2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: The more you call white working class voters "racist" the more you will LOSE elections. [View all]lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)At one time, we considered ourselves the party of the working person. Then Nixon used his southern strategy to demonize blacks and we took the other side. Then Reagan used the caricature of the welfare queen, and we took the other side. Bush created the spectre of radical muslims... and we took the other side.
Now Trump. Clinton's entire general election campaign was about not being Trump. We've completely forgotten how to articulate an attractive world view independent of the one that Republicans created for us. So much so that when Sanders did exactly that, it scared the living shit out of the establishment. The DNC worked harder to obstruct Sanders than they did to elect downticket democrats.
Meanwhile, all of the working class voters who once guiltily peeked into the Goldwater tent are now being kicked into it by us. Racists! Sexists! Misogynists!
Of course we should take the other side, but that's not a replacement for having our own mission.
Our base is now suburban college educated liberal arts graduates. We think this makes us cool because we have a certificate (and $100k in student loan debt) that tells us that we're smarter than the people who elect presidents.