Thomas Frank: The Democrats' Davos ideology won't win back the Midwest

[friendly_iconoclast]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/27/democratic-party-2018-races-midwest-populism-trump

The tragedy of the 2016 election is connected closely, at least for me, to the larger tragedy of the industrial midwest. It was in the ruined industrial city of Cleveland that the Republican Party came together in convention last July, and it was the deindustrialized, addiction-harrowed precincts of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin that switched sides in November and delivered Donald Trump to the Oval Office.

I am a Midwesterner too, and I like to think I share the values and outlook of that part of the country. I have spent many of the last 15 years trying to understand my region’s gradual drift to the political right. And I have spent the last three weeks driving around the deindustrialized Midwest, visiting 13 different cities to talk about the appeal of Donald Trump and what ails the Democratic Party. I met labor leaders and progressive politicians; average people and rank-and-file union members; senior citizens and Millennials; sages and cranks...

And what I am here to say is that the Midwest is not an exotic place. It isn’t a benighted region of unknowable people and mysterious urges. It isn’t backward or hopelessly superstitious or hostile to learning. It is solid, familiar, ordinary America, and Democrats can have no excuse for not seeing the wave of heartland rage that swamped them last November.

Another thing that is inexcusable from Democrats: surprise at the economic disasters that have befallen the midwestern cities and states that they used to represent.

Too many Democrats ditched the working class, and unsurprisingly, much of the working class ditched them.

As Frank put it elsewhere, a 'liberalism of the rich' will not hold up:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016149436

How the Democrats Created a "Liberalism of the Rich"

[delisen]

1. Do You Think the ACA was worth the Dem Losses in 2010

forward?

[yurbud]

12. Do you mean because it did too much or didn't do enough?

[elleng]

2. Thanks

[emulatorloo]

3. Read the exit polls

http://edition.cnn.com/election/results/exit-polls

See also:

White and wealthy voters gave victory to Donald Trump, exit polls show
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/09/white-voters-victory-donald-trump-exit-polls

Folks making under 50k voted Democratic.

Folks making more than that voted Trump

Folks whose top concern was the economy voted Clinton.

Folks whose top concern was immigration (aka Scary Brown People) voted Trump.

Yes we need to change the Democratic Party.

But let's base our changes on facts, not false narratives from the privileged pundit class.

P.S. If I had a chance to talk to Mr. Thomas Frank, I'd ask about his use of the word 'inexcusable' against Dems.

What does he think about Trump lying to working people in Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania?

Trump made a lot of promises to them he never intended to keep. Trump lied to them and manipulated them.

Trump hasn't done a single damn thing to make their lives better, and he never will. All he cares about is enriching himself and the 1%.

[kimbutgar]

5. Exactly!

It was racism and chump stirred the pot and churned up long buried racial prejudices in people.

[friendly_iconoclast]

6. Trump won in places we know voted for Obama *twice*. How do you explain that?

And Obama won those places a second time against a far more personable (albeit smarmy and insincere)
candidate than Trump.



http://www.270towin.com/news/2016/11/28/trump-wins-michigan_420.html

Trump flipped six states, including Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, each of which last voted Republican in the 1980s. He also won Florida, Ohio and Iowa, each of which voted twice for President Obama. Trump also won an electoral vote in Maine, the first time that state has split its vote.

None save diehard Trumpists can deny racism motivated many Trump voters- but what happened to
the (presumably non-racist) Obama voters of 2008 and 2012?

[emulatorloo]

8. Yr changing the subject with a "whataboutism"

I don't believe I said all Trump voters top priority was immigration.

It certainly doesn't refute my points about the priveledged pundit class and their false narratives.

-------------

That being said I've not seen studies or articles on that.

How many voters was it?

Have you seen any fact based studies you can share?

I'll give you my anecdotal evidence though of a few folks I talked to who were late undecided.

A few late undecideds who voted for Obama in 2012 switched to Trump after the Comey letter. They thought it proved she was guilty of something. Additionally they believed Trump was anti "Status-Quo" and would "shake things up."

[kristopher]

10. What you call "Status-Quo" Frank calls "Liberalism of the Rich"

At least that's how I see the landscape.

[friendly_iconoclast]

11. *You* didn't, but the person I was replying to did

IMO, it was a combination of racism, the Comey letter, Russian collusion with the Trumpists, and piss-poor campaigning
in the states that flipped to Trump that did in Clinton's campaign.

The TPP and NAFTA were and are enormously unpopular with unionists. Being seen as one of the architects of
the agreements that 'took money out of their pockets' left a gaping opportunity for Trump to exploit.

[delisen]

13. Different time, Different landscape. Can't just focus on presidents

Democrats in 2008 were strong on all governmental levels. After 2010 we rapidly weakened and lost 1000 seats over several years. So we had a president who got re-elected but slews of other Democrats who didn't.

If you let the Scott Walkers take over states (he's running for his third term in 2018) the lack of Democratic infrastructure will have an influence.

Walker was very effective in splitting the private and public sector unions,wasn't he? The big recall movement went bust. The jobs he promised never materialized. Yet there he is, poised to run unopposed, in 20i8. Is he a genius of what

Focusing on the every 4 year glamour race is wrongheaded. By capturing the Congress, governorships and state legislations Republicans have been able to effectively block Dems locally and nationally.

Maybe running competing organizations is mistake.

[Starry Messenger]

7. +1

[Me.]

4. Yet Another 'KNow Everything'

Is going to spend time telling us what's wrong with Dems. But let me just say that as a DEm and therefore part of the liberalism of the rich, I want to know where my money is and could the party please deliver it to me.

Dems need to stop listening to people who have nothing better to do than write endlessly about what ails the party lest it become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

[yurbud]

14. don't worry, they don't seem to be listening.

[alarimer]

9. I like Thomas Frank a lot.

I think he's mostly correct, but I also think Democrats do not message very well much of the time.