In Reply to: Why did working class vote gravitate towards... posted by ClockBlocker on December 05, 2024 at 20:52:15
1. These are mostly abstract gestures that don't really create a real, meaningful change in most people's lives.
2. Whatever real change they create in real people's lives, it's mostly too little and certainly too late.
3. The issue of wage stagnation or unionization for the betterment of the working class are kinda sorta very pre-2008 concerns, the way I see it. The concerns in today's world are no longer limited to simple pocketbook issues, but the increased realization that the economic system, as currently constituted, is not intended to work for them in general, and perhaps never was (duh!). It is this realization that fascist forces in the society, spearheaded to some extent by Trump's MAGA, are trying to channel into anger against "others" as they have been successfully convincing people that the system was actually meant to work for them all along except for those damn immigrants and trans people are taking their share, guided by the bi-coastal liberal elite. A blatant lie, of course, but it works very well in the absence of any coherent competing narrative -- which Democrats are not inclined to provide both as a temperamental manner, but also because they still can't see past their neoliberal biases and their desire for respectability, which robs them of the ability to offer a coherent, bold vision.
4. Defending the status quo to working class people who at some gut level understand that the system is not working for them, is not good politics.
5. We always need to ask ourselves who benefits how much from the economic good news. Who benefits more when Wall Street does well? Who benefits more when domestic manufacturing and construction shows an uptick. What are the economic indicators we keep looking at and what do they actually show?
I think this was more than a messaging problem. It was more than people being dumb or ignorant. There is something real going on with the working class and I am afraid the party that purports to be on the side of that demographic is not entirely caught up with where those folks are, what they are hurting from, and most importantly, how to address those problems in a consequential way.
I speak harshly perhaps, but I'm just a frustrated lefty; that's why.