General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: It would be nice if the centrists in this party did some introspection, too. [View all]DanTex
(20,709 posts)I never suggested that Bernie argued that. What I did suggest, and believe to be true (and is backed by polling data), is that Trump's racism and nativism actually helped him make headway with non-college whites. Which contradicts your argument that what we needed was better economic messaging.
The message you are recommending for the Dems is, basically: corporations are screwing everyone except the top 1% economically, and it's time to put them in their place and make people and not businesses the top priority. The problem is, the reason you think that's a great message is because it's exactly the message that you want to hear. And that makes you not a very good judge of how it might go over with other people.
In reality, it's a risky message, with certain groups. College-educated moderates, for example, who Clinton did well with, can easily be offput by what would be perceived to be an anti-business message. And it gets even more risky once we talk about specific policies. Wall Street transaction tax? People with retirement accounts start to worry. Single payer healthcare? People who don't want a huge tax increase and are happy with their current healthcare (which is most Americans) start to worry. And so on. It's not the slam dunk you make it out to be.
And it's questionable to me whether that would have brought many more working class whites on board. One thing Trump's campaign showed is that there really is an appetite for blaming minorities and immigrants for the problems in society. The risk of going all-in with an anti-corporate message is that working class whites decide they would rather blame Mexicans than corporations, and at the same time you scare off middle class voters who don't want the whole system torn apart.