The recent claims that Trump’s naked appeals to racism were what got him elected (full stop) just don’t ring true in a country that elected Barack Obama twice, when the country was even more white than it is now.
The problem was, we didn’t have a candidate willing to offer an effective counter-narrative to explain to people why they felt trapped. Yes, Trump’s voters were solidly middle-class, but that didn’t mean they didn’t feel the squeeze in an economy where all the gains have been going to the top 1%. This was brilliantly illustrated in this BrooklynBadBoy diary.
Trump was able to portray himself as a man of the people (“I will be your voice in Washington”) who would “drain the swamp” because Hillary was seen as more beholden to the Wall Street folks who wrecked the economy thanks to her $200,000 Goldman Sachs speeches and non-stop fundraising from these types.
Income inequality should have been THE narrative of the 2016 election, but we nominated a candidate unable to make that the centerpiece of her campaign.
We needed a candidate who could say credibly it’s not poor, hard-working immigrants who are making average Americans’ lives worse, it’s billionaire swindlers like Donald Trump and his billionaire buddies who have rigged the economy in their favor to everyone else’s detriment. That it was actually Trump who got to use the word “rigged” in his favor is one of the great travesties of this election.
Obviously, Bernie (whose message appealed to many of the same rural whites who ended up voting for Trump) would have been the guy to deliver that message in 2016. Going forward (Bernie will be 78 in 2020), there is no candidate better positioned to deliver this message than Elizabeth Warren. (This really should have been the Democratic message as far back as 2008 but the candidate with the “Two Americas” theme turned out to be hopelessly morally compromised.)
Warren has made protecting the poor and middle class from the predations of people like Trump her life’s work, and people know it. I realize she has a Senate race to win first, but once that is over, I hope a major focus of progressive sites like this will be to convince her to run for President as the person best suited to take on Trumpism as a campaigner and best equipped to undo the damage of Trump as president (she’s really smart).
I know folks like Markos will say she doesn’t want to run, but that was also true of her Senate race in 2012. The situation she saw people in then convinced her to take that plunge. The situation we’re in now is far worse. If enough people have her back (and the Democratic Party sees how many people are willing to contribute to her campaign) I believe she can be convinced again (and the Party will not try to block her like they did Bernie).
Here are two small things you can do now to show support for the most effective anti-Trump candidate we could offer: http://www.voteforwarren.org/ and Elizabeth Warren for President 2020 Facebook page.