Are You Outraged? Your Outrage is Justified.

[question everything]

22. The other side raised valid points that were ignored

Yes, it is easy to claim racism and misogyny. It is easy to talk about "the media" "corporate" and others.

As I have posted here several times: the economy has improved, inflation went down, many more jobs... these were published in the WSJ, but comments always were: but grocery prices are high. No one had a reply to this.

A friend in Chicago last summer was dismayed about all the migrants on the streets; "60 Minutes" showed migrants easily entering through a tear in the fence with no one stopping them. (Oh, wait, is "60 minutes" a corporate enemy now?)

And an interesting opinion in the WaPo (oh, wait, is the WaPo now the enemy too?)

Why did Bidenomics fail to deliver at the polls? - WaPo

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016393111

Manufacturing employs only about 13 million of the nearly 160 million workers toiling outside of farms. Fewer than 1.4 million of those are represented by unions. The industrial policies and the trade barriers, speeches at the picket line and talk of factories returning to left-behind rural areas, were all aimed at a small corner of American society.

“A policy that promises to restore the middle class by bringing manufacturing back is not only unrealistic,” Rodrik wrote for Project Syndicate. “It also rings hollow, because it does not align with workers’ aspirations and everyday experiences.”

There are nearly 16 million workers in retail trade, 17 million in leisure and hospitality, almost 18 million in health care. For sure, they benefited from some of Biden’s policies. But incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act for contractors to work with union labor did nothing for them. So perhaps the lesson for some future Democratic administration hoping to assist the working class is not necessarily that populist policies don’t work. It is that these policies need to be aimed at what America has become, not what it was a bunch of decades ago.

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I am glad you are holding a mirror because, sadly, on these pages, it is always blaming others. Many electoral votes come from rural areas so I don't understand why there is so much hatred and contempt to rural voters.

Here, in Minnesota, the governor and the senators won thanks to rural voters, though the percentage has been shrinking.

Rural Montana had a Democratic Senator - Jon Tester - and a Governor - Steve Bullock (who also entered the 2020 primaries) as was Ohio - Sherrod Brown, all won in rural areas and all lost.

Yes, racism and misogyny played a role. There are too many voters who think that a man should be a President and perhaps we should not try to force the issue to "stand on principle." I also think that not many voters would trust a Californian.

It still bothers me that four governor participated in the 2020 primaries and did not make a dent. Instead, the ones who promised freebies made it to the final stage. (And Kudos to my candidate until she withdrew, Klobucher, for opposing this).

And, you ignored the elephant in the room: the uncertainty about Biden. I will always be grateful to Biden for concluding every single speech, including the last State of the Union, the same, positive way:

“We are the United States of America. And there is nothing — nothing beyond our capacity when we act together.”

As opposed to the anger of Sanders - who is not even a Democrat but apparently does not bother many - and Warren.

I think that it was assumed that he would be a one term president to bring us to normalcy. And perhaps some day he will be recognize as one of the best with all the bills that he signed. But last year, even before that fateful debate, he was perceived as too old for this demanding job. Again, not on these pages but..

Sadly. Trump managed to generate enthusiasm and we did not. We did not have the answers to issues that they raised and, yes, our "identity politics." I can see a rural, white person thinking: the Democrats care about blacks, and Latinos (who, BTW, voted in large numbers for Trump), women, Asians, gay (and lets forget for now the trans ad which caused so much damage) where do I fit?

I hope that we will do better in the midterm as we should. And I think that we have identified great candidate for 2028 and we should work with them and encourage them and donate to them. And I hope that we can follow Biden positive approach.

OK, start shooting. Still, thank you for the comments.