From @wdlindsy: "The media have done this persistently for some years now.

William Lindsey :toad:

@RonSupportsYou How many elections now have we heard that the working classes are "paying Democrats back" for ignoring them? And when did the working classes begin their exit from the Democatic party to the Republicans — and what caused that exodus? Hint: the Democrats promoted civil rights legislation in the 1950s and 1960s.

Greengordon

@wdlindsy @RonSupportsYou

As I understand it, Clinton signing NAFTA and their shift right economically cost the Democrats. Biden was good for unions, so that's a start. A big problem now is that Trumpers have made hate cool for many, so it will be harder to get support for positive things.

RonSupportsYou

@wdlindsy The history of the 1950s and 1960s is one thing, and the decisions by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to tweet as if the working class can be safely ignored, at the same time that they were often honoring the middle class, helped convince working class people to vote against them. This was a stupid mistake that both of them repeatedly made. Politicians should learn from this mistake and not repeat it.

Greengordon

@wdlindsy @RonSupportsYou

It seems like there's lots of blame to go around. The media failed to do their duty, probably because they're owned by billionaires who have a different duty for the media they own.

@QasimRashid has an excellent analysis that points out Biden said he'd be a one term President then tried another.

And what about the character of the American people, to support such obvious liars, grifters, and cruelty? Did capitalism produce that type of person?

RonSupportsYou

@Greengordon @wdlindsy NAFTA alienated working class people, even though it was good for our nation's prosperity. Pres. Clinton should have explained why it is a good thing and acted to help people who were harmed by this change. Similarly, the Trans-Pacific Partnership would have been good for our nation, but Pres. Obama was not able to convince enough people of this, and he also should have acted to help people who would have been harmed by it.

William Lindsey :toad:

@RonSupportsYou @Greengordon When and why did the defection of the white working classes from the Democratic party and their move to the Republican party really pick up?

William Lindsey :toad:

@Greengordon @RonSupportsYou @QasimRashid And the blame game is inherently dysfunctional, particularly in the face of what's looming ahead of us right now — which some of us simply cannot afford to ignore, do not have the luxury to ignore.

William Lindsey :toad:

@RonSupportsYou For how long now have the white working classes chosen to vote Republican? History is, as Faulkner reminds us, ongoing. If this has been going on for years now — and when and why did it start? — why are people now trying to blame Biden-Harris for what has been happening for years now, as if those two caused it?

RonSupportsYou

@wdlindsy If there was a bad trend in the past, then Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are still to blame when month after month, year after year, their comments kiss the ass of the middle class while treating working class people as if they are too stupid to know how to read Joe and Kamala's many tributes to the middle class. Yes, that affected people's votes, and yes, politicians need to understand this and not repeat the mistakes of repeatedly disrespecting voters who are in the working class.

William Lindsey :toad:

@RonSupportsYou Thanks for sharing your opinions.

RonSupportsYou

@wdlindsy You're welcome! A candidate should never communicate in a way that needlessly alienates voters whose votes she could gain if she was more inclusive and less classist in her tweets. Every time that Kamala Harris said "middle class" without adding, at least, "working class" I winced. She could also have written about "the American people" but instead she wrote: "Americans deserve an economy that delivers for the middle class–not just big corporations." Guess what other voters she forgot.

William Lindsey :toad:

@RonSupportsYou Thanks for sharing your opinions.

Greengordon

@wdlindsy @RonSupportsYou @QasimRashid

At the same time, Dems need to know what worked and what did not. One of the biggest concerns I’ve read is that they are simply not progressive enough, and never will be because their leadership is corrupted by big money.

William Lindsey :toad:

@Greengordon @RonSupportsYou @QasimRashid I have long shared a commitment with others to moving the Democratic party in a more leftist, progessive direction. I have never seen the Democratic party in utopian terms. I think that any group which experiences a trouncing like an defeat in an election needs to do introspection. I also think that this tearing at the guts that is going on right now is entirely unhelpful and doesn't move to those ends at all. It's vicious, for the most part.