Democrats and the blue collar working class voter.

[Cascadian]

I am not a white-collar or upper crust progressive. I am that rare breed of liberal or left-leaning voter. I am working class. I am very concerned that in the past several years, the Democrats have forgotten those of us who bust our butts day in and day out to pay rent, pay bills, and keep food on the table. What is really sad is that the Republicans have taken advantage of that fact and have, successfully I might add, brought the working class over to their Neocon agenda. It's not about jobs, health care, or worker's rights anymore. It is about God, morality, and more tax cuts. I am still astonished whenever some of my co-workers or other people in my same situation praise Bush and how great the Republicans are. How come I see what a sham it all is and they don't?

In the last 26 years, ever since Reagan and Reaganomics, we have seen corporate power and influence grow and grow to the point that it influenced those in the Democratic Party. Those people who wanted a so-called "third way". Between that and the Republicans, both have been catering to the multinationals. You might get some crumbs from the third way Democrats or DLC Democrats and nothing from Republicans. Still and even during the Clinton days, you had all these multinationals and globalization that Clinton drove through the government. Many working poor were affected by these treaties and bills signed. Granted, things were better with Clinton than the guy we have now, but still the working class did feel the effects of multinational corporate inspired legislations. Some Democrats forgot about this.

Getting back to the Republicans, during all of this time and especially during the advent of the Reagan/Bush Sr. days, the working class have been used and be diverted from their real problems. Where were the Democrats in all of this? Instead of trying to re-package the message and plans, they were on their way to try to be just like the Republicans. The message did not get through to the Joe Six Packs of the world. The Republicans used the working class and blinded them with God and righteousness and keeping gays from getting married. Forget the fact you cannot afford to get that liver transplant! Forget the fact that your son or daughter doesn't have enough money to go to college! By the millions, the Republicans lured them into this false sense of security. And where were the Democrats? Ironically, while the Republicans were doing a great job at screwing those in the lower caste of society, they were trumpeting up about the middle class. The Democrats also talked about the middle class, but where was the working class?

Howard Dean was right when he said we needed to find a way to reach out to those redneck voters. It is important that the Democrats bring a message and a plan to those working class people like myself but not by being like the Republicans. Democrats must divert these people from issues like gay marriage, abortion, or gun rights. They need to tactfully tell the working class how what they will do about health care, Social Security, education. Things that really matter. Also, do it in plain, straight talk so that they will understand. Nobody can be a political science major or an economist. Especially those working poor.

All I can hope for is for the Democrats to start paying attention to people. Everyday working class people and forget the corporatists who are gaining way to much power. If anybody needs to be shackled, it is them and not us.


John

[MadMaddie]

1. The democrats have done the same thing to the black

community...they took the black community for granted...just as they have taken the blue collar workers for granted....

What I don't understand is why the Democratic party has no effective media arm...no commericals chipping away at the Repugs lies....

The Democrats have been in fighting with each other and they are not fighting the enemy the Republicans....The Democrats let the Republicans with their spin machine neuter Howard Dean....just like they have done with many other issues.....

Where is the true leadership....

You are absolutely right!!!

[Cascadian]

5. The more I see little or no action from the D.C. Democrats....

the more I am beginning to think that the Democratic Party has become a token opposition and the Republicans have become the only real political party. Everything else is window dressing all bought and created by the multinationals. Personally, I would rather see political reforms, real reforms to give other political parties, coalitions, and groups, minorities or otherwise get more say. Unfortunately, we do not have it and one day push may have to come to shove to get any kind of change for anybody regardless of race, color, creed, sexual preference or whatever. I can only hope that change will be peaceful.


John

[MadMaddie]

6. Agreed...Well said John!!

[cantstandbush]

35. Was it ever more apparent that this country needs a new third party.

All working men and women, disenfranchised minorities of all stripes, evironmentalists, peace lovers, and anti-fascists.

Each month that goes by makes the Nader factor even more significant and harder to bear. I am sorry that half my family voted for him in 2000.

[Voltaire99]

73. If you're going to call for a third party...

...then it might make sense not to grieve so much when others vote for third-party candidates. Just a thought, eh?

[zonmoy]

78. Yes, if anything we should

celebrate the fact that people are willing to make a stand with a third party when the two corporate parties are either dehumanizing them or ignoring them.

[Warpy]

2. No party can ignore its base and expect to get elected

and this is exactly what conservatives leading the Democratic Party have been doing for decades.

Working class economic issues went off the table in 1968. They have never found their way back, even though Clinton paid enough lip service to populist economics during his two campaigns to get elected. Once in office, he governed like a Goldwater Repuglican.

Ignoring the issues facing the working class and pandering to the mythical swing voter has cost the party all three branches of government, not that party conservatives are ever willing to admit that.

If the party wants to get out of the doldrums, it's going to have to change drastically. Its base has taken a terrible beating since the oil shocks of the 1970s and it gets worse every year. The boomers are the first generation with lower expectations than their parents had, and this is incredibly sad.

If the party wants to get into power, it's going to have to mend a lot of fences with its working class base. "We're a little better than they are" and "business as usual" simply won't do the trick.

[The Magistrate]

11. A Couple Of Points, Ma'am

It is not improper to speak of "working class issues going off the table" in 1968, and that is indeed the time when the divorce between rank and file labor and the Democratic Party commenced, but it was hardly conservative Party leadership that did this, rather it was liberal leadership reacting to perceived hostility from the working class bloc, and concentration on various liberationist issues, that wrote those matters off the Party's main agenda.

It is precisely the working class bloc that comprises the "swing vote" present in the country. The vote of a great many working class people who had previously voted Democratic is what put Nixon and Reagan in office, and what sustains Republican electoral strength today. President Clinton made signifigant inroads into this bloc, and the present administration has managed to recoup a portion of this through appeals to patriotism and demonization of the left on life-style issues.

[rman]

50. One of m is going to be elected anyway

And whichever gets to be elected ignores blue colar workers.

[upi402]

3. Ed Schultz speaks to them

and is the reason I like him on Air America radio. We need to attract the motorcycle guys and hunters that think progress and compassion is for wimps.

We liberals seem to get focused on important issues, but not the nuts and bolts of living in a capitalist system. It's pretty obvious to me that we need to fight back the corporate take-over of what used to be American democracy.

[MadMaddie]

4. Agreed...

The corporate takeover is what is destroying the very fabric of this country.

[Cascadian]

7. Exactly right!

Remember what Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us about. "Beware of the military-industrial complex." By God, he was right. Why didn't anybody do something about this before?



John

[upi402]

13. I'll bet it turns out that a majority did do something.

If we get the democracy back, and re-enact the fairness doctrine -we may find out just how much we were cheated.

I'll work for an undeniable, monster majority to get the R's out in 06.

[Cascadian]

15. Why didn't Clinton try to revise the Fairness Doctrine?

Clinton had 8 years to do something. He never even brought it up. Anybody even recall him or any Democrat bring up a return to the Fairness Doctrine?


John

[upi402]

21. Telecommunications Act of 1996 and refusal to stand to re-instate

the Fairness Doctrine;


After the Reagan FCC repealed the Fairness Doctrine in '87 the US Court of Appeals upheld it. You're right, no Dem stood up for its re-instatement. And we let them collect lobbyist cash for their re-elections. Then we voted for them. Then came the damn Telecommunications Act of 1996. Clinton -and unfortunately Gore supported it.
http://www.fcc.gov/telecom.html

Instead of Telecom co's adding $2Trillion and 1.5Million jobs -it lost $2Trillion and lost 500,000 jobs. And cable rates didn't drop, they went up 50%. And the effect of the centralization of media is pretty shameful in the TV news in the subsequent 10 years.

Telecom lobbyists have spent $400Million on political contributions. A re-election windfall for R's and many D's too.

Broadcasters were nearly untouchable by the public. Their licenses are good for 8 years, not 5. And it's hard for us to put a challenge to them now.

Anyway, it eliminated competition and alternate sources of info. The supporters of it lied to us.

I refuse to forget that betrayal, and NAFTA too.

[Name removed]

32. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[raccoon]

43. RIght. nt

[Greyhound]

47. Ask yourself "what would Groucho do"?

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[raccoon]

53. He'd...say something suggestive maybe? Nt

[Greyhound]

57. LOL!

I just love the Marx Bros.

[Imagevision]

66. Delay and Jackoff look sooo cute together, but where's the pic's of George

[misternormal]

62. Because...

The U.S Became involved in another war... Viet Nam.

The military Industrial Complex made millions during the 10,000 day war, and they know if they can back similar agendas, they will make more money.

That's what it's all about anyway... isn't it?? :sarcasm:

[Upfront]

8. Cascadian

You just made the best post I have read here in a long time. I seee it as you do. Dean is our only hope it seems. How sad it has come to this.

[Cascadian]

9. Thank you.

This post has been sticking in my head for weeks now and this feeling I have had has been around for the last several years. I just had to post it. Maybe it will make some of those who try to rationalize what is happening think long and hard. Those who believe this so-called "third way" is good and try to rationalize everything about is crazy. It is like trying to rationalize a drunk driving accident. "Yeah he was drunk and he killed 2 people or whatever but at least it wasn't 4 people."

I hope you understand what I mean.


John

[demosincebirth]

10. I think the Democratic Party has all ways, and still is the friend

of the workingman. One thing we forget, is that the dems have not been in control of the congress and the Presidency (except for a short period during the early part of the Clinton Administration)at the same time. All the laws and protections passed to protect workers have been past during democratic control of congress and the presidency. Until that happens workingmen and women will continue to be shafted by the corporations they work for

[Greyhound]

33. sorry, but I call BS on that. The Democrats have not been anyone's

friend that doesn't deliver truckloads of cash to them for decades. All the working folks have received from the Democrats is lip service.
The Democrats controlled congress throughout the raygun plundering, and they just went right along with it. Clinton's first two tears were a classic example of talking about the working class being the "engine that drives the economy" while doing absolutely nothing for them, while at the same time spending all of their time and our money wooing corporate contributions.
The Clinton Administration brought nothing but a continuation of the corporate agenda. Declining standard of living, diminished real income, fewer educational alternatives, lack of job security, failure to prosecute corporate crime, increased corporate welfare, increased consolidation, more regulation of people, less regulation of corporations.
Not that it was all Clinton's fault, by any means. He was just doing what they hired him for.

We've only had one party since the 60's, maybe early 70's.

[demosincebirth]

52. I have been in the labor movement for 40 years and labor has always

been better off under the Democratic Party. The conditions and benefits that some of us enjoy are a direct result of democrats being in office. I know many democrats, like others, are in office to grease their own wheels, but as a whole, labor has been better off under the democrats.

[Greyhound]

58. "The conditions and benefits that some of us enjoy are a direct result

of democrats being in office." Yes, 60 years ago. For the last 40 the Democrats have abandoned labor.
You say you've been in the labor movement for 40 years so you've seen concession after concession, years after year, and what has ever been given back? BTW are you labor or labor "representative"?

[demosincebirth]

65. I've been active as a rank and filer and an official in a labor union.

What is your expertise?

[demosincebirth]

85. In that case, next election vote republican or some lesser party.

[Voltaire99]

76. Take a look at "One Market Under God" by Thomas Frank

Before he wrote "What's The Matter With Kansas?" Frank examined Clintonism's disastrous effect on workers in this very interesting and illuminating book.

Details here, along with links to reviews:
http://www.tcfrank.com/omug.html

[doc03]

12. As a Blue collar union member in a Red state

I think you have summed up the feelings of a great majority of Blue collar workers. Time and time again we get distracted into issues of gays, guns and abortion that loose us elections. While economically there is little difference between the parties. Both parties support the outsourcing of jobs and so called free trade where the American worker has to compete with cheap foreign labor with one arm tied behind our back. And both parties give lip service to stopping illegal immigration while neither want to stop it by prosecuting the people giving them jobs because big business wants cheap labor.

[upi402]

16. Man -you got it good AND got it tough

Union in a red state, ugh.
It seems like there are some pretty entrenched feelings about trade and economics -even in our liberal ranks.
We have most of our freedom of speech rights on the net. We'd better hurry up and use it, I think.

[old_techie]

38. design for insecurity

It is time to wake up to the fact that outsourcing and "free trade" has gone way beyond effecting just Blue collar workers. It is destroying computer science and engineering in the U.S. It is threatening other "white collar" areas as well. They are being replaced by foreign guestworkers legally on U. S. soil. This is putting our personal information and sensitive technology at risk. The entire global trading system is a perfect design for insecurity and vulnerability as the port controversy illustrates. This is not about Democrats and Republicans or liberals and conservatives. Both are hung up on a globalist religion that is about economic integration and dependency - just wire everything in series like a string of old time Christmas tree lights - if one goes out they all go out. It looks like economic dogma needs to be replaced with sensible engineering. We need more firewalls and backups and independent redundancy.

[Cascadian]

70. I agree with that.

Look. I maybe blue collar from a blue collar background but I still apspire to get some college certifiaction in the next few years. Computer animation and/or webpage design to be exact. The things that scares me including skyrocketing tuition costs (even at the community college level!) is the fact that some of the jobs I want will be going overseas. I fear by the time my schooling is done in 3 or 4 years time I will not be able to find a career. This is another reason I am seriously considering leaving the country. I want a simple yet comfortable life with a good money cushion. I hate the thought that all of my college efforts will be all for nought and I will be stuck in the same jobs when I am 45 that I am at 37.

John

[raccoon]

42. Right on! Much as I dislike the junta in power, when people

talk about layoffs, and say, "thanks, Bush," or something similar, I think it wouldn't be any different if Gore or Kerry were in the WH.

[BillZBubb]

14. Just maybe the working class doesn't want to hear the Dems?

People make decisions based on a number of factors. The Democrats do talk about issues of importance like health care, education, worker and consumer protection, and wages. But they also talk about choice, gun control, helping the poor, affirmative action, environmental protection, and individual rights. Generally they don't talk about religion, patriotism, growing the military, or lowering taxes.

Many working class people are making the choice to vote Republican because they weigh the issues differently than we do. This has been going on for some time. I don't think the Democrats turned to Republican Lite because they wanted to. I think they turned that way because the VOTERS WERE TELLING THEM TO. The voters are wrong and are contributing to their own deteriorating situation, but that's the way it is.

Don't forget, even in Democratic primaries, the most progressive candidate usually loses. We have met the enemy and he is us. So, I have a hard time faulting the Democratic candidates when the real problem is an apathetic and willfully uninformed electorate.

[Cascadian]

17. Democrats need to re-package the message.

Working class people don't know about flow charts or college professor English. They want plain and straight talk and action to go along with it. In my heart, I know many of these people want to have a better life but there is a need to get their attention. The old way that is still being tried is not working. You really need to divert them from those other issues and convince them what is best.

John

[upi402]

22. Ding Ding Ding, release the balloons!

Yep, say it straight and keep it short.

And I think it would be good to use the word 'Republican' when telling the truth of some Republican crime or folly. We need to label them just as they labeled us, and 'liberal' became a pejorative.

[Voltaire99]

77. Right, but re-packaging corporatism won't work.

Re-package, yes. But first redesign.

You won't move workers toward the party until the pitch springs from a very clear economic populism.

Oppose outsourcing. Promote living wage laws. Restore bankruptcy protection. Deliver affordable health insurance. Provide WPA-style federal jobs programs in depressed areas. Open higher ed to workers' children (e.g., the reverse of trends in a land grant state like Minnesota, where access to the state university has become harder and more expensive as the institution pursues elite status).

It's a very easy platform to sell. Why doesn't the party do so? Because its essential corporatism places it on the wrong side of these and other vital economic issues; its corporate owners won't allow it because 1) they wish to avoid being taxed for the public welfare and 2) they want a pool of exploitable cheap labor. If Dem candidates sound so garbled, wishy-washy and useless when trying to reach out to workers, it's because they're trying to hide their real positions and have nothing really of value to sell.

Workers can see through that song and dance. Working class voting for the GOP isn't all Thomas Frank What's-the-Matter-with-Kansas puritan reflex (though this is a very large influence indeed), but also a reckoning that there isn't sufficient economic incentive to follow Democrats.

In 2004, I saw a PBS Snooze Hour piece on Kerry campaigning his way through a factory. He couldn't give a straight answer on jobs to the gathered workers who'd expressed fears about losing theirs to foreign workers. They wanted plain talk. Having none, he put on a mini-Kennedy School grad seminar, whose essential message was--you guessed it--throat-slitting neo-liberalism. The look on their faces said it all.

[oc2002]

30. I have seen this myself. Most people only care about 'themselves'

For them, its about 'TAXES'.'TAXES'.'TAXES'.'TAXES'.

They realy do not care about anything UNTIL it EFFECTS them.

So, we HAVE what we DESERVE fooking the country.

[AbbyR]

67. Yeah, but why can't we get them to understand

that those great and wonderful tax cuts are NOT coming their way? They are headed way up to the highest income brackets?

[Iowa]

34. Perhaps, but I think there is more to it than that...

"Don't forget, even in Democratic primaries, the most progressive candidate usually loses. We have met the enemy and he is us. So, I have a hard time faulting the Democratic candidates when the real problem is an apathetic and willfully uninformed electorate."

While this is certainly true, the other side of the coin is this: Too many rank and file Dem voters pretend to be armchair political analysts. Rather than selecting the Dem candidate that best represents their interests, they try to pick the most likely winner. There are all kinds of erroneous presumptions that go into such calculations - like the assumption (pushed by the RW media) that progressive candidates simply cannot win. The result is that we slide further and further to the right.

If people would simply select their favorite candidate instead of playing "Josh Lyman", I think the world could be much different.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

18. The Dems began losing the working class when its most public

face became advocacy of personal behavior issues and racial issues to the exlucsion of class issues.

Just take as an example the famous Boston school desegregation furor in the 1970s. The white working class residents of South Boston were demonized for their opposition to desegregation, and yes, there was a lot of racism involved, but few observers paid attention to their real grievances: 1) that the schools in their neighborhood were pretty bad before desegregation and 2) that they, not the affluent residents of Boston, were being asked to send their children to schools that were worse than their own.

Then take what happened in the earliest part of the Reagan years, when the Dems still controlled Congress. First there was the air traffic controllers' strike, when Reagan fired all the nation's air traffic controllers. The Dems did nothing, and it was the beginning of a horrible 25 years for the labor movement.

Also during Reagan's first term, farmers in the Midwest--places like Minnesota, Iowa, and the Dakotas, which had at various points in their histories voted Democratic or even Socialist--began losing their beloved family farms, due to a combination of low crop prices and high interest rates. The Dems, with their majority, could have put through a program of low-interest refinancing for strapped farmers. But no. Most of them did nothing. And they lost the rural vote.

The past 25 years have been hard on the Dems, largely due to the machinations of the Republicans. But part of the blame must go to the Dems who either went along with the evils perpetrated by the Republicans or stood there acting as stupefied as a kindergartner in a calculus class.

Some of the DLCers ask why the leftists bash "moderate" Dems. The answer is simple: It's those moderate (i.e. scaredy-cat, nothing they won't do to be liked by the Republicans) Dems who first allowed Reagan to get his way and who have continued over the years to enable the destruction of this country.

[BillZBubb]

19. Not quite.

The first six years of the Reagan administration, the Repugs controlled the Senate. They also had de facto control of the house, because the Democratic bloc was infiltrated with human trash like Phil Gramm. Those DINOs voted with the Repugs continuously. That remains a big problem for us.

I still think the real problem is the voters. Even in Dem primaries, the more progressive candidates usually lose. You cannot reconcile that with what you have proposed.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

20. Part of it is that the progressive candidates usually have less money

and get less support from the bigwigs and less media coverage. I see it all the time. I even saw it in the caucuses last night. "I'd like to vote for X, but Y is more likely to win." Sure enough, the candidates who got the most press coverage won the straw polls. That becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

[upi402]

23. Yes! So many good points

1) it *IS* class warfare. Why did Dems shrink from that?

2) If you fail to smash conservatives right back in the chops, expect to be pickin' up Chicklets a lot as they elbow you in the chops for 25 years. If they see weakness, they must exploit it. Like in prison. Air Traffic Controllers should have been supported. Hope we learned not to give an inch to these fascists.

3) DINO's enable the destruction of our democracy. It's fragile and we must hold on to it. DINO's will only seek power and wealth. They are Republicans, might as well just say it, who keep a real Dem out of power. And we are left out of government. Democracy is betrayed.

[ReadTomPaine]

59. "it *IS* class warfare. Why did Dems shrink from that?"

Likely because, with a few notable exceptions, most of them are on the other side of the fence, class-wise.

[hippywife]

24. It's very interesting that you bring this up.

I'm reading a book at the moment called "Bridging The Class Divide" by Linda Stout. It is a book that every liberal should read. It is written by the woman that started the Piedmont Peace Project and how they gave a voice to the poor of their area (she was among them)to work for real change. It is the story of her real experiences as a working class person struggling to make change, not just in the peace movement but by getting the people around her, and who eventually gathered to work with her, to realize that there will be no peace or real progressive movement while people still engage in classism and fail to relate to one another as real people and not according to the stereotypes that have been embedded in our psyches.

Until there is an end to classism, racism, sexism, and homophobia within this party, and all are welcomed in without playing into the prejudices that have been learned, there will never be substantive change for the better of all. We are all the common man and these prejudices are being used and manipulated to keep us separated from one another. And many here are willing participants in some of this behavior.

I get so disgusted around here when people make fun of how people write or spell because that is part of the classism that exists in the Democratic Party and why people shrink away from working with them for common cause. It's because there is so much elitism that they are pushed away. All of these -isms that still exist in this country and our party create the failure to lift up all and failure to unite for the common good.

No true liberal would support such behavior. No one should expect the working class and poor to rally to support you when the only time anyone who purports to want change for them, too, only knocks on their door ahead of an election.

From one working class liberal to another, Cascadian!

[Cascadian]

71. Thanks!

I will look out for that book! :hi:



John

[deutsey]

25. Thank you...

I'm from the working class myself and am constantly frustrated by the Democrats' inability or unwillingness to speak out and fight for the interests of working-class Americans.

Every time I've been to a "wine and cheese" Dem fundraiser and see the same affluent liberals milling around chatting about esoteric matters, I understand why people I work with feel the Dems are out of touch.

The thing is, I'm hearing a lot of working people who used to support Bush saying they can't stand him anymore. Just yesterday, a woman whose son is serving a second tour in Iraq told me that when he comes home this time, she isn't going to let him go if he's called up again. She'll help him go to Canada or Mexico instead. She was dead serious. Another woman here (young mother of two kids) who voted for Bush said that she thinks he's a dumbass and has seen the light.

What are the Dems doing to show them that they're on their side?

[Teena]

26. I must respectfully disagree...

with a few of your points anyway.
Although I don't live in an industrial area, I do live in a town where only half of the "living units" are owner-occupied. That means that half are rentals being occupied, in most cases, by people who either can't afford to buy or are students at the nearby university. I'd certainly call this a "working class" town. The largest Republican-voting population is probably the outlying farming communities.

This was a decidedly "blue" area in the 2004 election and the people here seem very well informed about issues and the ineptitude of the Bush administration. There are still many John Kerry bumper stickers still on vehicles! We have a very lively, committed Progressive Democratic Coalition that meets at least once a month, invite political candidates, community leaders, healthcare experts, the environment, etc. to speak. The Democratic candidates really ARE paying attention to us in Ohio. Maybe it's the other states that need more attention.

[sendero]

27. People around here..

.... like to say that working class voters go for Republicans because of God,Gays,Guns. There is some truth to that. But there is a lot more truth to the FACT that these "dumb yokels" figured out long ago that Democrats aren't going to do shit for them anyway.

They got abandoned and they know it.

[Greyhound]

37. Hear, hear!

they were the first class to be sold out to the corporations and these folks will never forget it!

[AbbyR]

68. I live in the south

And God, Gays and Guns is a real factor. I don't know how well we can take on some of that, but as for the "God" part, I keep thinking we need to beat them over the head with the Sermon on the Mount and other things in the New Testament along the Love Your Neighbor line.

As for guns, when I write columns about politics, which I frequently do, I remind my very rural readers that the true environmentalists are farmers and hunters, who live from the land and will have no place to hunt if the repubs destroy the forests and woodlands.

I'm at a loss as to how to deal with telling them that who someone loves, or sleeps with is none of their business, whether that person is gay or straight. In a small town, apparently, everything is everyone's business.

[benEzra]

28. Working class gun owner here...

who lives in a working-class multiracial neighborhood by choice, not some ivory white golf community.

Howard Dean was right when he said we needed to find a way to reach out to those redneck voters. It is important that the Democrats bring a message and a plan to those working class people like myself but not by being like the Republicans. Democrats must divert these people from issues like gay marriage, abortion, or gun rights. They need to tactfully tell the working class how what they will do about health care, Social Security, education. Things that really matter. Also, do it in plain, straight talk so that they will understand. Nobody can be a political science major or an economist. Especially those working poor.

The best thing the party can do to shift attention away from the gun issue is to STOP TRYING TO TAKE AWAY PEOPLE'S NONHUNTING GUNS!!! Fighting to ban civilian rifles and shotguns with protruding handgrips, or all civilian guns holding 11 rounds or more, is an absolutely idiotic crusade when you consider the percentage of Dems, indies, and the uncommitted in swing states who are gun owners. Guns do "really matter" to many working-class Dems and indies, and we're not talking about hunting guns, either.

FWIW, I do strongly object to the label "redneck" as applied to working-class people. My wife and I are both college-educated, and she's originally from Cambridge, Massachusetts, FWIW.

[Greyhound]

39. I've never understood the Dems ridiculous stand on this issue,

and with the way things are now, it is even more illogical. This is why I believe we only have one party, the corporatist party.

[Cascadian]

72. My apologies.

I was trying to make a point that the Democrats really need to "information bomb" working class blue collar types. Drive home the point their lives would be a lot better and of course how they are going to do it. They should just stop being distracted about the gun issue. I am all for gun rights too. I have gun owners in my family but there is a need to focus on why their lives are difficult. Why they cannot make ends meet these days.


John

[oc2002]

29. Do blacks and poor vote? If they had in sufficent numbers Bush would not

be president. Maybe, just maybe if the working class is getting a tax cut from Bush, at least they ARE getting something enough to vote for him, and not for the Dems.

[Not Sure]

31. Very well said

I try to make the "class" point to my friends when we discuss politics. I try to point out that even though we'd all like to consider ourselves "middle class," the fact is we're the lower working class (my friends and I are all hourly workers who earn <$20 per hour, and many of us have few employer provided benefits). Voting your principles and your religion is fine, but don't complain about money after that when your vote is cast for the corporatist posing as morally erect Christian.

Unlike the "terrorists" the Rthugs always throw out there, corporations aren't inherently villainous - they're just trying to maximize profit and maximize market share and most try to do it within the confines of the law. But, at the end of the day, corporations have competing interests with the labor that makes the profit. Labor is a liability, not an asset, so labor gets marginalized in the pursuit of profit, and especially when it comes to large corporations. Perhaps it's harder to be cutthroat when the office of the president of the company is next to the earner doing the day-to-day work, but I digress.

The point of bringing up the terrorists in this context is that, as a voter, a member of the working or low class, a paycheck-to-paycheck employee, it is these corporations that are terrorizing us through wages that don't keep up with inflation, increases in the costs of our "benefits," threats of layoffs, etc. Sure, I'm glad to have a job and glad to use the services of some of these corporations, but I'm not quite at the Stockholm Syndrome level of sympathizing with those corporations that are trying their level best to suck my bank account dry. So, while it may be inappropriate to say it in such black and white terms, just like the "terrorists," either you are with the corporations or you are against them.

[Greyhound]

40. Have you seen "The Big One"? It is a great reminder of where we were just

10 years ago.
Oh, and corporations are inherently evil.

[raccoon]

44. Not familiar with it. Is it a documentary movie? nt

[Greyhound]

45. Micheal Moore documentary. It was made during the '96 election

cycle and has a lot of information and clips from the first Bush/Clinton campaign and election. MM emphasized the terrible things that were being done to the real working class, while everybody else was all ecstatic about their portfolios.
He reminds us that things have sucked for a long time for those on, or near, the bottom, and it just gets worse every year.
Corporations are evil!

[CrispyQ]

48. Welcome to DU, twominuteshate!

:hi:

I agree with you completely. In regards to corporations, you are with us or you are with them. I'm not anti-business & I appreciate the goods & services many of our corporations provide. I understand that their goal is profit, however, the multinationals no longer conduct themselves for the greater good of our country.

We created this monster when corporations were (wrongly) granted personhood rights. Prior to corporations gaining personhood rights, laws & rulings were carefully written to refer to corporations as artificial persons. It was the lack of the descriptive "artificial" that helped lead to corporations attaining personhood rights. Corporations have fought for & won the same rights as living, breathing persons. Actually, that's not true. In most cases they have unequal protection, taxes, responsibility, privacy, citizenship, wealth & influence - unequal meaning unequally in favor of the corporations. Since they are artificial persons, they do not need clean air & water, health care, jobs, healthy food, strong communities. They have wealth & influence beyond what natural persons have & have used it to sway our public officials to do their bidding.

We have been betrayed by the corporations that we helped build with our labor & consumer support & by our public officials who took an oath to represent WE THE PEOPLE. We must find a way to tame this behemoth we have created if we are going to save our republic.


===
I highly recommend Thom Hartmann's book, "Unequal Protection" which provides great detail & history about how we came to this point.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1579549551/sr=8-1/qid=1141922088/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-5792740-7358366?%5Fencoding=UTF8

[PsN2Wind]

36. Now retired but like you

was a blue-collar guy, working with my hands for an hourly wage for all my working life.
I thought for a lot of years that the Dems, did little for the benefit of the "average working guy". Then Bill Clinton sold us out on NAFTA, going from opposition early in his campaign, to undecided later, to a full-court press to have it passed after his election.
Some Dems connect with "the average working guy" but for the most part it's just lip service to try and garner a vote.
I've argued with many here on this board that the Dems aren't going to win back the "Reagan Democrats" by advocating an open border policy for those from Mexico and further south "just trying to improve their lot in life". In my working past I was a journeyman roofer, worked in a packing house and worked a railroad steel gang, you know the kinda jobs that "citizens won't do". Yet too many here and in the Democratic party are more concerned with rights of illegal immigrants than the right of a citizen to not have to compete with labor in this country illegally. I believe as much of the stagnation in wages by middle-class and lower is due to imported labor as to job out-sourcing.
We need to be more pragmatic about what we can do because without getting the blue-collar worker back, we will continue as a weak minority party that can accomplish nothing.

[Greyhound]

41. And we must do it before the blue-collar worker becomes extinct. n/t

[Armstead]

46. Great POst -- Here's how the Democrats should be speaking IMO

This is from a thread about a primary challenger to Hillary Clinton in New York named Jonathan Tasini. He's beenm labeled as a fringe leftist progressive candidte, but IMO, he has the message and tone that all Democrats should take. This kind of straight talk and call for a restorsation of real Liberal Democratic values would resonate with the working class, just like it used to. Maybe more than it used to.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=604988&mesg_id=604988

--------------------

This is from his website:

http://www.tasinifornewyork.org /

New Rules for The Economy
Here’s what it comes down: it’s time for the people to make the rules. We’ve let corporations set the rules for too long —and they’ve been helped by politicians, in both major political parties, who do their work because of a corrupt electoral system. Our campaign is fighting for an economy for the people, not one favoring abusive corporations who choose a low-road economy: competition based on price which leads to insecurity, rising inequality, poisonous labor relations, no commitment to our communities, environmental damage.

Jonathan is not anti-business—he’s against business as usual. Our campaign wants to change the world where a corporation decides, with virtually no restraints, what to do with our jobs—the jobs for which our communities provide the sons and daughters who create the wealth of a corporation. We want a high-road economy: competition that encourages innovation, distinctiveness, and amazing performance, and leads to higher pay for workers, less environmental damage and builds a culture where corporations make a commitment to our families and children.

Our campaign believes that we have a responsibility to care for each other. We believe in freedom, opportunity and prosperity for every person in our country, which is the richest in the world. We believe in a government that stays out of peoples’ bedrooms, makes sure that businesses act ethically and acts every day to make sure that our democracy is not undermined by abusive corporate power.

Medicare for All: It’s the most efficient health care coverage program we’ve ever had—better managed than any private insurance company. Let’s give it to every man, woman and child. Today.

Real Trade, Not Corporate Trade: Let’s stop giving away our country to large corporations and dictatorships like China. We’re for trading with other countries—but let’s set the rules up to help people, not corporations.

Democracy At Work: every person should have the real right to join a union. Our democratic values, going all the way back to the American Revolution, tell us that workers must be free from harassment, intimidation and fear.

Pensions For All: we should and can live out our retirement years with dignity and security. We have a new system called Universal Voluntary Accounts to supplement the current system, which is under increased attack from large corporations.

Make It All Cost Less: We want to make your paycheck last a lot longer—and you don’t have to go to Wal-Mart to save money. We can just lower our costs by eliminating waste in the economy, adopting a real health care plan, pursing a real energy program, doing some better planning about where we live and how we get around, and creating a national wireless Internet network.

[FredStembottom]

49. OK! There is, at least, 2 of us now!

I, too, am a blue-collar male Lefty.

I have felt just, plain "left" out of the Dem Party for about 25 years now!

I slid backward in income all throughout the Wild '90"s.

While the white-collar world partied on the covers of every magazine on the grocery store rack, my Blue-collar friends and I moved relentlessly backward in income.

I consoled myself with the thought "but it will happen to you, too, cubicle dwellers".

And so I remained a Democrat. Because a Democrat dazzled by the glare of globalization can only be a temporary thing. So I waited. And now the loading docks of my world are teeming with outsourced IT workers and project managers.

Suddenly, because robots aren't quite ready to drive trucks, my workplace is becoming the ONLY workplace!

But look-out! Starving people from other countries can drive trucks, too! And they'll do it for 1/3 of my (your) wage. And rather than welcoming in these immigrants in a systematic manner and boosting them UP to my (your) wage, the plan is to let the levy breech, let America flood with desperate refugees and let them do the job for 1/3 of your (my) wage.

And "globalization" will then be complete.

And you and I saw what was happening 25 years ago. But it wasn't fashionable to talk to us.

Mr. Dean, is the party ready, now to talk to blue-collar people?
You should be.

[NoFederales]

55. Well said; when does the slide stop--I want off

NoFederales

[jwirr]

51. What do you mean rare? Where I live most of the working class are.

[mrgorth]

54. Recommended!

Agree with you 100%. I see a couple things happening here. Obviously the dems lost a lot of people via the rethugs southern strategy and once the party split via the peace movement/vietnam war. That's bad enough right there. Then you have a lot of the blue collar voters who some of the dems DO want to work for fleeing the party because our guys don't talk about God, guns and gays. The icing on the cake was Bill Clinton with his free trade agenda selling the workers out. While this was bad for the blue collar voter, Clinton was charismatic enough to win twice so a lot of dems still see Clinton's "third way" as the path to victory. We've refused to pick the populist banner ever since.

[Cascadian]

81. And this is the reason why the Dems need to chart a new direction

Bill Clinton ain't coming back and Hillary? Come on! The Democrats need all the friends they can get right now so why not bring in a new progressive direction? It can be done. The right packaging is needed.




John

[underpants]

56. Working class and Small Businesses is where the Dems need to focus

Directly and now.

I am planning on starting on working on something to send to the DNC about tax plans targetted directly to the the small businesses and in turn working class folks. For every small business you get on your side you also get most of their employees and all their friends and so forth.

Both of these groups are completel ignored by both sides. The Republicans do pay lipservice to them but I think that working class and small businesses could turn to the DEMS more than say blacks did to the Republicans (one huge mistake and they all went away).

I think what really turned most working class to the Republicans was Reagan's cheerleading. The working class really took it on the chin when our economy went away from making steel and making cars with that steel. Word of mouth and groupthink has kept it that way.

Also the end of union power and breeding hatred of unions has played a big role here as well.

Lastly I would say that contempt for the college types is instilled in the working class. It was their form of class struggle that they now claim is off limits ....mainly because they don't want the curtain to be pulled back to show who really makes up the ACTUAL elite.

[PsN2Wind]

61. "contempt for the college types"

is the other side of the contempt of the working class coin that college types have. Look at how little concern there was by them when those blue-collar jobs were going off-shore but their outrage now that it has reached them.

[Greyhound]

84. Bravo! Small businesses are where it's at. They are the one's to

re-vitalize our economy, not the big corps. Small businesses hire people, big corps lay them off. Small business is innovative, big corps stifle innovation. Small businesses are efficient (required to survive) big corps are the antithesis of efficiency (if you're efficient, the stealing is easy to spot).

[Radical Activist]

60. Good post.

When Democrats try to run without an agenda or message it allows the Republicans to do outrageous things like get working class voters to support them based on gay marriage and abortion.

[SeaNap05]

63. Dems need a real voice!

The working class is taking the biggest hit. However, there needs to be a voice to recognize the plight of the working class. Who will speak for us? Sen. John Edwards understand the message so is he the right messager. The DNC seems not to be focused as John talks about in his post. The DNC should make middle class economics a top 5 issue.

[CarlSheeler4U]

64. You're right on. Excellent, excellent and well written points.

Somebody cares.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2503152

[melissinha]

69. I know! How about calling them on roll call votes???

I mean, they publish their intentions, they vote and rally against the best interests of Joe six pack..... we need to expose them and Democrats need a plan, and to show that our leaders have been fighting them.

[Voltaire99]

74. Megachurches vs. unions: the curious future of the blue collar vote

http://www.monthlyreview.org/0106straub.htm

In "What Was the Matter with Ohio?: Unions and Evangelicals in the Rust Belt," James Straub looks at how the destruction of unions in once-rebellious Ohio put the state in the hands of conservative Christians. He sees the megachurch providing many of the socio-political functions formerly found in unions, with the vital difference being, of course, that the megachurch is a rallying point for Bushism.

A seminal read, and one that nobody concerned about the future of the blue collar vote should ignore.

Btw, nice post, John.

[radio4progressives]

75. the abusive marriage syndrome.

All I can hope for is for the Democrats to start paying attention to people. Everyday working class people and forget the corporatists who are gaining way to much power. If anybody needs to be shackled, it is them and not us

This line says it all. We're in that classic "abusive" relationship with the party. For years, they kept abusing us and then when it's re-election time, they tell us that they really do love us, and they want us and they never want to lose us, and turn around and abuse us again.

But in the past several years, they're saying they don't need us and that they never did love us in the first place. And several of their lovers are on this board constantly reminding us that we never did matter. Working class people are nothing but a bunch of "whiners" or the "fringe left".

Wonder when we're finally gonna say, fuck this shit, we're not gonna take this anymore! ?

[Treclo]

79. Are there really that few of us blue collar progressives?

Odd thought. Anyway, here's my idea for a bumper-sticker to reach across the masses.

"KEEP YOUR LAWS OUT OF MY GUN CLOSET AND OUT OF MY BEDROOM".

Okay, so plagiarized part of it, but it has a nice ring to it, yes?

[OnionPatch]

80. There is an argument that says

part of this is our (the working and non-rich) own fault for not getting involved at the local levels. I know I am guilty of being apathetic about politics for the most part, for a good chunk of my life. I voted but that's about it. When we don't pay attention, who takes over the party? If we realize that we, the people are "the Democrats" and not the DC elected, maybe we will start to assert some control and elect the people we want. I know there's more to it than that, lack of funds, etc., but I do think there is an aspect of this problem that reflects the reluctance of everyday Joe working-man to get involved politically.

[blindpig]

82. Offer the substantial in place of the insubstantial.

Bread and butter wins elections, Politics 101. The cost of health care is killing(sometimes literally) working people. Everybody on the street knows it, almost everybody has their own story. The population is aging too.

So, ignoring the basic morality of the issue and looking at it from a purely political point of view, why hasn't the Democratic Party grabbed it and run with it? Because too many elected Democrats are effectively bought buy the same folks who own the repubs because of our campaign financing system which is legalized bribery.

Until the Democratic Party seriously proposes Universal Health Care as a right of all Americans it is not the party of the people.

[Odin2005]

83. The left-wing radicalism of the 60's scarred away the blue collar vote

The Left became associated with hippies, anti-Americanism, immorality, and elitism in the minds of the average blue collar voter.

[Cascadian]

86. That was then but this is now.

Like I said with some smart planning and tactics, the progressives could win the blue collar people back. Of course, progressives should choose what words they use carefully avoiding words like "socialism" or "hand-outs" among others.



John