Ryan is right, and he presented the winning strategy for Dems.

[Grasswire2]

Some of us discussed the same strategy here in April.

The necessity of the Democratic Party to lose the coastal elite identity and return to the roots as a workers' party.

It is the winning strategy against Trump. It undercuts him.

Here's the prior discussion on DU:
..................................................................................................................................
Star Member Grasswire2 (4,191 posts)
7. the problem there is the perception of Dems as coastal elites.

Red staters hate coastal elites more than they like Trump, and will do anything to smack Dems down for that reason.

As I've said previously, if Dems could reframe as the party of FDR, the party of workers and unions and bread and butter issues --returning to the righteous history of the Democratic Party -- we could get traction among independents and even some Republicans.

...................................................
Response to Grasswire2 (Reply #7)

Mon Apr 22, 2019, 11:45 PM

Star Member PufPuf23 (6,375 posts)
10. The perception of Red Staters and rural USA needs and should be changed.

Part of the problem is the very attitude of "coastal elites" and urban folks regards rural USA.

Red States and rural USA are far from monolithic. There are Democrats of all flavors (liberal, leftist, progressive and moderate). They are ignored and not supported well by the national party.

I live in eastern Humboldt county on the north coast of California, an extremely rural area with at least 50% Native American population. This was my childhood home and my home in old age but I left for university and have lived much of my working adult life in the SF Bay Area, Redding, and Portland and Corvallis, OR; except for Redding, liberal Democratic dominated areas.

In the 2016 POTUS primary and general election I did not see a single local sign or bumper sticker for HRC, I did not receive a mailer nor a phone call from HRC nor the Democratic party. There was essentially zero effort in this and adjacent zip codes by the Democratic party. I have been registered and voted Democratic since 1971 and have never voted for any candidate that was not Democratic (except for 1980 CA POTUS primary voted for John Anderson as a direct vote against Reagan). I sent $1000 to POTUS Obama. In the POTUS primary Sanders was first and HRC 2nd, both far ahead of Trump and HRC did win the POTUS in Humboldt county but it turned out much closer and I strongly suspect the vote local to me was overwhelmingly Trump. I am actually not that befuddled as to why many people especially the Native Americans voted for Trump even though it was a poor decision on their part. One would be amazed about how much education there is among the local population, not in the oldest and "Boomers" (like me) but in those that came here to work for the government and stayed or came as part of the back to land movement (and their children) and many younger NAs have various degrees and work for the three local Tribes (two nearby Reservations and where I am is "Ancestoral Territory" for a 3rd Tribe within National Forest.

There is an element of local distrust towards the government towards the US Forest Service and Bureau of Indian Affairs and more recently county planning. At the county level, the candidates for any party do not visit nor address the area even for the one of 5 county Districts where we are included.

My Dad and I never saw eye to eye on politics; part was the times (Vietnam) and part was I wanted to leave (and did) where he was born and spent his entire life except WWII. But he hated the Feds and gave money to the Bushes (and Dole), loved Reagan yet also loved FDR. He would be a Trump supporter if he was still alive.

There was a CCC camp here in the 1930s. That CCC camp is fading into history now but it was beloved and brought local people together and brought in the outside world, not like the other subsequent government institutions that treated the area like a colony to extract natural resources (mining, timber, fish). There was much more tourism. The last 4 men that came here with the CCC (and stayed) passed on 10-15 years ago. The evidence of the CCC work is all over in roads, camp grounds, etc. that were built. In the past 20 years the Feds have put much money in improving the NA situation (housing, clinics, natural resource programs). There was much more tourism. Now besides the Tribes and a skeleton crew at the USFS, the main source of income is the now legal marijuana (which really isn't working out that well for locals). The town cannot support a decent store and there is not even a restaurant nor motel or resort now. But there are endless projects that could be done in environmental restoration (nearby has been subject to forest fires) and as part of a green new deal (like what was the CCC).

Part of the problem is the very attitude of "coastal elites" and urban folks regards rural USA.

.....................................................................................................
Response to Grasswire2 (Reply #7)

Mon Apr 22, 2019, 11:55 PM

Star Member PufPuf23 (6,375 posts)
13. The conclusion to all that blather is the Democratic party needs to go strong into

Red State and rural USA.


Make them a thriving part of the USA, offer programs provided by the Democratic party that provide for their wants and needs and deliver with respect.

There are dead enders but they mostly will be going extinct anyway.

This is how to rid ourselves of McConnell and those others like them. This is also how to bring younger people to our side.

[crazytown]

1. You do not win by parroting GOP talking points

I switched off as soon as he trotted out 'coastal elites' When your spiel is Republican Lite, a Republican wins every time.

[Cha]

8. ".. coastal elites.. " how freaking divisive..

Ugh! I didn't like Ryan before I read that.

[crazytown]

9. I was waiting for 'establishment Democrats' after that.

Have to wait till tomorrow night I guess.

[Cha]

11. lol.. oh yeah..

that should be on the agenda tomorrow night.

[jcgoldie]

2. Party of "coastal elites"

Its a nonsense republican talking point. The fact that Ryan seizes on it should not endear him to Democrats. Democrats are the party of "coastal elites" and have forgotten about the white working class... that's all just code for racism.

[True Blue American]

14. Ryan lost when

He argued perpetual war. Gabbard was right about the Taliban always being there, long before we were.

[Skittles]

21. Trump IS a "coastal elite"

[WePurrsevere]

28. Exactly! Republican politicians are, and represent, the elite not the majority and

anyone who thinks Trump and the Republican Party truly wants the best for rest of us (working class, veterans, seniors, disabled, poor, etc) are grossly mislead 'kool aid' drinking suckers.

[dawg day]

3. Actual Rust Belter here--

Union family, all that-- steelworkers, construction-

Look to Obama's 2008 campaign, where he swept the Great Lakes (Rust Belt) states.

It wasn't by winning over the white working class male. Oh, no.

He got the cities-- and these states all have biggish urban areas-- to totally turn out HUGELY. That was enough to overcome whatever weird internal conflict causes white working class males to so often vote against the interests of themselves and their children and communities.

White working class Rust Belt men are not a fruitful market -- they tend to vote Republican (for decades), and they are not really reliable beyond that.

Turn out the votes in the bigger urban areas-- Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Gary, Detroit, Milwaukee, Madison, Minneapolis especially-- and those will overwhelm the ever-shrinking WWCM vote.

I would feel bad about that, except I know that better healthcare, better labor protection, better education all will help the WWCM as much as they help all the rest of us.

Turn out the urban vote. Focus on that. It will be good even for those who vote the other way.

[crazytown]

5. Biden was on the 2008 ticket.

Obama was weak in the midwest (vs Hillary). I concede to Biden supporters that Joe played a part here in both Obama campaigns.

[Midwestern Democrat]

7. 2012 probably, but 2008 - I think the financial crisis ended McCain's campaign

on the spot - McCain in those last weeks looked very much like Dole in '96 - a candidate who knew he was toast just going through the motions towards a certain loss.

[pazzyanne]

24. I think that Sarah Palin ended McCain's campaign!

Pure and simple.

[Demsrule86]

35. I am in Ohio. And without Biden in 08, President Obama does not take Ohio.

And what happened last time, we lost working people.. The cities are not enough.

[dawg day]

10. I don't think Biden was a factor-

The WWCM didn't vote for Obama because of Biden. They didn't vote for him for any reason. Obama got only 40% of white working class votes (I couldn't find the stat for only men,but it was probably lower).

Rather, an immense number of non-whites and non-males voted for Obama.

GOTV. In the cities. Let's not get distracted by the white male vote, especially in the Rust Belt. They are the chimera that you could chase forever and never catch. Remember "Ironstache?" Randy Bryce in Wisconsin? He was actually a WWCM-- union ironworker, tough as nails, running in a working class district-- lost to a nobody lawyer who was Paul Ryan's chosen guy.

We can't fathom this. It makes no sense. If you were a white working class guy, wouldn't you vote for this actual ironworker, this actual union guy, this actual local fella that might hang out at your local tavern?

Sure!

But they didn't. They voted for the effete Georgetown graduate white-shoes firm lawyer who represented big manufacturing companies against labor.
Why? God knows.

We need to give it up. Just as well. The White Working Class Male is an ever-shrinking portion of the electorate.

Get women (esp. non-white women) and blacks and Hispanics and young people in the cities to turn out in record numbers. Cities. Urban areas over 250K.

[Demsrule86]

36. I live in Ohio and i say you are wrong, And in 12 Biden and Bill Clinton saved

Obama.

[JI7]

13. a lot of people don't know that in the Primary the "rust belt" white men went for Hillary over Obama

[crazytown]

38. Ohio March 4, 2008 - Hillary 53.5, Obama 44.8

Ohio and Texas put the breaks on Obama.

General 2008: Obama 51.4, MCain 46.9
General 2012: Obama 50.7, Romney 47.7

2008 is one primary I will never forget. Ugly.

[StevieM]

42. Hillary lost those voters over the fake email scandal, not because she ignored them,

or because she was inherently unlikeable to them.

[True Blue American]

15. Agree!

[Midwestocrat]

22. That's not entirely true.

His message resonated with rural Americans too, granted he didn't win them in most cases. But he won Iowa (Hillary lost it by double-digits), he lost Missouri by only 2% (Hillary lost it by a huge margin), he won eastern Nebraska, he won Indiana, and then went on to win Ohio (twice).

A couple of those were tougher to hold in 2012, but you don't win those just by turning out city dwellers: in fact, since most American cities are on the coast, you just argued Tim Ryan's point. Obama knew you needed a coalition of people, that's why he outperformed Hillary so much better in many rural areas.

[brooklynite]

29. Clinton won the Ohio cities with larger margins that Obama...

...problem was she LOST the rural counties by larger margins than Obama.

You' can't win with only Democratic base votes.

[blue neen]

4. Tim Ryan made some good observations.

His points about the GM job losses in Ohio (after the GM bailout) were right on.

[True Blue American]

16. The bailout

Helped to restructure a bankruptGM. Trump is now destroying it, along with greedy management once again.

[JudyM]

45. Teaching schoolkids how to manage their emotions better. He's into mindfulness training, which is

sorely needed. We’d have far fewer of them grow up to be repugnants.

[blue neen]

48. Yes, it was a new, sensible, and different idea brought forth.

I liked it.

[JudyM]

49. He's seriously been into it for some years, incl. starting meditation training sessions in Congress!

[Raine]

6. I like him

and would vote for him but it seems people's minds are made up against him.

[dawg day]

12. I've always liked Ryan--

But he was less than inspiring tonight. He's not running to be president of Youngstown, Ohio, but that's what he sounded like.

And I was sort of with him before.

[True Blue American]

18. His perpetual war

Hurt him with me. Americans want out of that useless war. We need to rebuild our Country with those wasted dollars that are not solving anything.

[msongs]

17. blue states are net givers, red states are net takers nt

[betsuni]

19. Elite, the insult:

http://www.economist.com/johnson/2010/10/27/elite-the-insult

[Cha]

20. Thank you for that, betsuni..

That's what Sanders called the Democratic Party AFTER the GE when he went on cbs.. and talked about how "deeply humiliated he was.. ".. and "how effective trump was.. "

Elite is a "fighting word"..

Bernie Sanders 'deeply humiliated' Democrats lost white working-class voters

Sen. Bernie Sanders expressed his disappointment Monday with Hillary Clinton's failure to secure the support of white working-class voters in last week's presidential election.

Donald Trump "very effectively" tapped into "the anger and angst and pain that many working class people are feeling," the Vermont independent senator who challenged Clinton in the Democratic primary said on "CBS This Morning."

"I think that there needs to be a profound change in the way the Democratic Party does business," Sanders said. "It is not good enough to have a liberal elite. I come from the white working class, and I am deeply humiliated that the Democratic Party cannot talk to where I came from."

https://www.cnn.com/2016/11/14/politics/bernie-sanders-humiliated-democrats-loss-working-class-voters/index.html

During the GE campaign..

The Atlantic: The Dangerous Myth That Hillary Ignored the Working Class.

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/12512648123

[Midwestocrat]

23. Agreed.

Tim Ryan could beat Trump, btw.

[femmedem]

25. Our other candidates make the case we're for workers without insulting voters on the coasts.

I live in CT in a city with a high poverty rate. I am well into middle age with no health insurance, making <40K year. When he used the word elite to describe voters like me, I wanted to smack him.

[Deb]

27. I was shocked he stereotyped voters like that from the stage.

This shit has to stop.

[Demsrule86]

37. And CT is viewed as 'elite'. I went to high school and college there.

Ryan is right...which is why i support Biden...who was born in PA.

[Grasswire2]

43. he's not talking about voters like you (us)

He's talking about the IMAGE the right has burned into the minds of middle America ABOUT us.

It has been a forty year propaganda campaign by conservatives, and it has been successful.

[femmedem]

47. I get that. But he's also perpetuating a false, damaging stereotype.

When he uses language like that, I hear that he isn't just taking care to include voters in his region. He's courting their votes by strengthening regional divisions instead of highlighting our common concerns.

It was actually the first time I felt in my gut how damaging the deplorable comment was, because I felt as if I was on the receiving end of something similar.

[Cosmocat]

26. Hes horribly wrong

Parroting the primary conservative slander of us is what got this country to this point.

It isnt our fault people vote so absurdly against themselves because there is a party that unabashedly stokes racism, sexism and overall hatred.

[Autumn]

30. I didn't know anything about him but he impressed me on that. Liz was the clear winner but

Tulsi and he were damn good. I will be watching him closely.

[Raven123]

31. I was hoping Ryan would offer more details on how to achieve this goal

[IluvPitties]

32. The way he said it was wrong and revealing.

[elias7]

33. If he says the word "brand" one more time, I'm gonna puke

To me, that term implies some sort of fresh corporatist marketing mindset that is being adopted around the country of how to present yourself. Trump does that too and will lie and lie and lie, getting away with it because facts are inconsistent with his mask, I mean brand.

[Demsrule86]

34. Ryan was my congress person until I moved to Cleveland. He is a great guy.

He is right. I dont think anyone but Ryan, Biden and maybe O'rourke. Can win. I think Biden has the best chance in a general...but i like Ryan...not too well known. And running against Nancy was not a great idea.if we are branded as socialists and coastal elites, we will lose. Yes I know it is bullshit, but the GOP has done this successfully more than once.

[Grasswire2]

39. I had never heard of Ryan before, and was prepared to dismiss him.

But when he talked about taking the public image of the Democratic Party back to its righteous roots, I stood up in my living room and cheered.

And I am a coastal elite -- if a coastal elite is an educated person who lives on the coast and has liberal values.

Middle Americans hate us most because they believe we look down on them. Yes, I know that the behavior of Trump's "deplorables" gives us many reasons to feel and appear snooty and superior.

But the "elite" frame allows our righteous history of gains for working folks to disappear.

And it allows conservative politicians to harness the anger of middle America against policies and politicians who would actually improve the lives of every American.

I don't know that I support Ryan for POTUS. Probably not.

But I sure would like to see him advance in this race and argue his point of view.

[Demsrule86]

40. Agree. We can't win if we don't expand our voters to include all 50 states...start by rebuilding the

the blue wall...We will lose 2020 if we don't and maybe 2024 as well.

[MrsCoffee]

41. Ryan is an idiot. Painting the party as the party of the elites is a losing strategy out of the gate

Really stupid of those who stood on stage and made that claim.

[Politicub]

44. Yeah - "coastal elites" -- really original and insightful

He holds the future in his hands.

[Honeycombe8]

46. This is true, and why there won't be a Biden-Harris or Biden-Warren ticket.

That would be the representation, to voters, of the "liberal coastal elites." Like it or not, fair or not, that advertising of the Democrats has been successful to a certain extent.

Most of America is not on either east or west coast. What's wrong with getting a candidate from any of those numerous regions?

Obama was Hawaii/Illinois. Clinton was Arkansas. Carter was Georgia. Anyone see a pattern there?