This article’s making the rounds, and making Democrats nervous:
To break with tradition around here, I’ll announce that I’m mostly in agreement with this article. You can’t hope to win if you don’t understand why you lost. Not that talking about why you lost is politically easy either, but that’s another issue.
I pretty much agree, and I think I said as much back in November. Of course, it’s a complicated issue. The racism and the economics are intertwined - people losing their jobs are blaming immigrants and people who don’t like paying taxes are blaming minorities on welfare. So I think it makes sense to talk economics and try to shift the blame to where it really lies.
The problem with facing the racism head on, as Clinton found out, is people don’t really like being called deplorable. If Dems don’t want to keep being labeled elitist, it won’t really help to criticize the populace. That’s why Warren and Sanders went at it the way they did - if the Dems have any hope in winning back the votes they lost, they can’t afford to be calling those people bigots.
Agree it’s hard to talk about head-on, but disagree about Sanders really understanding. Warren maybe. But Sanders has had this particular blind spot for the twenty-odd years I’ve been following him. It’s just the way he views the world, and it’s really not that unusual.
But again, to primarily blame racism is to ignore the fact that Hillary didn’t get the same support from minority voters, or even from women, that Obama got. She didn’t get a better turnout than Obama did or even the same; it was worse.
Racist white republicans voting for Trump, sure. But if we’re talking about swing states here: Clinton lost Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Ohio. I mean, it’s not all about white racists, or else Obama would have lost.