"Then I saw Donald Trump, and he got out there and showed he was serious about keeping jobs"

[portlander23]

Last edited Sun Dec 4, 2016, 07:59 PM - Edit history (1)

Democrats' Task: Rebuild the Blue Political Wall in Midwest
Associated Press (via Fortune)

Dubuque’s Rebecca Thoeni, a lifelong Democrat until recently, said Clinton did not seem to reach out to her or her peers in 2016.

“Then I saw Donald Trump, and he got out there and showed he was serious about keeping jobs,” said Thoeni, who attended a Dubuque Trump rally in January. “He explained things in layman’s terms. That’s what changed me.”

After railing for months against the North American Free Trade Agreement, enacted under President Bill Clinton, Trump won [Macomb County, MI] by 48,000 votes. Clinton received 176,238 votes, compared with Obama’s 208,016 in 2012 and 223,754 in 2008.

“In counties decimated by trade deals, decades of talking points don’t pay the bills,” said Robert Becker, who ran Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ winning campaign for the Michigan Democratic presidential 2016 primary. “For the party’s future, we have to be honest that the jobs being created in the country aren’t being created in this part of the country.”

It's beyond tragic that Trump was able to move rhetorically to Clinton's left on jobs and trade. The Democratic Party mistakenly aligned itself with the President on TPP in spite of how unpopular it was, and this is part of the fallout. Trump is full of shit, but he's winning on optics with the Carrier deal and if we're not careful, he'll take credit for sinking TPP, which really belongs to progressive activists.

If this isn't a wake-up call, I don't know what is. It's time to put failed free trade policies in the past and become a party of the 99%.