General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Bernie Sanders remains one of Americas most popular politicians [View all]BainsBane
(53,026 posts)Pay particular attention to the treatment of Jaime Harrison. http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/sanders-revolution-resists-dnc-loss-235404
Then there is the fact his comments about the loss in November are a restatement of what he's been saying for years http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2014/11/19/365024592/sen-bernie-sanders-on-how-democrats-lost-white-voters
rather than an effort to grapple with actual data from this past election. (For example, much of what he says about income is completely contradicted by exit poll results in that Trump won voters earning over $75k and Clinton under--the lower the income the greater her advantage. ) The unfortunate part of that is that his supporters, convinced he is infallible, have decided that they too shouldn't look at exit poll data or other surveys of voters but rather take Bernie's statements as absolute. If people actually care about winning in the future, they need to get beyond echoing what one politician says and take a serious look available data. Meanwhile, they, like Bernie, continue to ignore the issue of voter disenfranchisement and repeatedly insist that the votes of 50,000 white male Republicans matter more than the million plus disenfranchised voters of color.
The result of the continual focus on white male voters has been to increase the alienation voters of color feel from white progressives.
Those are voters you need if you want your candidates to win, or if you should decide you want a Democrat to win. Systematically and repeatedly alienating voters that no Democrat can win without is simply not smart. While it may serve the interests of politicians who benefit from a whiter, more male electorate, it does not benefit the party and is determinantal to the nation.
The Democrats do certainly need to pay attention to the rust belt states and listen to those voters. But so do self proclaimed progressives. I have seen no indication of any willingness to listen to them anymore than they were interested in listening to the other groups that some insisted were "weak" for asking what a candidate planned to do about women's rights and black lives, for example. The white working class has become a convenient rhetorical foil against the base of the party (predominantly voters of color), but they haven't actually paid any attention to what those rust belt voters have to say about why they voted as they did. If they had, they would realize that opposition to environmental regulation is strong in regions where people want to see industries like steel, taconite, and coal brought back because they see those regulations as taking their jobs away. (In the case of coal they are right.) Absolute opposition to fracking is obviously going to lose the votes of workers who depend on those jobs. Those certain they have all the answers somehow haven't managed to consider any of that.