The ambiguity on trade cost us the Upper Midwest.

[Ken Burch]

The states we just barely lost were the states that have suffered the worst from globalization. The nearly half of the primary voters who supported the runner-up BEGGED the party to put an explicit "no TPP" pledge in the platform. We were treated like we were making a big deal about nothing.

The trade plank, as phrased, was meaningless. It allowed Trump to imply that, if elected, our nominee would find some pretext to decide that TPP was acceptable after all. It sent the message to hard-hit people that our party, the party that is SUPPOSED to fight for workers of all races with the same passion with which it justly speaks out against institutional bigotry, cared more about the suites than the streets.

And throughout the fall, as Trump hammered us on TPP, we said...nothing. Nothing at all.

If we don't learn from that, if we continue to pretend that the Trump phenomenon is NOTHING but bigotry, we will never win another election.

We must fight for justice for ALL who are treated unjustly...the victims of greed as much as the victims of hate, and the victims of BOTH most of all.