So it's the Democrats' fault for not telling people what the Democrats did for America under Joe Biden? Funny, none of it was secret information. The problem is basically that Americans do not follow the news and are not knowledgeable voters. Stupid people voted for Trump. That's America - stupid.
Some of those “stupid people” in states where Trump easily won also voted for minimum wage increases, state constitutional amendments to preserve abortion rights, and paid family leave. e.g. Missouri and Alaska
If your analysis of why someone would vote for Trump and also to increase the minimum wage and preserve abortion rights cannot explain this seeming contradiction, then your analysis is worthless.
Agree with a lot of this but I think there’s something missing in this analysis. You say, “Can a party of union-busters financed by industry and bankers “represent the working class?” Apparently so, as long as they distract them enough from the economic warfare they are conducting against them by leveraging new technology to construct grievance politics as a backlash to our identity politics strategy.”
But the thing not recognized here, I think, is that eventually we Democrats signed-on to what is now known as Neoliberalism, where economic policy was redirected (Trickle-Down economics, repeal of Glass-Steagall, restructuring the tax system) to prioritize vastly enriching a small elite on the (preposterous) theory that they are intrinsically best able to invest this wealth such that it would trickle down to the rest of us.
But what happened of course is that the wealth was transferred, the elite simply went after the biggest profit opportunities globally, and the tens of millions of our working/middle class were economically eviscerated. And the Democrats adopted a studied indifference to this that was not categorically different from the Republicans.
Trump conquered the Republican Party and has rebuilt it in his disgusting image. He has beaten the Democrats twice in national elections and has dominated our politics since he entered the 2016 race. He did this, essentially, by declaring, “a plague on both their houses.” And so we are now duly plagued.
Unless and until the Democratic Party owns-up to it’s bipartisan role in the decimation of our working/middle class and then dedicates itself to reversing our economic and tax policy away from what Michael Alexander (must read/subscribe Substack: America in Crisis) calls Shareholder primacy (elite enrichment) back to Stakeholder primacy (essentially the “common good”), Trump and Trumpism will continue to dominate our politics.
Some argue that Biden did this with his several legislative achievements. But he didn’t. He is treating symptoms, not the cause of the plague. The neoliberal policy still reigns supreme. Until Democrats renounce neoliberalism and champion a new “New Deal, Trumpism and then likely Muslims, will prevail.
Successful brands work in the same way. They stand for one thing in the consumers mind and reiterate that relentlessly. This one thing is the biggest territory you can occupy in any market. Tide stands for better cleaning. Head and Shoulders for dandruff removal. Pampers for drier skin. They tell this story relentlessly year in year out. This is why they dominate . They may have variants for niches, Tide with Downy, Tide with Bleach, Tide with Oxy, but these exist under the umbrella of the main story. Democrats need to abandon conventional consultant thinking and learn from marketers. Since they will find this difficult we need to find new ways of creating messaging. I suggest crowd sourcing of ideas and crowd funding of production. Only when the establishment sees it succeeding will they begin to believe it.
Much of the analysis about why/how Dems lost this consequential election fails to discuss the vast and pervasive disinformation system that outright LIED to people about the Democrats and their agenda. So while Biden was the most pro-union President in my 50 years of voting, union members went for Trump.
I don't know how we could have overcome this, seeing as how we are many decades late to the game now. Plus - Trump had the world's richest man on this side. So there's that.
I agree with the message. I am experiencing a City government intent on only helping marginalized groups and a pox on the rest of us. This is coming from issue activists elected to our city government. For the first time since I started voting, I am on the edge of leaving the Democrats and becoming an independent. I am 75.
Rachel, I'd be interested in reading more about your observation: "a quarter of the electorate is liberal and psychologically predisposed to care about marginalized groups." This jives with my gut feeling about people, but I've never heard this so explicitly stated. Do you have sources on this point you could share?
You're the Truth Teller. Wish the D's had listened to you! If only we get another shot at messaging in the future. Seems doubtful but I'll always hope.
So it's the Democrats' fault for not telling people what the Democrats did for America under Joe Biden? Funny, none of it was secret information. The problem is basically that Americans do not follow the news and are not knowledgeable voters. Stupid people voted for Trump. That's America - stupid.
Some of those “stupid people” in states where Trump easily won also voted for minimum wage increases, state constitutional amendments to preserve abortion rights, and paid family leave. e.g. Missouri and Alaska
If your analysis of why someone would vote for Trump and also to increase the minimum wage and preserve abortion rights cannot explain this seeming contradiction, then your analysis is worthless.
Agree with a lot of this but I think there’s something missing in this analysis. You say, “Can a party of union-busters financed by industry and bankers “represent the working class?” Apparently so, as long as they distract them enough from the economic warfare they are conducting against them by leveraging new technology to construct grievance politics as a backlash to our identity politics strategy.”
But the thing not recognized here, I think, is that eventually we Democrats signed-on to what is now known as Neoliberalism, where economic policy was redirected (Trickle-Down economics, repeal of Glass-Steagall, restructuring the tax system) to prioritize vastly enriching a small elite on the (preposterous) theory that they are intrinsically best able to invest this wealth such that it would trickle down to the rest of us.
But what happened of course is that the wealth was transferred, the elite simply went after the biggest profit opportunities globally, and the tens of millions of our working/middle class were economically eviscerated. And the Democrats adopted a studied indifference to this that was not categorically different from the Republicans.
Trump conquered the Republican Party and has rebuilt it in his disgusting image. He has beaten the Democrats twice in national elections and has dominated our politics since he entered the 2016 race. He did this, essentially, by declaring, “a plague on both their houses.” And so we are now duly plagued.
Unless and until the Democratic Party owns-up to it’s bipartisan role in the decimation of our working/middle class and then dedicates itself to reversing our economic and tax policy away from what Michael Alexander (must read/subscribe Substack: America in Crisis) calls Shareholder primacy (elite enrichment) back to Stakeholder primacy (essentially the “common good”), Trump and Trumpism will continue to dominate our politics.
Some argue that Biden did this with his several legislative achievements. But he didn’t. He is treating symptoms, not the cause of the plague. The neoliberal policy still reigns supreme. Until Democrats renounce neoliberalism and champion a new “New Deal, Trumpism and then likely Muslims, will prevail.
It is, after all, still The Economy, St***d.
Yikes, terrible auto-correct. Not Muslims! It’s should read “. . .and then likely MUSKism, will prevail.”
People must be doing pretty well to be willing to vote on sex changes that never affect them vs. things that do, like tariffs.
Successful brands work in the same way. They stand for one thing in the consumers mind and reiterate that relentlessly. This one thing is the biggest territory you can occupy in any market. Tide stands for better cleaning. Head and Shoulders for dandruff removal. Pampers for drier skin. They tell this story relentlessly year in year out. This is why they dominate . They may have variants for niches, Tide with Downy, Tide with Bleach, Tide with Oxy, but these exist under the umbrella of the main story. Democrats need to abandon conventional consultant thinking and learn from marketers. Since they will find this difficult we need to find new ways of creating messaging. I suggest crowd sourcing of ideas and crowd funding of production. Only when the establishment sees it succeeding will they begin to believe it.
Much of the analysis about why/how Dems lost this consequential election fails to discuss the vast and pervasive disinformation system that outright LIED to people about the Democrats and their agenda. So while Biden was the most pro-union President in my 50 years of voting, union members went for Trump.
I don't know how we could have overcome this, seeing as how we are many decades late to the game now. Plus - Trump had the world's richest man on this side. So there's that.
I agree with the message. I am experiencing a City government intent on only helping marginalized groups and a pox on the rest of us. This is coming from issue activists elected to our city government. For the first time since I started voting, I am on the edge of leaving the Democrats and becoming an independent. I am 75.
The story needs to be told but the question is how to get around the hold that the right wing media has on the country.
Rachel, I'd be interested in reading more about your observation: "a quarter of the electorate is liberal and psychologically predisposed to care about marginalized groups." This jives with my gut feeling about people, but I've never heard this so explicitly stated. Do you have sources on this point you could share?
Keep it up - hopefully the Democratic Party will finally change course
You're the Truth Teller. Wish the D's had listened to you! If only we get another shot at messaging in the future. Seems doubtful but I'll always hope.