Frank Rich: "No Sympathy for the Hillbilly"

[Associate Justice PiT]

People like this foolish, classist man make me wonder if Democrats will win back power for the foreseeable future, despite their various advantages.  I've read several articles with this kind of tone, and they all make me simultaneously angry and very worried.

     This is something I've been saying across many threads. While there certainly is time to change their tune, so many Democrats are coming forth and speaking about the situation with the same condescending tone that drove people to vote for Trump in the first place. If they learned their lesson from the party's collapse in the Midwest, they're doing an excellent job of hiding it.

[Associate Justice PiT]

People like this foolish, classist man make me wonder if Democrats will win back power for the foreseeable future, despite their various advantages.  I've read several articles with this kind of tone, and they all make me simultaneously angry and very worried.

     This is something I've been saying across many threads. While there certainly is time to change their tune, so many Democrats are coming forth and speaking about the situation with the same condescending tone that drove people to vote for Trump in the first place. If they learned their lesson from the party's collapse in the Midwest, they're doing an excellent job of hiding it.

Umm, perhaps his tone could have been less argumentative, but there is an element of truth that Democrats should not be completely placating voters in a handful of states just to win the electoral college.  Also, they shouldn't think that just because Michigan, Wisconsin, etc. were the closest states in this election that these are necessarily the states they must target next time.

     Reality is, this is a block of voters that used to be solidly Democratic, but has been trending Republican because they don't see the Democrats as caring about the issues they care about. Their concerns are not the end-all be-all, but it would be hard to put together a winning coalition by simply writing them. At the least, harder than it would be to put together a winning coalition by drawing them into the fold.

[Associate Justice PiT]

People like this foolish, classist man make me wonder if Democrats will win back power for the foreseeable future, despite their various advantages.  I've read several articles with this kind of tone, and they all make me simultaneously angry and very worried.

     This is something I've been saying across many threads. While there certainly is time to change their tune, so many Democrats are coming forth and speaking about the situation with the same condescending tone that drove people to vote for Trump in the first place. If they learned their lesson from the party's collapse in the Midwest, they're doing an excellent job of hiding it.

Umm, perhaps his tone could have been less argumentative, but there is an element of truth that Democrats should not be completely placating voters in a handful of states just to win the electoral college.  Also, they shouldn't think that just because Michigan, Wisconsin, etc. were the closest states in this election that these are necessarily the states they must target next time.

     Reality is, this is a block of voters that used to be solidly Democratic, but has been trending Republican because they don't see the Democrats as caring about the issues they care about. Their concerns are not the end-all be-all, but it would be hard to put together a winning coalition by simply writing them. At the least, harder than it would be to put together a winning coalition by drawing them into the fold.

OK. And?  To win some voters you will turn off others.  If 100% of people wanted the same thing we wouldn't have elections.  Many of these voters are simply not in line with democrats on social issues and many people vote on social issues nowadays.  The fact of the matter is that the Democratic coalition consistently gets more votes in Presidential years and all segments of this coalition are growing in population.  To suddenly appease rural whites as a short term fix would be dumb and threaten to break apart the already fragile coalition Democrats have been building for years.

     Talking about these people like they're hardcore conservatives is a bizarre predilection of many Democrats. Sure there are plenty of conservatives and partisan Republicans in any state, but the Obama-Trump voters who swung these states really aren't a part of that. They would be quite easy to swing back, but it doesn't sound like you're interested in doing that.

     With that said, making this about Presidential elections is an ongoing strategic failure of the Democrats, who have long underemphasized Congressional and state races. Your party has been thoroughly gutted in many state governments, a trend that has been particularly marked in the Midwest. Losing power in so many states is going to have long-term effects on your ability to compete for higher offices, not to mention the mere continued failure to focus on growing state parties. The idea that the Democratic Party is in a healthy electoral situation now is frankly absurd.

[Associate Justice PiT]

Talking about these people like they're hardcore conservatives is a bizarre predilection of many Democrats. Sure there are plenty of conservatives and partisan Republicans in any state, but the Obama-Trump voters who swung these states really aren't a part of that. They would be quite easy to swing back, but it doesn't sound like you're interested in doing that.

It's really remarkable how what will benefit [party that just lost] the most going forward is always whatever best suits the political views of the person talking, isn't it?

     How does this suit my political views? The kinds of things that Democrats would propose to bring these people back into the fold are not policies I would be particularly enthused by.

[Associate Justice PiT]

People like this foolish, classist man make me wonder if Democrats will win back power for the foreseeable future, despite their various advantages.  I've read several articles with this kind of tone, and they all make me simultaneously angry and very worried.

     This is something I've been saying across many threads. While there certainly is time to change their tune, so many Democrats are coming forth and speaking about the situation with the same condescending tone that drove people to vote for Trump in the first place. If they learned their lesson from the party's collapse in the Midwest, they're doing an excellent job of hiding it.

Umm, perhaps his tone could have been less argumentative, but there is an element of truth that Democrats should not be completely placating voters in a handful of states just to win the electoral college.  Also, they shouldn't think that just because Michigan, Wisconsin, etc. were the closest states in this election that these are necessarily the states they must target next time.

     Reality is, this is a block of voters that used to be solidly Democratic, but has been trending Republican because they don't see the Democrats as caring about the issues they care about. Their concerns are not the end-all be-all, but it would be hard to put together a winning coalition by simply writing them. At the least, harder than it would be to put together a winning coalition by drawing them into the fold.

OK. And?  To win some voters you will turn off others.  If 100% of people wanted the same thing we wouldn't have elections.  Many of these voters are simply not in line with democrats on social issues and many people vote on social issues nowadays.  The fact of the matter is that the Democratic coalition consistently gets more votes in Presidential years and all segments of this coalition are growing in population.  To suddenly appease rural whites as a short term fix would be dumb and threaten to break apart the already fragile coalition Democrats have been building for years.

     Talking about these people like they're hardcore conservatives is a bizarre predilection of many Democrats. Sure there are plenty of conservatives and partisan Republicans in any state, but the Obama-Trump voters who swung these states really aren't a part of that. They would be quite easy to swing back, but it doesn't sound like you're interested in doing that.

     With that said, making this about Presidential elections is an ongoing strategic failure of the Democrats, who have long underemphasized Congressional and state races. Your party has been thoroughly gutted in many state governments, a trend that has been particularly marked in the Midwest. Losing power in so many states is going to have long-term effects on your ability to compete for higher offices, not to mention the mere continued failure to focus on growing state parties. The idea that the Democratic Party is in a healthy electoral situation now is frankly absurd.

Yes, I agree that the Democratic Party is in disastrous shape right now, but I disagree with the solution being to simply offer handouts to WWC voters in hopes that Michigan will flip back.  There was a very obvious and noticeable trend in terms of what electoral votes are moving towards Democrats and what votes are not and the "Midwest" (however you want to define the boundaries) was not where democratic growth occurred... nor do they need large swaths of middle America to remain a national party.  Again, there are trade offs, they cannot win 70+% of the minority vote and not expect to lose WWC voters.

     See, I don't buy this. If the WWC voters who flipped were calling for a return to segregation or something, then sure. However, some form of economic revival of the Rust Belt would win broad support among the working class of all races. My contention is that the Democrats are hurting themselves by setting up a false dichotomy whereby the interests of minority voters are juxtaposed with the interests of white working class voters. It doesn't actually have to be that way.