In last week’s column, I said that the Democratic Party has been losing elections because it is not doing enough for working class voters:
“Notice I didn’t say, white working class. I said working class, period – of every ethnicity. Let me define what I mean by working class: ‘people living the usual situation of the 70 percent of the country that does not have a bachelor’s degree or above.’
“…Notice that I said, ‘the usual situation.’ You might point out that there are people who don’t have college degrees who are doing just fine (e.g., Bill Gates) and you’d be right. The thing is, people like Bill Gates, and for that matter a more common example like, say, a guy who went from being a carpenter to a successful contractor, are not the typical case most of the time. The vast, vast bulk of people who do not have college degrees have been either running in place or slipping backwards the last 30 to 40 years.”
That “vast majority of Americans who will never get a college degree” includes millions of ex-manufacturing workers who used to make a good living by making things here in the U.S. For decades, the economy offered them a way to use their skills and gifts and afford the basics of life, plus a little fun. It is increasingly the case that our economic system has no real place for them. Those with less than a college degree have precious few ways to support a family in anything approaching comfort. And even these avenues are vanishing.
Donald Trump won enough of those voters (particularly Midwestern former Obama voters) to win the election by saying explicitly that he was going to bring those good-paying blue-collar jobs back.
Left-leaning economist and blogger Duncan Black paraphrased Trump’s message:
“Show me a problem, and I’ll fix it. Not set up a plan to adjust the framework to tweak the incentives to modestly change the market outcomes. Just fix it.”
I saw Hillary Clinton during her campaign, say more than once (in a “can-you-believe-these-people??” tone) that “those (well-paying manufacturing) jobs are never coming back!” When it came time to talk about her plan to replace the missing jobs that have devastated whole communities in the industrial north, it sounded an awful lot like “…set up a plan to adjust the framework to tweak the incentives to modestly change the market outcomes” rather than a practical, creative way to actually solve the problem. I think that, more than anything else, cost her the election.
None of my thoughts on the election in this column or last week’s are meant to be pejorative to Hillary Clinton or her supporters in any way: my purpose here is to describe reality as I see it, as objectively as I can manage.
The following quote is from a Cracked.com article, and so is written in a click-bait, punchy and slightly glib tone — but is was written by a liberal blue-stater who grew up in a deep red part of Illinois. He locates Trump’s appeal in something I’ve mentioned before – the divide between the country’s major urban centers and – well, practically everywhere else in the country. I am honest enough about my own faults, and read enough comments on left-leaning political websites like dailykos.com, to be able to confirm the general substance of his comments:
“In a city, you can plausibly aspire to start a band, or become an actor, or get a medical degree. You can actually have dreams. In a small town, there may be no venues for performing arts aside from country music bars and churches. There may only be two doctors in town — aspiring to that job means waiting for one of them to retire or die. You open the classifieds and all of the job listings will be for fast food or convenience stores. The “downtown” is just the corpses of mom and pop stores left shattered in Walmart’s blast crater, the ‘suburbs’ are trailer parks. There are parts of these towns that look post-apocalyptic.
“I’m telling you, the hopelessness eats you alive.
“…The rural folk with the Trump signs in their yards say their way of life is dying, and you smirk and say what they really mean is that blacks and gays are finally getting equal rights and they hate it. But I’m telling you, they say their way of life is dying because their way of life is dying. It’s not their imagination. No movie about the future portrays it as being full of traditional families, hunters, and coal mines. Well, except for Hunger Games, and that was depicted as an apocalypse.
“… They take it hard. These are people who come from a long line of folks who took pride in looking after themselves. Where I’m from, you weren’t a real man unless you could repair a car, patch a roof, hunt your own meat, and defend your home from an intruder. It was a source of shame to be dependent on anyone — especially the government. You mowed your own lawn and fixed your own pipes when they leaked, you hauled your own firewood in your own pickup truck. (Mine was a 1994 Ford Ranger! The current owner says it still runs!)”
“So yes, they vote for the guy promising to put things back the way they were, the guy who’d be a wake-up call to the blue islands. They voted for the brick through the window.
“It was a vote of desperation.”
I’ve said before in this space that a political party is defined not by what it stands for, but by who it stands with.
The Democratic Party is, at the moment, the party of big-city elites plus ethnic and cultural minorities, and the last six years of decline and Republican obstruction have definitively shown that that is not enough of a coalition to give it the electoral margins needed to make it a politically effective party.
The party as it is currently constituted has failed – more than that: as a practical matter has all but abandoned – the American working class I mentioned previously. It needs to be rebuilt from the ground up.
More on that next week.
Matt Talbot is a writer and poet, as well as an old Benicia hand.
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Matt the only thing you have correct is the complete disappearance of the Democrat/Socialist party. That is very evident. I assume you voted for Hillary or wrote in Bernie. You and people like you are the ones to blame. You took the bait and destroyed the Bay Area unions just as an example. You fell for the same old trick the Dems play. Government hand outs. Well guess what it is over and you and your kind are to blame. The Democratic party is loaded with old short sided thinking that think the government will in the end be the answer. A strong forward thinking party would never have had Hillary as a candidate. Beyond that also no Debbie, no Donna no Podesta, No Nancy, No Harry. Those folks are what you are and nothing for the next 16/20 years is going to mend that. You still have not got over the 2000 election and now you are trying to blame others for the 2016 election. Your party of Socialist has no idea what to do except try and blame someone else or attack the voters that voted for Trump. I think you will find that no one cares how California, Ill., or New York voted. Those states will be out of the picture with the exception of New York. The Republicans will get the Governor and Mayor of NYC back. We also see it happening right here in Benicia. Mark my word the waste water reuse project is dead. Also the Seeno development is dead. No one wants to deal with the Mayor and now her loyal side kick Steve Young. Valero is not going to jump at their demands. No grants or easements or a contract with Valero have even happened. It will not. Must have a willing party to sit down with on the Seeno property. The Mayor took care of that long ago. . So as you see the Socialist approach has aq trickle down effect and Benicia will feel it. Now if the mayor and her side kick get the message some progress could be made. Where do the Democrats think the new overseas depots for Natural Gas, crude and coal are going. Try Canada on overseas shipments of coal and the gulf for the rest. California ports will lose out and we will feel the damage big time. The state, County, City must see the issues and be willing to co-operate in the future of our city’s and the country. At present is appears the Dems have no heart for the people of this fine country. Very selfish folks that are going to make California pay a big price. More later as Matt writes and others comment.
Matt. I like your Hunger Game analogy. There is a bit of truth to fiction. Heck, we already have the reality television contingent firmly in place, as well as Randian over tones.
Petersen why don’t you post under Rojee Kitsap? You do post under that name. I am correct. Dead give-away Rojee.
Bob, Always great to hear from you. I hope you are buying all sorts of nice gifts for your grand children. Costco is a great place to get gift as well as fixings for the holiday feast. I’m not really sure what it is that you are talking about here. My neighbor down the road is named Roger he is a great guy. I don’t think he posts here though. But, even if he did, what does it have to do with Matt’s piece?
Rogee. I just read one of your post on the DR.
Bob. What on gods green earth are you talking about?
You know Rojee.
I have to apologize, I don’t know what rojee or the DR is. As such, it is probably not important or relevant to Matt’s piece, if at all. Regardless, I hope you have a very pleasant holiday season. Cheers!
Matt –
Rather than rebuilding the Democratic Party from the ground up, why don’t we focus on rebuilding good paying Manufacturing jobs regardless of which party is in power. If we think about what Manufacturing needs, and a candidate and party come along with a plan to support Manufacturing, who cares what party / candidate that is?
What do Manufacturer’s need?
They need skilled employees.
They need reliable access to low-cost plentiful raw materials and utilities.
They need consistent, predictable, easily understood, and easy-to-comply-with rules and regulations.
They need to be competitive against global competition.
They need to be profitable.
Do companies in the US have access to skilled employees? Some say no. We don’t know the required technology well enough to be considered skilled. I say that we do have skilled workers. But unfortunately we have made labor more expensive (through the ACA and other costs associated with labor) and have made machines cheaper (through artificially low interest rates and tax incentives for capital investment). Strip away the Affordable Care Act and labor becomes cheaper. Rules and regulations become more straight-forward and easier to comply with. Create sound federal fiscal policy so that the Fed is not compelled to solve all the economic problems through monetary policy (i.e. low interest rates).
Do companies in the US have reliable access to plentiful, low-cost raw materials and utilities? No. Environmental regulations restrict access to raw materials. Rules constantly shift to prevent “Big Business” from getting what it needs / wants. Conservation of utilities (electricity, water and sewer) is mandated. When that fails, the prices of the Utilities are forced higher by some trumped up excuse. And nobody can create any waste as a part of their Manufacturing process. We hear about our carbon foot-print, man-made global climate change, etc. California has implemented cap and trade. Crude by rail in Benicia was approved because pipelines have been effectively prohibited. Then the approval was fought. Years later the approval was overturned. Meanwhile a pipeline is 90% complete but needs to cross one river. The result? Indians invoke environmental and cultural objections. Others join the protest. How are we going to fuel the furnaces in that new steel mill without…fuel? And cheap access to water and sewer in Benicia? Didn’t we just double those costs because revenue fell as a result of successful conservation efforts? Wasn’t Mayor Patterson’s and the Council’s response to businesses regarding the high cost that they would teach them how to conserve more? How does any of the above support Manufacturing? How does any of the above make sense?
Do we have easy to comply with rules? No! ‘Nuff said.
Are we competitive against global competition? Not competitive enough. Hence the migration of Manufacturing away from the US.
Are US companies profitable? Not enough. Not enough are profitable. Those that are profitable are not profitable enough to grow (in the aggregate).
What do working class people need? Manufacturing jobs.
Who will they vote for? Politicians who:
Value skilled labor.
Make raw materials and utilities cheap and plentiful.
Promise simple, straight-forward, common sense regulations.
Promise to fight for trade regulations that are in the best interest of the American worker and American businesses.
Help American businesses maximize profitability and help American workers secure access to good paying jobs.
Finding someone that can do that cements the votes of the working class. Even if that someone is an incredibly flawed candidate by all other measures.
Tom,
Yours is a great response to Matt’s column. The one thing I would add is that the burdens associated with high cost utilities and regulations also undermine our competitiveness vs a vs other countries. Ergo, these countries not only have an advantage with much lower cost labor, but also with the costs of those inputs to the manufacturing process. This is grossly unfair to those who have been left behind over the last several years and why we do need to sweep away impediments that are unneeded or too costly relative to their benefits. A favorite quote of my mother, who was no conservative, was that we couldn’t survive by “doing each other’s laundry”.
One of the big advantages we hoave over othyer country’s is the cost of energy. USA energy much less expensive than other country’s/ Also our factory’s wilol be new theirs are olod and worn out. With possible the e4xception of China but most others are much iolder than ours. So we do hyave some advaN
The big advantage that America has is two fold. One is energy cost and the other is modern factories. We have both. Then add in the labor force and we have a huge advantage. The rust belt, Midwest and South are ripe and ready for the pickings. We could and should prevail. Tom is correct but I do believe it takes a Republican administration to accomplish it not a Democrat Socialist party. All Matt does is read blogs and then put it into his own words. His research is flawed because of his lack of vision. I see Tom and Reg do have vision and are thinkers not dreamers. Just watch the next eight years plus another eight. Things are going to change and very fast.
Bob,
Thee is actually a lot of merit and insight in Matt’s column and I would hope that other progressives see why their prescriptions for the economy have not worked, despite heartfelt intentions. Earlier Matt mentioned Robert Reich, who, if he still believes it, stands by his belief that the reason the economy did not recover the way it should have is because we didn’t spend enough. After another 10 Trillion dollars of debt in 8 years and the worst recovery since WWII folks like this have absolutely NO credibility.
I see none.,
I agree Reg. You are a gentlemen. I believe we need to hold folks like you up as an example to help end divisiveness. The alternative is not very appealing.
Nothing wrong with disagreement. Roiee you do it all the time. The Rojee proof is in your Facebook comment to me. Also your music comments under Rojee.
Bob, Seriously, what is going on with you? Not only are you not making any sense, but, whatever point you are trying to make, seems to be irrelevant.
The comment is simple. I just called you out as I have before on other fake names. Come clean Rojee and the event will end.
“Fake names”? “Event”? “come clean”? …………. I’m going to leave you alone to dwell in your non-sense, Bob. Hopefully you’ll be able to work out your issues, I’m not interested. Happy holidays!
Good
Dear Reader:
This is the first commentary I’ve read that helped me understand the mindset of people living in fundamentalist rural America.
Ironically, those who respond with disdain and condescending sarcasm, (which I have experienced on this site), will illustrate perfectly what the author is saying. (Most likely, several won’t read past the first paragraph due to what the author details.)
https://disqus.com/home/discussion/channel-politicalrhetoricbusters/an_insiders_view_the_dark_rigidity_of_fundamentalist_rural_america/
Healing begins with forgiveness
“Healing begins with forgiveness.”
Yep, but not if those to be forgiven are school districts, organizations, and corporations, (unless you consider corporations human beings.)
Matt’s opening line is presupposes that ‘if only the Democrats could do more for the working man’ then everything would be OK (or at least a lot better). This does ignore a serious possibility: Have Democrat actions contributed to that which ails the nation?
One can also ask: What more do you want the Democrats to do to improve the plight of the ‘working man’? For example do you really want: Higher spending levels to increase the national debt? Higher taxes on those making above a predetermined amount? Increases in economic disbursements, in a Robin Hood like fashion, to put more money in those deemed to be in need? More regulations to add additional burdens to industry. More laws like Sarbanes-Oxley or Dodd Frank? The creation of more government entities such as the misnamed ‘consumer financial protection bureau’? More laws on ‘hate crimes’ or further restrictions on free speech on college campuses (and elsewhere)? Lessening restrictions on immigration, with little or no controls to bring in more and more people ?
At what point are the Democrats going to learn that their ‘solutions’ are actually aggravating the problems?
Democrats need to think more on what is best for America and not that which is best for the coalition of aggrieved peoples that form the base of their voting coalition.
Very good Dennis. Maybe MATT WILL TAKE YOUR COMMENTS AND TURN IT INTO A VERY MEANINGFUL ARTICLE ON WHAT THE REAL ISSUES ARE WITH THE PROGRESSIVES AND THEIR FAILURES. Fat chance on that. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL.