The personal in politics
I’m always interested in political change. I’m not at all sure that this type of change is fundamental enough to last, but it’s certainly of interest, and it could end up being permanent rather than situational, depending on what happens during the next four years:
Robert James stood outside the Carrier plant just before the president-elect addressed workers at the refrigeration and heating assembly factory.
“I feel a great swing of emotions that go from disbelief to satisfaction that this is happening in our community. An area like this can go from a stable middle-class area to foreclosures and urban blight in the blink of an eye,” he said.
James would never dream of voting Republican: “For all of my life the Democrats have been the party of the working guy, had my back. But if I am being really honest, and this is tough to admit, but I can’t remember the last time they did anything to improve the dignity and value of my job” ”” a point that didn’t really crystallize for him until it became personal: until his job was saved. By a Republican.
James, wearing a United Steelworkers jacket on a brisk afternoon, was in no way saying he’s found political religion in the Republicans. But the 57-year-old, African-American longtime Carrier employee did share the sentiment of many of his co-workers, Democrats who didn’t vote for Trump but felt their party was disconnected from their lives.
Most of the Democratic leaders quoted post-election don’t seem to acknowledge that, although some do. I seem to recall that during her 2008 campaign against Obama, Clinton tried to cast herself as a working class hero. But it didn’t quite stick, and perhaps that’s why in 2016 she never really tried, particularly when up against a guy who, despite his vast wealth, connected with that group and championed it very explicitly and repeatedly.
And why would the Democrats have seen that they needed to, anyway? They had cobbled together what they believed was a winning formula based on changing demographics that they felt favored them, in which minorities of various kinds, the elite rich, and the lower classes would combine to elect them time and again. So they could ignore the vast middle, which wasn’t so vast anymore.
Here’s one Democrat who sees that, at least now:
“The Democratic Party has become a coastal elitist club and if there is any decision or discussion made to broaden that within the ranks, it is squashed,” said Dane Strother, a legendary Washington, DC-based Democratic strategist.
“We have completely lost touch with Middle America,” he admits. “How did we go from the party of the little man to the party of the elite?”…
“We kept waiting for the white working class to just show up, but we didn’t give them any reason to,” he said, adding that Democrats can’t just be the party that simply waits for minorities to become the majority.
Well, to defend the Democrats, they didn’t just wait for minorities to become the majority. Part of the reason for their liberal policy on illegal immigration was with the goal of hastening that day.
Meanwhile, they didn’t account for Trump’s flair for the dramatic deal, although they should have:
Tuesday, a Politico/Morning Consult poll confirmed what Strother knows in his gut: Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence’s deal last week with Carrier is wildly popular with the voters. The poll showed Democrats, Republicans and independents heavily viewed Trump’s negotiations with Carrier as an appropriate use of presidential prerogative.
And a majority of Americans say the Carrier deal gives them a more favorable view of Trump. “It was magnificent, brilliant theater, and who gives a damn if he can’t replicate that everywhere?” Strother said.
“The fact that my fellow Democrats don’t get that has more to do with denial problems or the fact that they weren’t up there doing it themselves.”
This reminds me of the discussions in 2012 on the GOP side after the Obama re-election, the ones that advocated for the GOP to start adopting a kinder gentler illegal immigration policy in order to retain any power at all. Didn’t quite work out that way, did it?
Is this the harbinger of a sea change in American politics or merely a speed bump toward America’s demographic destiny? There are many factors that would appear to favor the latter.
The country has been on a trend toward fewer blue collar jobs for a long time. And not just manufacturing jobs. The basic industries are all a mere shadow of what they once were because of environmental regulations.
I’m glad Trump/Pence managed to make a deal to keep Carrier here. But I’m nervous about his threats to levy tariffs on products of companies that have left. A better, less government meddling tactic is to make the business environment so enticing that the companies want to be here.
Also, the country needs to quit encouraging every high school kid to go to college. According to Mike Rowe (Dirty Jobs Guy) there is a shortage of welders, truck drivers, plumbers, skilled machinists, and much more in the country. These are jobs that pay a decent wage and offer secure employment to those who are willing and able to get the training and skill sets needed. Every time we build a truck, a house, an airplane, a road, or any other valuable item we need people to maintain, repair, and rebuild those things. We haven’t been encouraging young people to do that. And it shows.
They want them in college so they can brain wash them (about,what a vile country the US is) and then they want to fleece them or their parents with a so called education that is equivalent to a high school diploma 50 years ago.
Fleece them as in excessively high costs
Should be interesting to see how this ” political theatre” (which includes, Carrier Deal, Japanese investor declaring $50 BILLION in US economy, and the brilliant concept of Trump’s “Thank You Tour” fares against Obama’s new meme in what appears to be the “Mitigation Tour” which Obama launched today in interview with Farid Zakariah for “Obama Legacy Special on CNN. Obama explained that his Presidency has been affected (negatively, one may presume, as it is the new meme (talking point) for his failures in office in an apparent attempt to varnish his Presidency for the scribes who shall record it as history). The people in the Southern regions of America don’t “think” in the same way Northern folks do — for instance, look at “Birther Movement”– and regard him as foreign.
Guess he still thinks most Americans are dumber than doorknobs and won’t recognize when they are called Racists.
Scott Adams, a hypnotist who once read in an university a curse about technique of persvasion, gave Trump the highest grade in the art:
“Trump, the Master Persuader, is rewiring our brains in real time — while we are watching him do it. He wants us to be optimistic about the economy, so he finds the right buttons (Ford, Carrier, Boeing) and he pushes them. He looks for situations that have simplicity and a visual element. It is easy for people to imagine a Ford automobile, a Carrier air conditioner, a factory, a worker, an airplane, and Mexico. Every element of these stories is visual. That’s not an accident. That is technique.”