Tim Ryan is running for U.S. Senate in Ohio.
He may be the future of the Democratic Party.
He talks about jobs.
I first saw Tim Ryan in August, 2019. He was speaking in Iowa at an AFL-CIO candidates fair.
All the candidates for president were at that Des Moines convention center, most in person, a few by video: Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, Eric Swalwell, Beto O'Rourke, Pete Buttigieg, Steve Bullock, Bill de Blazio, Julian Castro, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Tim Ryan, and others I didn't photograph. Everyone got about seven minutes. It was early in the cycle. Ryan abandoned his presidential run and filed for his U.S. House seat, representing Northeast Ohio. It is anchored by the old-line manufacturing cities of Akron and Youngstown. He has been in Congress for 10 terms, 20 years. This time he is giving up that seat to run for the Senate.
If he wins, I expect him to run for president again, soon, maybe in 2024.
What I noticed at that convention was that everyone looked perfectly good and all said traditional pro-labor-union things. Democrats are comfortable with unions, especially public employee unions. There were two people who stood out: Joe Biden and Tim Ryan.
Biden appeared thoroughly genuine as an old-style union hall Democrat. He did his sentimental history schtick, with mention of Scranton, his father, the dignity of work, the shame of poverty, and the self-respect a union wage gives a man. He gave off a labor union vibe, an old Irish politician out of urban machine politics. My impression at the time was that he was a sweet old man, here for a last hurrah with the people who nurtured and funded his career. It seemed obvious: Biden was the past, Bernie or someone like him is the present, the Squad will be the future.
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| "Put workers first" |
Hell with Democrats talking about the $15/hour minimum wage, he said. Ryan said he wanted jobs for American workers that paid $50/hour, maybe $75 an hour. Activist Democrats had moved left, pulled there by Bernie, and they were talking about poverty and corporate power. End the worst of poverty with a $15/hour minimum wage, and add Medicare for all, eliminate student debt, and free college. That was the message. Ryan broke that mold. He spoke in favor of government policy to change the economy and restore a middle class--a prosperous middle class--by protecting and empowering American businesses and workers. Great jobs are how we fix poverty in America, he said.
Sanders had a 1960's radical, U. of Chicago vibe. Corporations were screwing the working class. Ryan talked about factories, not class. I didn't hear him say he wanted to smash corporations. He wanted them to be protected and taxed. He wanted workers, thanks to collective bargaining, to squeeze a bigger share of the pie out of them.
If Ryan cannot win in Ohio next week, he probably will have failed his "proof of concept." Ohio went for Trump by 8%, so it is a tough challenge. If he loses, a consensus will grow that he or the message isn't right. Democrats leaders fear him. Ryan does not sound like the opinion leaders for Democrats. He sounds like the voters Democrats are losing.
Next Tuesday is a time to prove up. What kind of person is the future of the Democrat Party? If Tina Kotek loses in Oregon, and Tim Ryan wins in Ohio, the Democratic Party may decide to recalibrate.
Here is how Ryan sounds in a debate organized by Fox News.
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| 90 seconds |
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8 comments:
Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, Eric Swalwell, Beto O'Rourke, Pete Buttigieg, Steve Bullock, Bill de Blazio, Julian Castro, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, and Tim Ryan.
How many of those people had a prosperous career in private industry? By my count, it is ZERO. They've all spent their entire careers sucking off the public trough.
It sounds like the Biden administration, where only a couple of people have worked more than 5 years in private industry. They have no real-world experience, and it shows. They don't know what the hell they are doing, and we have 10% inflation and and a $31 Trillion indebtedness as a result. These people are political hacks with no real valuable skills.
Who in his right mind would vote for Tim Ryan, if he's going to run for president as soon as he wins a senate seat? Ryan is a job hopper with no record of accomplishments. It's all about image, and not performance. No wonder we are in a world of hurt.
The Democrats are apparently going to get slammed next week.
There’s an old joke about how to get the attention of a donkey: first you hit it in the head with a 2 x 4 just to get its attention. I am hoping that the 2 x 4 next week snaps the Democrats out of their attachment to wokeness, and they come out of it with a new orientation towards common sense.
Democrats were hoping that increase in the Hispanic population was going to lead to permanent hegemony for them. It turns out that Hispanics are tracking down the same political path previously taken by white working class Catholic demographics like the Italians and Polish. It’s time for the Democrats to drop their single-minded focus on identity politics, and instead pursue a platform that normal, middle class voters can relate to. And maybe hire staffers from someplace other than Oberlin.
It's worth noting that even rational Republicans such as Liz Cheney support Ryan over Vance. Too bad there are so few of them. The Ohio race typifies this midterm election: whackos spouting election fraud nonsense vs. serious issues.
Thanks to people on their observation that Ryan was a job hopper. He is 49 years old. He has been in Congress for 20 years. He was an aide to a congressman prior to that. He has had one job his entire adult lifetime.
Peter Sage
A job hopper is when you are a congressman, and then you run for senate, with the intention of immediately running for president. That's job-hopping. Ryan wouldn't even be a senator long enough to have a cup of coffee.
I like the winsome pic from what I assume is Ryan’s community theatre turn as Biff Loman.
Just to make it clear, this Mike thinks we'll be in a much worse world of hurt if our republic becomes dominated by election deniers like Vance. Maybe I should go by Mike S.
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