Waves of resentment

by | May 18, 2017 | Editor's Blog, Politics | 5 comments

Democrats smell blood in the water. The Trump administration is on the ropes. Republicans in Congress can’t seem to mover their agenda forward. And the Democratic base is fired up like never before.

Across the country, enthusiastic progressives, many young and inexperienced, are announcing their intentions to run for office. Democratic organizations are actively recruiting people and training sessions for first-time candidates abound. Talk of a 2018 wave, though premature, permeates twitter feeds and cable news shows.

The excitement may well be justified. Even conservatives are abandoning Trump and speculating on how his presidency ends. Support for the GOP Obamacare repeal bill is tanking. There’s doubt that the GOP can push much of an agenda because of the distraction of the Trump investigations. Together, these factors will likely depress Republican turnout in the midterms and sour independents on the party.

However, Democrats should keep in mind that the forces propelling them are reactionary. There’s no evidence of any broad support for a progressive agenda right now. There’s just evidence of rejection of Trump and Republican incompetence. The same forces that thrust Trump into the White House are still in play and will be until one party or the other addresses their concerns.

A recent study shows that Clinton lost a large number of voters to Trump who supported Obama in 2012. Those are change voters who long for a different outcome from our political system. They might vote for change again next year, but if Democrats win and don’t deliver, they’ll throw them out, too.

Democrats need to give voters something to vote for, not just against. They should take a page out of the Bernie Sanders playbook and embrace a message of economic populism that crosses racial and ethnic lines to appeal to working class voters. Add a little optimism to the outrage and give people hope for the future.

Another study says that cultural, not economic, anxiety propelled Trump’s supporters. That may be true but that cultural anxiety includes a lot of factors that include a form of economic insecurity. Too many progressives want to interpret it as only racism, xenophobia and homophobia, but it’s just as much a fear of the loss of a way of life.

People of all races and creeds in small towns and cities across the Midwest and places like North Carolina are watching the institutions that sustained them disappear. Church attendance is dropping. The merchant class has been replaced by big box stores. Civic organizations like Rotary and Civitan Clubs are shrinking. The fabric that held these communities together for a hundred years is disintegrating.

Democrats need to recognize their struggles and look for answers in either new institutions or ways to revive old ones. If they don’t, working class African-Americans will stay home again. Many white working class voters will still be susceptible to politicians playing on their fears and continue to vote for demagogues who make promises they can’t keep.

Democrats and progressives may well have a wave to ride in 2018. They need to tap into more than just the anger, frustration and resentment that propels it, though. They need to return to their roots and once again be the party of working Americans, standing up against concentrations of wealth and industries that become too big to fail. Otherwise, the wave they’re trying to catch in 18 months will sweep them out to sea again in 2020 like they’ve done to both parties every two to four years for the past decade.

5 Comments

  1. Jay Ligon

    Trump voters have said that they were betting that Republican policies and Trump’s promises would improve their chances of finding work.

    He promised to bring back coal mining and reinvigorate manufacturing and to bring jobs back from overseas.
    The promises should have been seen to be transparently false, one would think. They made a difference even though the maker of those promises was himself an overseas producer, a major investor overseas and never a friend to the working man.

    Trump will never bring back coal mining to the days when 1,000,000, not 8,000 people, worked the mines. Massive machines have taken those jobs away, not government regulation. The United States is now manufacturing more goods than ever in its history even though unions are at their lowest membership since the 1940s. There are no American cars. Parts are made everywhere.

    Budget measures which would make a difference to the average worker will never be proposed by Trump or the billionaire class. It was folly to believe he meant to help the little guy.

    Nevertheless, Trump exploited a gap in the Democratic message. How do we get Americans back to work? Jobs, jobs, jobs should have been Clinton’s message, not the coming of age of women in politics or the moral unfitness of her opponent. The assault on our institutions and our people by Trump should have undone him, but Thomas is right. Voters needed to hear what would be done to improve their life. Avoiding immorality can be done individually, but jobs must come from the larger economy.

    Voters needed to be reminded that economic stagnation was the Republican strategy. The GOP managed to undermine the economy for 8 years, where they could, and, incredibly, they succeeded in placing the blame for their obstruction on President Obama. It seems incredible that people could not put two and two together.

    Democrats need to make their economic case.

  2. A.D. Reed

    This is a bit long (sorry) but offers some “reasons to vote for Democrats” — if candidates and the party adopt a progressive but rational platform. It doesn’t have the rhetoric of Bernie’s populism, but it has the fundamentals of traditional Democratic, progressive ideas that actually did make America great. Not that it’s a finished document, but if everyone put their thoughts out there and filtered them into policies we could all support, we could get there!

    ECONOMY

    -Job opportunities – good jobs in growing industries at fair wages – solar power, electric vehicles, infrastructure (roads, bridges, water systems, etc.) and high-tech fields (laying broadband cable, building wireless networks, etc.)

    -Public Internet available to anyone at nominal cost (U.S. government created the Internet; the U.S. people must own it); maximum monthly fee no greater than one hour’s pay at current minimum wage.

    -Local control to support mom-and-pop business (cities, counties, towns cannot be prohibited by states or U.S. government from supporting locally owned businesses and keeping superstores out)

    TAX REFORM
    – Fair taxes – the more you earn, the higher your taxes (see link at end to Urban News proposal)

    – Reward patriotism, not profit-seeking – Eliminate tax breaks for corporations moving jobs or hiding profits overseas; give tax benefits only to those creating jobs in the U.S.

    – Multinationals that hide profits overseas to avoid paying U.S. taxes on them must repatriate that money after five years or face increased taxes on U.S. earnings.

    – Cap corporate tax deductions for executive earnings at $1 million

    – Five years of tax-free earnings for new mom-and-pop businesses (all ownership in a single family; no outside investors; capitalization no more than $100,000)

    EDUCATION
    – Public money to public schools – no tax money for private or religious schools (which already are tax-free); no tax money EVER to for-profit schools, academies, colleges

    – Same standards for all schools – charter schools have to meet the same standards as public schools, must be shut down after seven years if they don’t outperform regular public schools (that’s what a “charter” means).

    – Quality affordable education for everyone – make community college free for a 2-year degree or certificate; all college loans interest-free through the federal government (no banks or private lenders allowed)

    LAW & JUSTICE
    – No special deals for billionaires – end plea agreements that don’t hold corporate executives accountable for their employees’ actions

    – No get-out-of-jail-free card for the rich – get tough on corporate crime (e.g., 10 years in prison for a guy robbing a bank should = 10 years in prison for a CEO defrauding stockholders)

    – Corporate accountability – if a corporation (per se, as opposed to its officers and/or directors) is found guilty of major felonies, it should be dissolved. Just like a human felon, a corporation must be put out of business for good: i.e., the death penalty.

    ELECTIONS
    – Every citizen can vote – require photo ID to register; provide every citizen with a photo ID at no cost (turn Social Security card into photo ID?). No special IDs can be specified or eliminated (as in Texas, “yes” to NRA member ID, “no” to public college IDs). Once registered, you needn’t show ID to vote.

    – Citizenship test requirement: to register, you must pass the same test given to immigrants who are granted U.S. citizenship.

    – Corporations OUT of elections – No money (NONE) into campaigns or political parties or campaign committees (RNCC, DNCC, etc.) from businesses, nonprofits, corporate shell companies, etc. Nothing but personal checks from private individuals, whose maximum contribution allowed over a 2-year election cycle is $5,000 per candidate, $10,000 to a national or state party (not both), $25,000 in TOTAL contributions (to candidates, parties, etc.) from any individual.

    Also, see this Moe White suggestion for a complete tax reform structure in The Urban News (published in Asheville every month).

    http://theurbannews.com/opinion/2017/facts-from-the-front-may-2017/

  3. willard cottrell

    “Another study says that cultural, not economic, anxiety propelled Trump’s supporters. That may be true but that cultural anxiety includes a lot of factors that include a form of economic insecurity. Too many progressives want to interpret it as only racism, xenophobia and homophobia, but it’s just as much a fear of the loss of a way of life.”

    May be this is true. However, I for one, have no interest in people who complain and don’t take advantage of the possibilities out there. After the automobile, no one lamented for the workers in the horse whip industry. Time marches on and so do changes in the job market. The US has dropped to third in the solar investment area because conservatives think the answer is more coal development.

    Since the conservative revolution beginning with ronnie raygun opportunities for advancement have been slipping away and we – dem, progressive or liberals are the cause if it. No sympathy for such Bullshit. Want to continue digging coal, be my guest, but not on my dollar.

    “People . . . . watching the institutions that sustained them disappear. Church attendance is dropping. The merchant class has been replaced by big box stores. Civic organizations like Rotary and Civitan Clubs are shrinking. The fabric that held these communities together for a hundred years is disintegrating.”

    Good thing church attendance is falling. When we look at our state legislature, we find the republicans professing their christian attitudes. But, they vote for more pollution, against healthcare and school lunches in dem districts. I believe young people are seeing the crap that is being spewed out in churches across the state. The separation of church and state is a great cincept. But this national government has increased the effectiveness of the BS coming from the church. Giving a Liberty Univ credibility by having the president give a commencement speech there.

    Save a buck at Walmart and have decreased services pushed to the town. When you are told you’re entitled because you’re white (white privilege) it’s no wonder that helping a neighbor is looked down upon. That person is probably getting a handout and they can just go to hell.

  4. Apply Liberally

    Totally agree, Thomas. Dems needs to articulate, simply and clearly, what they are FOR, not just what they are AGAINST, what they will advance, not only what they will resist. They should take a hint from what happened with the GOP, which spent 8 years obstructing and saying “no,” only to have no well thought out strategy nor legislative bill language ready (e.g., see the AHCA fiasco).

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