"I know you love it, but I'm really starting to get sick of politics. It's bad news every day. I know it's hard, but I'm trying not to give a damn anymore. There's no use. Why should I even try?"
A "Happy New Year" greeting from a liberal reader, Peter Coster, of Florida.
Some Democrats are starting to feel discouraged.
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| Trump country |
They realize Trump has appeal to people who will determine the 2020 election.
A majority of people in the heartland and swing states think he stands up for regular, forgotten Americans, people like themselves.
They agree with him that New York and Hollywood elites are out of touch with real, normal Americans. They care about climate but they want lower gasoline prices more. They are sure they aren't racist, but they are more comfortable with people like themselves. They think women are equal and deserve respect, but there is something about feminists--and Warren--they just don't like. They care about deficits, but getting anything from a tax cut is better than nothing. They don't want to be unfair to Muslims, but worry that some of them are trying to kill us.
They want jobs for Americans, and they realize Trump is a bullshitter, but at least he says he is trying to get good jobs back, and they really like that--and not that unrealistic "retraining" stuff that Democrats talk about. We are all going to become computer programer nerds. Yeah, right.
Democratic candidates are appealing to the better, woke instincts and beliefs of the American urban educated coastal left. It is what a majority of people know they should think. It is what they tell pollsters. But what a majority of people in the heartland and swing states actually think is what Trump says. They like that he says it aloud.
Democrats are beginning to get inklings of the weakness of their leading candidates in a matchup against Trump. There is something wrong with each of them.
Guyer is an attorney with an international practice representing whistleblower employees.
Guest Post by Thad Guyer
Cultural Liberals are Under Siege
I agree that cultural conservatives “feel” under siege, but they actually aren’t. It’s our side that is actually being beaten back.
That Donald Trump is POTUS, that the liberal media is in a constant state of frenzy if not paranoia, that SCOTUS and the judiciary are controlled by the right wing, that the largest cable network is FoxNews, that climate science has been on the defensive for years, that DACA “kids” have nothing, that Muslim immigration has been shut down along with the southern border, that not a single minority is left standing in the Democratic primary, on and on, who is on the defensive?
Certainly not the right, the holders of the American traditionalism franchise are not just not on defense, they are ascendant here and across Europe and Latin America. It’s not their way of life that is under siege, it’s ours.
Yes, we who are bolstered by the non-governmental Hollywood and Broadway, by the NYT, WaPo, CNN, by the liberal monopoly of higher education, by the UN and sweeping network of liberal NGOs and think tanks, with all of that “free” liberal media, thought and cultural thrust, the cultural conservatives are yet ascendant. Blue as it gets NYC has the most racially segregated public schools in the USA, deep blue California the scourge of massive homelessness, and Chicago with a murder rate rivaling Honduras.
Blue culture is imploding, Red culture is stable, and who is going to stem our decline? An old socialist recovering from heart surgery who is not a Democrat, a babbling ex-VP with a ne'er-do-well son choking his momentum, a rabid anti-capitalist Native American impersonator?
In this battle of values, we are losing.
6 comments:
I think the last election was the pendulum swinging.
Not so sure this one won't swing too hard in the reverse.
Progress on talking across the abyss? Zero as far as I can tell.
Kelvin scale absolute zero.
You will continue to lose until the Democratic Party disassociates itself from the lunatic excesses of woke ideology. And unless you do that, you will deserve to lose.
Old fogies fighting a culture war while young Americans are choking on low wages, high debt, and high rents. No wonder so many of Bernie's supporters are so angry at the Democratic Establishment, as leaders spend a few decades deciding if they want to be a party of the Haves or the Have-Nots.
Younger Americans don't run into a closet and hide in fear at the word 'socialism.' In fact, a majority of Americans under the age of 29 do not believe in the capitalist system. https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/01/31/student_to_pelosi_young_people_do_not_believe_in_capitalism_can_we_fight_against_right-wing_economics.html
Do older Americans want a Social Security check every month until they die? Maybe they should consider the needs of younger Americans today, as they will be the majority of the voters in a few years. Older Americans need to listen and respond to the economic struggles of young adults if they expect those young adults to be concerned about their needs.
If Democrats want to beat Trump, they need to nominate Bernie. He's the one with the movement and the rallies of tens of thousands of supporters. He's the one raising money from the counties Trump won in 2016. https://jacobinmag.com/2019/12/bernie-sanders-vs-donald-trump
Ayla,
I couldn't have said it better. Moderate liberal scare tactics: the mythic "middle" (doesn't exist, folks, not in large numbers), Socialism....oooh...so scary to support the commons and a government that puts the people before monopolies, Medicare for all...oh, my God, I'll lose my private insurance!
Be prepared for an attempted 2016 replay as Dem elites sabotage Sanders and then blame his loss on his "cult" following refusing to lose their chains. Contrary to what some folks think, Bernie supporters are realists; they know it's about the movement and they are ready to hit the streets and support him and the change we need when he takes the bully pulpit a year from now. A new generation is rising up to resist neoliberalism across the globe; we should be leading them.
Andy Seles
"But what a majority of people in the heartland and swing states actually think is what Trump says. They like that he says it aloud."
You present a very sad, tragic dystopian future for mankind, a species doomed, a species that fails to evolve.
Elites? You’re talking like the Rs, like conservatives. Who are these elites? I prefer other candidates over Bernie. Does that automatically make me an elite.
I’m a retired minister. Most don’t get paid much (including me). What would make me an elite? Maybe it’s the fact that I have 5 years of graduate education. Is there something wrong with that? Maybe because my personality/preferences have been to use reasoning to find the best way. To get to goals that may themselves be quite progressive, and are attacked by conservatives. Is it elite? So ethical g wrong... with wanting to get results more than make lots of noise and scare people away?
And then your word ‘sabotage’. I guess that means voting against your own choice for the nominee. Huh.
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