This article is liberal commentary.
That’s a complicated and emotional question.
Arthur Lieber, writing in Newsweek just six weeks before the election that will decide whether Trump gets a second term, at a time when most voters’ minds are already made up, argues we should give the blue-collar voters who defected en masse to Trump in 2016 a second chance.
We are giving them a second chance. Six weeks from now. But if they vote for Trump again, as they probably will, they should never get another.
Lieber says, “These Americans are largely overlooked by the Democratic establishment or even viewed with disdain. Now, they are forgotten Americans.” No, they’re not forgotten. Every Democrat is acutely conscious of what they did in 2016.
Lieber continues, “Forgotten, at least, until Donald Trump saw them, their anger and how to exploit it. Yet although Trump won in 2016, he is not their true leader, nor are the Republican politicians and pundits who support him. They are pseudo-leaders, purveyors of hate, conspiracy, fear and policies that only hurt the working people who vote for them and their ability to provide for their families.”
That’s true. As Lieber points out, Trump and the GOP screw the working class every chance they get. They passed tax cuts that benefited the rich, opposed raising the federal minimum wage and even “tried to give employers workers’ tips,” weakened workplace safety regulations, attempted to cut food stamps, and stripped away affordable health care from millions of low-income workers. Why would the working class vote for a party like that? Yet they did, and likely will again, for reasons Lieber goes into but I won’t.
He says, “It is very difficult to help people who do not want to help themselves or accept other people’s help.” Yes it is. God helps those who help themselves. “But that does not mean the Democratic Party should ignore them.” At some point it does, because you can’t let people wallowing in “anger and self-pity” and who “vote against their own economic interests” and “concurrently hurt others” drag everyone else down.
Lieber says “professionals have stolen the core of the Democratic Party from FDR’s working-class base.” He could’ve added they’re easier to represent because they’re rational and don’t vote against their own interests, and they vote for Democrats. In politics, who in their right mind wastes time and effort on people who vote against them?
“The bottom line,” Lieber says, “is that simply offering economic stimuli will not bring blue-collar white people back into the Democratic camp. The question is, then, how can Democrats appeal to them?” His suggestion is “winding the clock back nearly 90 years to the New Deal.” Nonsense.
I’m sorry, but defending the New Deal, and expanding it, is what the Democrats have been doing for the last 90 years. They walked away from that and voted for a party exerting herculean efforts to dismantle all of it. Even Social Security is in jeopardy if Trump gets another term. What are they going to live on in their old age if they lose Social Security? Church charity?
The GOP has long been a known quantity vis-a-vis workers. By now, Trump is, too; he’s even more reactionary and anti-worker. Voting for a candidate and party that’s out to destroy them is stupid. Democrats can’t do anything about that. Nobody can fix stupid.
And then there’s the matter of Trump’s character and behavior. Here, too, he is a known quantity. Why would Democrats want people in their party who voted twice for someone like Trump? The first time could be seen as a mistake. But a second time? No. Go away.
Read Lieber’s column here and say what you think in the comments.
If voters are given the choice between a Republic vinegar and Democratic vinegar that is Republican light vinegar, most will pick Republican vinegar.
Both parties are owned by the corporations, wall street, and the oligarchs. The Democrats must reject these things and their money and return to a more Main Street mind set. Otherwise you re not offering voters a choice. Or both parties are bought and paid for and only the elite have a real say.
American parties are big tent parties, both spend too much time and money on going after the supporters of the other party rather than the hundred million who do not vote and are our nations biggest voting block. A pox on both parties, shameful.
Right now “most” is slightly over 40% and the rest wonder what they’re smoking.