Hillary Clinton, like me, many of the people reading this, and many Democrats, is a problem-solver, an engineer at heart. Which means she gets down in the weeds with the pros and cons of all the possible solutions to problems, and sometimes forgets to poke her head up with a clear, simple story. ("Clear and simple" doesn't necessarily mean "misleading", just leaving out some of the details and caveats.) The Republicans, at least since Reagan, have done a much better job of telling that "clear, simple story" and connecting with voters on an emotional level.
Some of yesterday's election was about racism, sexism, xenophobia, and "Mad Men" nostalgia. I don't want to connect with that; the Republicans can keep them and I hope they're very happy together. But there were a couple of more legitimate concerns:
1) the despair of working-class Americans at the prospect of ever getting ahead, or even feeling secure in what they've got.
2) the resentment by non-coastal, non-highly-educated, religious people of educated secular urbanites viewing them as "superstitious rednecks from flyover country".
#1 should be a natural Democratic message, as witness Bernie's surprising success. Compare the actual effects of Republican policies in recent decades on working-class people, with the actual effects on those same people of such Democratic initiatives as Medicare, Obamacare, minimum wage laws, and OSHA.
#2 is trickier. It doesn't take a graduate degree to know when you're being condescended to. Democrats will never connect with the Trump-voter demographic until we can sincerely respect and empathize with people without much education, people with deep religious belief, people who live where it's a half-hour drive to buy a carton of milk, people who seldom meet anyone of a different race or religion.
no subject
Some of yesterday's election was about racism, sexism, xenophobia, and "Mad Men" nostalgia. I don't want to connect with that; the Republicans can keep them and I hope they're very happy together. But there were a couple of more legitimate concerns:
1) the despair of working-class Americans at the prospect of ever getting ahead, or even feeling secure in what they've got.
2) the resentment by non-coastal, non-highly-educated, religious people of educated secular urbanites viewing them as "superstitious rednecks from flyover country".
#1 should be a natural Democratic message, as witness Bernie's surprising success. Compare the actual effects of Republican policies in recent decades on working-class people, with the actual effects on those same people of such Democratic initiatives as Medicare, Obamacare, minimum wage laws, and OSHA.
#2 is trickier. It doesn't take a graduate degree to know when you're being condescended to. Democrats will never connect with the Trump-voter demographic until we can sincerely respect and empathize with people without much education, people with deep religious belief, people who live where it's a half-hour drive to buy a carton of milk, people who seldom meet anyone of a different race or religion.