The Dangerous Myth That Hillary Clinton Ignored the Working Class

[La Lioness Priyanka]

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/12/hillary-clinton-working-class/509477/

The more frightening possibility for liberals is that Clinton didn’t lose because the white working class failed to hear her message, but precisely because they did hear it.

Trump’s white voters do support the mommy state, but only so long as it’s mothering them. Most of them don’t seem eager to change Medicare or Social Security, but they’re fine with repealing Obamacare and its more diverse pool of 20 million insured people. They’re happy for the government to pick winners and losers, so long as beleaguered coal and manufacturing companies are in the winner’s circle. Massive deficit-financed spending on infrastructure? Under Obama, that was dangerous government overreach, but under Trump, it’s a jobs plan by a guy they know won’t let Muslims and Mexicans cut in line to get work renovating highways and airports.....

..
After the election, some people called for an end to “identity politics” that promotes niche cultural issues over economic policy. But any reasonable working-class platform requires the advancement of policies that may disproportionately help non-whites. For example, hundreds of thousands of black men stay out of the labor force after being released from prison sentences for non-violent crimes. For them and their families, criminal justice reform is essential economic reform, even if poor whites see it as a distraction from that “real” issues that bedevil the working class, like trade policy.

[Me.]

1. Thank You

That myth is part of the dunderheaded thinking that will keep us losing elections.

[Uponthegears]

2. How about an OP titled

"The Dangerous Myth that the White Working Class Didn't Hear Hillary's Message?"

Hillary won a solid majority of <$50K working class voters and STILL there is a certain group of Hillary supporters who still want to blame working people for her loss.

Could this be because "someone" doesn't want to blame the white suburbanites making $75K+ (a/k/a "Reagan Democrats&quot who voted in a majority which crossed gender lines for a unabashed racist/misogynist/xenophobic/Islamophobic/homophobe?

Is there any faction within the Democratic Party that has been preaching since 1992 that we can "reach out" to white suburbia with policies like favoring capital punishment, favoring welfare reform, favoring only minor changes to the tax system, favoring monetary policy that will grow their 401K's, etc that might not want to talk about how their target audience are irredeemable pond scum and that is why they left our party in the first place?

Is there?

[Garrett78]

3. Call it selective economic outrage. Not only does the WCW narrative collapse under scrutiny...

...continuing to promote that false narrative risks turning it into a self-fulfilling prophecy. So, yeah, it's dangerous.

I wrote -- I swear for the last time -- why the "working class whites/economic messaging" narrative is so ridiculous: http://www.democraticunderground.com/12512644341#post41

[Pacifist Patriot]

4. Great article, thank you

[ismnotwasm]

5. Excellent article

I'm very tired of bullshit political magical thinking and rehashed conspiracy theorizes when it comes to this analyzing this election cycle

[Seasider]

6. The bottom line with Hillary

At least in my opinion is that there are people in this country who were just not going to vote for her no matter what she did or said. It's like the saying goes, if you tell a lie enough times people will start to believe it. Hillary was subjected to 3 decades of vicious attacks from the right-wing media. It doesn't matter who you are, that takes a toll on how the general public perceives her even those who supported her.

Part of me wishes she had taken Bill Maher's advice and embraced the negative attacks and spin it the way Trump does and become the Notorious HRC.

[Garrett78]

7. Agreed.

Someone else with the exact same message and strategy carries PA, WI, MI, OH, NC, FL and so on.

Sometimes it's the messenger and not the message. That said, voting for Trump was inexcusable:

Trump brags about and commits sexual assault (and he likely raped a 13-year-old)

Trump was endorsed by the KKK and has a long history of overt bigotry (plus he discriminated at his housing developments)

Trump suggested banning Muslims

Trump suggested most Mexican immigrants are rapists and drug dealers (in fact, that's precisely when his campaign picked up steam)

Trump lies and contradicts himself constantly (at a rate *much* higher than Clinton, according to Politico and anyone with a brain)

Trump cheered the housing collapse because he could capitalize on it

Trump ran a fraudulent "University"

Trump stiffed the contractors/blue collar workers he hired

Trump isn't even coherent much of the time (read the transcripts from his speeches and debate performances)

Trump didn't put forth substantive policy positions, whereas Clinton did (on economic matters and everything else)

And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

[NewJeffCT]

8. as I said on Facebook

it only seems to be identity politics when it does not involve white people. Never mind that Nixon's Southern Strategy that was also used by Reagan, Bush Jr and Trump is and was the very definition of identity politics: appealing to a specific interest group.

[Garrett78]

9. Yep, the GOP is the party that engages in identity politics.

As with the "liberal media" narrative, Republicans (and those dumb enough to buy their BS) have taken reality and flipped it on its head.

[Jose Garcia]

10. She didn't ignore the working class, but Trump had a more effective message targeting that group

[Garrett78]

11. She did better among the working class. He did better among working class whites.

Gee, I wonder why.

[Uponthegears]

12. The WWC myth is dying hard.

<$50K = Hillary wins

Among those worried about economic justice = Hillary wins

THE ECONOMIC JUSTICE VOTERS that so many Hillary supporters want to paint as racists/misogynists/xenophobes/Islamo-phobes/homophobes who abandoned Hillary actually voted for her more often than Trump and in a percentage similar to Obama's. In other words, not only did Hillary's message get through to Bernie voters, they answered the call.

The voters who DIDN'T come through were those white suburbanites that the DLC/Third Way has been pandering to for decades, the REAL racists/misogynists/xenophobes/Islamo-phobes/homophobes. They have screwed us over and over again and they did it again this year.

[ehrnst]

13. That's what Bernie has been coasting on lately. (nt)

[Buckeye_Democrat]

14. White people voted the same in 2012 and 2016 according to CNN's exit polls.

I was just comparing the 2012 and 2016 exit polls.
2012: http://www.cnn.com/election/2012/results/race/president/
2016: http://edition.cnn.com/election/results/exit-polls

Clinton's performance compared to Obama:

GENDER
Worse among men
Better among women

RACE
Same among whites (!!)
Worse among blacks
Worse among Latinos
Worse among Asians
Worse among other race

EDUCATION:
High school or less:
24% of voters in 2012: Obama 53%, Romney 46%
18% of voters in 2016: Clinton 46%, Trump 51%
Some college:
29% of voters in 2012: Obama 49%, Romney 48%
32% of voters in 2016: Clinton 43%, Trump 51%

INCOME
Worse among voters earning less than 50k
Better among voters earning more than 50k

UNION HOUSEHOLD
Worse among "yes"
Worse among "no"

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
Worse among "offer legal status"
Worse among "deport"

FAVORABLE / UNFAVORABLE OPINION of Clinton and Obama
Much worse (Obama's favorable percentage stayed about the same in the 2012 & 2016 polls too)