidate with an appealing message. Hell, in 4 years "I'm not Trump" might be good enough, but selling a more humane and optimistic future for this nation should be a winner af6er the crap we are about to endure.

[Beartracks]

27. "Fuck 'em. All Trump voters deserve what they get."

Yes, how often do I read THAT sentiment around here?

Daily.

=================

[Laurian]

3. Politico.....

I rarely go to that site any more. I think they lean right and have been unfairly critical of Democrats on a regular basis.

Just my personal opinion.......

[True_Blue]

4. All workers matter

This BS WWC meme is what the right is pushing to get us to take our eye off the ball and keep us from focusing on the real issues like how they stole the election.

[LaydeeBug]

6. THIS all fucking day long

divide and conquer. Hone your message. Lick your wounds

[baldguy]

8. The very idea of the WWC is racist.

Not only does it set whites apart as some special group to be coddled & cow-towed to (as if they aren't already in every facet of our culture), it condones the anti-minority, anti-immigrant, anti-LBGQT, and most of all anti-worker views of the alt-right fascists.

[Garrett78]

9. And it suggests that working class POC must not care about economic issues.

I've been making that point ever since the election.

Clinton, of course, won among those for whom 'the economy' is a top priority. She won among those who make $50,000 or less per year. She won among the working class overall.

[Basic LA]

12. Right. Our focus should be on Employees.

It seems no one wants to use that word. What's more natural than Dems sticking up for all Employees? Employers have their party, after all.

[SidDithers]

14. +1...

Should have read your post before replying below.



Sid

[dionysus]

16. You don't consider ot a voting bloc in the same way they break the

Electorate down into the hispanic vote, womens vote, ect? Each demographic has its own traits and differences... i recognize those dofferent blocs without placing WWC or any of them, above the others.

[baldguy]

18. So, how do you propose to address their "special needs" without resorting to alt-right fascism?

You want to continue the myth that white people are being persecuted and buy into their Breitbart & Fox News fueled fantasy?

[JI7]

19. but hispanics don't differentiate by claiming they are working class

As if others are not.

[dionysus]

20. Well, "white poor and lower middle class" or the old "white blue collar" might be more

Factual terms, i'd reckon, seeing as most people who can, work.

[JI7]

21. it's not the term itself but more how it's talked about

Which is as if they are the only ones who are working class.

[dionysus]

22. I see what you're saying.

[Garrett78]

25. Exactly. Some seem to think "working class" is synonymous with white.

Decades of dog whistling has infected even progressives.

[True_Blue]

23. They're trying desperately to get us to care

That white men aren't benefiting from their white privilege status anymore and they have to share.

[baldguy]

24. Exactly

[JCanete]

28. no, they stole the election the way they take them all. They used the American media. Focusing on

the percentage points is really misappropriating our energy, because we'll just lose a different percent next time, by whatever actual divide and conquer methods are put into play and sold with vigor by the media.

Counting on the perfect candidates that can power through that machinery of destruction just to give us incremental change for two years and to have their hands tied for the remaining 6, is not moving us forward. We keep losing more ground than we are gaining.

[GeorgeGist]

5. faulty advisors isn't a valid excuse.

[Garrett78]

7. I don't know exactly how many WWC people voted for Clinton but it was a lot.

And she won among the working class overall. A segment of *white* working class voters have different priorities than the working class as a whole, and we know why.

A white backlash has been building for 8 years, including some who voted for Obama.

I'd rather the Democratic Party focus on fighting voter suppression and gerrymandering, while also attempting to engage the disengaged (the 40% or so that doesn't typically vote in presidential elections and the 60% or so that doesn't vote in mid-term elections). Democrats also need to promote media literacy and critical thinking in schools, while drawing attention to the GOP's complicity in millions subscribing to patently false beliefs.

But I will say more outreach to rural areas of purple states (where there are Democrats, not all of whom are white), without needing to change the message, is something the 2020 candidate needs to do. As Obama said, you have to try to minimize the losses in those areas in order to carry the state. And some people simply won't vote absent a GOTV effort aimed at them. Again, suggesting more outreach to rural Democrats in purple states is not the same as suggesting a change in message.

[jalan48]

10. It's the battle to keep Identity Politics front and center even after the disaster of 2016.

[kcr]

11. So, you really think a Politico article is going to be the one thing that finally sells its?

Nope. Still a dog whistle.

[SidDithers]

13. The desires of the WWC are, by definition, different...

from the desires of the working class in general.

Or else there would be no need to make the distinction that they're White.

Sid

[Yurovsky]

15. I'm not white but I still get the distinction...

I think it's as much geographic as it is racial. I don't think the folks at Politico are racist, I just think there's a demographic that should be voting Democrat that Trump was able to tap for a variety of reasons, the most important was simply neglect by Clinton's brain trust. We ignore them at our own peril. JMHO...

[JI7]

17. he openly ran as a racist. they had other choices in the primary

when Clinton was not in that race.

They could have gone with any of those other republicans but they went with the biggest racust sexist bigot piece of shit there was.

[LonePirate]

26. That doesn't excuse the WWC from embracing lies and fantasy instead of Clinton's realistic plan.