So: What do we do about the fact that small-town and rural Americans are so out of touch

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104. Ugh...none of this is an either/or situation

Why do people on here insist on framing it as such.

Yes there was a lot of racism at play in Trumps win and our loss. Anyone that denies that is a fool. But there were also a lot of people that overlooked that racism for other reasons. Yes we can argue about whether or not that is racism in itself (I personally think it is, but that's another discussion) but the fact is that there were a lot of people who voted for Obama but didn't vote for Trump. Much more than even I imagined that there could be.

Nobody is suggesting we start chewing on hay and wearing confederate flag shirts All people are saying is that in addition to the cultural and social stuff (racism, homophobia, sexism, islamophobia, etc.) that the Democratic party already does a very good job at dealing with, that we also have to start going back to an economic message that will appeal to and raise everyone up. And no I'm not talking about "Well read the Democratic party platform!!" It's not the message we need it's the messenger, and that messenger has to be able to simply and clearly articulate hope that something can be done to better the lives of all Americans.

Our problem this election is that we relied almost completely on the social message (Trump is a racist! Trump is a sexist! Trump is an Islamophobe!!!) and hoped people would just vote against Trump. And as long as the GOP continues to exist in the reprehensible form that they do today and have for the past 20-30 years, we will continue to need that message. But we need to go back to our core Democratic economic message and have a great messenger to spread that message. And I'm sorry, for all the party platform and what's on the websites and everything else, Hillary was not that messenger. Whether it's because people didn't believe her (justified or not), or she just didn't articulate it clearly and simply enough, or whether they were just turned off by her "That's not going to happen. We won't be able to do that." negativity during the campaign.

People don't want to vote for realism. Thy want to vote for what can be not what is. And that's what this whole discussion revolves around, not simply an either/or social justice vs. economic justice argument.