A progressive’s answer to Trumpism

[DonCoquixote]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-progressives-answer-to-trumpism/2016/10/25/be8cde76-9a23-11e6-b3c9-f662adaa0048_story.html?utm_term=.9757bf4e110b

From the article:
"Whatever happens when the votes are counted in two weeks, it will be a political and moral imperative for Democrats to start paying attention to many of Trump’s supporters and working to advance an inclusive populism that gives them hope for their future. If they fail, it’s only a matter of time before a more polished, less toxic Trump emerges and threatens to drag us all back into the past."

[Emilybemily]

1. I don't see how that is possible

Most of them are so ignorant and blinded by hate they are unreachable. Even if things get better for them they would credit repukes.

[HAB911]

3. Correct

[Fast Walker 52]

7. yep-- imagine how deluded you have to be to be a Trump voter at this point,

and how much you have invested in the idea that Hillary is the devil and Dems are evil. Such people will never be won over.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

8. This progressive sees how that is possible

http://www.democracynow.org/2016/9/28/what_drives_trump_supporters_sociologist_arlie

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thesundayedition/pets-aren-t-people-trump-voters-canadian-meets-stem-cell-donor-who-saved-her-life-monet-s-water-lilies-1.3813712/trump-supporters-experience-a-secular-rapture-says-sociologist-arlie-hochschild-1.3813719

[OnDoutside]

9. Yes, that's an issue that could take a generation or more to fix, amongst that group, if at all.

[Festivito]

10. "Ignoring their fears, or worse, pandering to them, further impoverishes all of us."

It is possible because we want what they want, our country having an American dream.

Let us not be just as unreachable, just as blinded, and, yes, just as ignorant of their fears.

Yes, they will continue to make mistakes.

So will we.

[pampango]

2. "The U.S. and global economies are in the midst of a tectonic shift. This election — along with

Brexit and the spread of nationalism across Europe — has made it impossible to deny that millions of people are desperate for solutions and demanding to be heard. They are tired of being ignored by the elites who have failed them. For Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party, the lesson of 2016 should not be that Trump voters are irredeemable. It should be that by paying more attention to the plight of blue-collar workers, and offering inclusive solutions to the great challenges roiling our country and the world, they have a real opportunity to expand the Obama coalition of minorities and young people who make up the Democratic base today.

As surreal as it may seem to some, Trump has convinced many working-class voters that he feels their pain. He has offered simple, albeit hollow, solutions (“we’ll build a wall!”) to their problems despite his own history of employing undocumented workers, manufacturing products overseas and importing Chinese steel. And of course, he has shamefully stoked racial fears and resentment in the process.

To start, we need a more progressive trade policy that gives priority to working people over corporate lobbyists and profits. As Roosevelt Institute fellow Mike Konczal argues, a truly progressive vision for trade would not embrace Trump’s retrograde protectionism but would strengthen workers’ rights and preserve the ability of countries to regulate multinational corporations. We also need debt-free college to increase opportunities for the next generation. And we need “Medicare for all” to create more security and flexibility as the traditional nature of work evolves.

While these ideas are represented in the Democratic platform, progressives should fight to ensure that Clinton and the party act on these ideas moving forward. Moreover, they will have to speak directly to communities that have been ravaged, with a message that truly recognizes and respects their anger and pain.

[Granny M]

4. Well said. nt

[tomp]

5. only a true progressive party can do that...

...we must keep up the pressure on the powers-that-be. Carrying through the Bernie movement would be a good start.

I have to laugh/cringe at the idea of "uniting behind the winner" ideology that is being put forward. What we have to do is keep being active citizens after the election. That does not mean Hillary (God willing) gets a free pass on everything she wants to do. Everything is reviewable, and opposable if necessary. When it is a truly progressive program it will naturally unite the masses.

[Cary]

6. I do think that it's possible for them to evolve

Although I too have trouble envisioning that evolution.

[JHB]

11. Part of that is by not calling it 'Trumpism'...

...because Trump is an effect, not the cause.

Conservatives have gained power over the last 50-60 years by using fearmongering and targeted bigotry to pad their numbers in the service of tax cuts and deregulation.

People like William F. Buckley and his National Review crowd worked to sideline the John Birch Society as the public face of conservatism, while not alienating the JBS rank and file so much that the Birchers wouldn't vote for their preferred candidates.

Nixon added the Southern Strategy. In the 70's they started promoting single-issue voting on hot-button issues in order to help break up the Democratic coalition. By the 90's Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh had mainstreamed extravagant loathing of liberals and Democrats, making compromise on policy an act of treachery against Real Conservatism. Treating Democrats as traitors became a rallying cry.

To enact more inclusive populist economic policies, we have to break up the conservative phalanx that blocks even small items. And part of doing that is to not let them wash their hands of Trump. Trump just slapped his name on a building they had already built.