Joe Biden worries about the "bit of elitism that's crept in" the Democratic party

[DonViejo]

The vice president mused about Hillary Clinton and the future of the party in a new interview with the LA Times

MATTHEW ROZSA

In his most recent interview, Vice President Joe Biden had plenty of insights to share about Hillary Clinton and the future of the Democratic Party.

“I don’t think she ever really figured it out,” Biden said to the Los Angeles Times on Thursday when discussing Clinton’s campaign. “And by the way, I think it was really hard for her to decide to run.” In Biden’s opinion, Clinton felt compelled to run for president because it would be a historic achievement for American women.

“She thought she had no choice but to run,” Biden said. “That, as the first woman who had an opportunity to win the presidency, I think it was a real burden on her.”

Like his boss President Obama, Biden believes a large part of the blame for Clinton’s defeat rests with the party not making it clear that it cared about the concerns of ordinary Americans.

“I believe that we were not letting an awful lot of people — high school-educated, mostly Caucasian, but also people of color — know that we understood their problems,” Biden said. He also warned against “a bit of elitism that’s crept in” to the party he has served on the national level for 44 years.

more
http://www.salon.com/2016/12/23/joe-biden-worries-about-the-bit-of-elitism-thats-crept-in-the-democratic-party/

[HopeAgain]

1. Finally someone is saying it!

I love Joe's honesty...

There is no doubt in my mind that it was Hillary Clinton, not Trump who came off to much of America as the "elitist." The truth is painful, but how is it working for us to be in denial?

[JHan]

4. How does this jive with one platform clearly "getting it" and the other not getting it?

tactical errors were made to make more people aware of this but :

One platform was more progressive - Clinton

And the other was not - Trump.

Appearances, "optics" were all that mattered this year, so "Lies" won- and that is the danger of Populism, Reason flies out the window.

[yurbud]

18. it's hard to get non policy wonks excited about incremental change, especially when we see bold

action as soon as the financial elite clear their throat about to complain or even when those Wall Street sociopaths fuck up the world economy through intentional fraud, and instead of locking them up and making it lot more difficult to do it again, Washington stuffs their pockets with money.

People kind of remember that when someone says we can only afford to improve things a tiny bit more for the rest of us.

[JHan]

19. but how would you lock them up without process?

I'm an ordinary citizen, I'm not filthy rich. I despise corporations that prioritize profit above all else but screaming lock them up doesn't solve anything.

One candidate had detailed plans on how to deal with Wall Street Culture, the other railed against "the establishment"

The latter is great for an emotional release, but leaves me with nothing substantive.

[yurbud]

22. Have you noticed how legally creative they get when it comes to screwing us or killing people

in other countries?

That is the other profound contrast I've noticed in how the rich are treated vs. the rest: laws are for little people.

[vi5]

2. Taking unions for granted has been our downfall.

It goes without saying that data shows that the decline in union membership has tracked the increase in income inequality.

Adopting a "Well who else are you going to vote for?" attitude towards unions has cost the Democratic party.

For decades strong union support could exist effectively and cooperatively with all the other groups that the Democratic party supports. My older family members were die-hard Union members and like much of their generation they were not exactly the most enlightened and tolerant folks when it came to people of color or gays or even women. But it was never a question for them whether they would support the party that also supported those other groups because that same party supported the working man and made unions stronger and supported them as well. I watched as starting with the Clinton years the party tried to please both camps and claim to be in favor of unions, while at the same time supporting policies and positions that ran counter to what was in the best interest of the unions or working people in general. It was at that point that I started to see my relatives fall victim to the rhetoric coming from the right about who was more concerned with their best interests. The right's overtures to their racial resentment had not previously worked, but once they weren't seeing the same support from the Democratic party as far as their economic interests they became more susceptible to it.

So now these same folks within our claiming it's one or the other (economics or identity) are driving me crazy. Support unions, make them stronger, find those "walking shoes" that President Obama seemed to have lost (although he was hardly the first or the only culprit here) and it won't matter what other issues we can and do and should support strongly because people will recognize that our policies help all people.

[PatsFan87]

15. This 100%

To add onto your point, I noticed during this election that there can be a disconnect between union heads and union members. Union heads are important but union members are your votes.

[Go Vols]

20. +1

[Freethinker65]

3. I think the problem is not that the Democratic Party is elite...

The Democratic Party lets itself get defined by the GOP in media and on the "stump". The GOP knows how to operate with most of the party on message in effective digestible sound bites that become ear worms. So "tax and spend" becomes associated with liberals, "crooked" becomes associated with Hillary. "Basket of deplorables" and "putting coal out of business" became Hillary's "47%" comment. Trump had too many outrageous comments for the Dems to focus...
The GOP is also better at deflecting things they do not want to discuss. They seldom answered direct questions but effectively changed the topic to Benghazi, emails, etc. The Democrats give detailed answers to questions asked.
We won the popular vote. We should have won the electoral college in a landslide.

[JHan]

6. Yes, we fail to counter effectively how we are defined.

Still there were some failures since 2010 that even Obama and Biden have to own up to- We've been losing ground.

[KittyWampus]

16. I agree. We have the core values but SUCK at marketing. Marketing is a science.

Republicans are better at at and stick to the message/narrative as a whole whether they may personally agree or not.

[Orsino]

5. Stop pulling punches, Joe. It's called "money."

We let it vote, then feigned surprise when it started voting for itself.

[JCanete]

11. yep, we are always going to come in second if we keep playing nice with money. I think enough of

the Democratic establishment are okay with that on some level. That or they've created a whole mythology that is other than the reality.

[doc03]

26. But Hillary far outspent trump nt

[Orsino]

27. (If you don't count nearly three billion in airtime the networks gave.)

But we know to count that.

And as far as where the rest of the visible contributions came from, there's a significant difference.

[jalan48]

7. Looks like even mainstream Party members like Reid and Biden get it.

Last edited Fri Dec 23, 2016, 12:50 PM - Edit history (1)

Are we still going to see statements here on DU that we don't need rural white voters and that we should forget them? That they are all racist and unworthy of our attention? It's very possible a statement like Biden's would be hidden on the current DU if it was submitted by a poster. Somewhere along the line the elitists have become out of touch with reality.

[mtnsnake]

8. Can someone please show me a single sentence/quote where he used the word elite or elitism?

I searched this article by Salon, the actual LA Times article, and Google, and it kept taking me full circle back to Fox News making the claim that Biden said this. It's probably just me being too thick to see it, but I'd appreciate it if someone could link us to the actual quote or the actual video of him saying it.

[jalan48]

9. This is from the LA Times article.

There’s “a bit of elitism that’s crept in” to party thinking, he worries, setting up what he sees as the false impression that progressive values are inconsistent with working-class values.

[mtnsnake]

10. Thank you

[HeartachesNhangovers]

12. VP Biden makes it sound as if it's unimaginable for

Hillary Clinton to have presidential ambitions. Her progression from Mrs. Clinton to the Senate to the State Dept. was a clear attempt to set herself up for a presidential run. What's wrong with that? VP Biden says:

“She thought she had no choice but to run,” VP Biden said. “That, as the first woman who had an opportunity to win the presidency, I think it was a real burden on her.”

As if she just woke up one day and said, "Dang, I guess I HAVE to run for president". Give her a little credit!

[yagotme]

13. He must have forgotten

her run in 2008. Primaried out.

[mtnsnake]

14. Imagine if Joe posted that sentiment here on DU

There would have been all those "So I suppose she should have stayed home and baked cookies" posts popping up immediately.

[Arazi]

17. I'm surprised this hasn't been removed yet

It's heresy here but I'm damn glad Joe Biden is saying it

[realmirage]

21. Glad he said it because a lot of us are thinking it, but here, people would alert on it quick

[Raine]

23. "crept"? It's blatantly taken over.. nt

[jack_krass]

24. If Joe were a DUer he'd be:

Called a sexist and racist
Accused of not being a Democrat
Alert swarmed
Talked down to and ridiculed
Banned