One by one, members of the Mahoning County Democratic Party poured out their frustrations: Just months after the presidential election, they felt folks like them were being forgotten — again. The party’s comeback strategy was being steered by protesters, consultants and elitists from New York and California who have no idea what voters in middle America care about.
But worst of all, they said, the party hadn’t learned from what they saw as the biggest message from November’s election: Democrats have fallen completely out of touch with America’s blue-collar voters.
“It doesn’t matter how much we scream and holler about jobs and the economy at the local level. Our national leaders still don’t get it,” said David Betras, the county’s party chair. “While Trump is talking about trade and jobs, they’re still obsessing about which bathrooms people should be allowed to go into.”
One doesn’t have to agree with their either/or view of social and economic issues, to appreciate their on the ground outlook that Democrats have treated the Midwest politically with benign neglect. What happened there in 2016 was over two decades in the making. But not to learn the lesson from what happened there is inexcusable. Arguing that more jobs are lost through automation than by so-called trade deals won’t work unless the party is prepared to offer a solution to the party. Such as adopting Bill Gates' idea of taxing the use of robots in manufacturing. As March Kaptur notes, it comes across as elitist and out of touch:
That geographic disconnect has translated into policies that alienate the heartland, Kaptur said, overlooking, for example, the devastation of globalized free trade on places such as Ohio. “They paid lip service to it, but the underlying attitude was, ‘You’re not modern enough, not educated enough, not willing to adjust,’” Kaptur said.
And though it has no chance of passing, Democrats need to come forth with a bold jobs plan, such as infrastructure, that will appeal to Youngstown voters.
And they need to heed this reminder:
He exploded with vulgar language while describing what happened with the Carrier deal, when Trump announced he had persuaded the air-conditioning company to keep more than 1,100 jobs in Indiana, a claim that drew skepticism.
“You had Democrats criticizing Trump about the exact number of jobs he saved,” said Betras, noting how backward it was for his party to be attacking the president for fighting for jobs. “Saving jobs used to be what our f---ing party was all about,” he said, pounding his fist into the bar.