Thinking about this interaction with an Uber driver this AM, who (hesitantly) voted for Obama twice & voted for Trump in his first run. He didn’t vote in the last election, but what he said had me thinking about how Democrats need to understand why Trump rose to power 1/ (thread)

He told me he voted for Trump the first go around bc according to his logic, he was rich and therefore couldn’t be bought. Also because he didn’t like that he was penalized per the ACA on his already small tax return for not buying health insurance.

I explained to him that the individual mandate was something championed by Republicans and was likely a compromise to pass the ACA, falling short of a universal system that had been championed by previous Dem presidents.

This got me thinking though. From everyone I’ve talked to about the issues that matter to them on canvasses, phone calls, or during Uber rides, the common thread between all of them is distrust in govt due to corruption or too much compromise & what hurts their pocketbooks.

Hardly anyone I’ve talked to has consistent political views as a monolith in their socioeconomic group as those of us on Political Twitter seem to have and think of most people. NYT has a great article on this: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/20/opinion/polarization-politics-americans.html?referringSource=articleShare

For some of us, it’s easy to dismiss Trump supporters as racist, end of discussion. But the conversation should be more nuanced than this if we want to save the country from the jaws of Trumpism

Was racism a contributing factor? Of course it was. Even if his supporters are not in-your-face KKK hood racists, they decided that Trump’s racist history and policies were not a dealbreaker. But it goes beyond that if you look at other examples in history.

Part of why Hitler and his party came to power is by scapegoating minorities (Jews, homosexuals, etc) for Germany’s economic woes after the Treaty of Versailles, and promoting simple “solutions” to such complex internal problems.

When people feel that the government is no longer working for them and the deck of the economy is stacked against them, they tend to vote for populists and demagogic authoritarians that do so and proffer scapegoats.

It’s very easy to blame others for your woes when you feel left behind rather than having deep conversations about policy and big structural reforms.

Sociologist Arlie Hothschild wrote a book called “Strangers in their Own Land” to study conservative identity. She came up with this allegory https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/12/deep-story-trumpism/617498/

Despite having policies that end up hurting his base constituency, his supporters continue to support and vote for Trump and those aligned with him with this internal victimization and distrust towards govt. When it comes to progress for minorities, it can feel like...

... oppression to those who are used to the privilege yet feel left behind because the economy hasn’t been working for anybody, per Hothschild. Yale historian Timothy Snyder also coined the term “sadopopulism” for the former phenomenon

By dismissing them immediately as racists and ending the conversation there, we feed into this suffering mentality rather than trying to run on reforming the deep structural issues in govt and economy (with effective messaging) that led to this mentality in the first place.

Again, this isn’t to say that we shouldn’t take underlying racism into account. Based on history, I feel that racism is a symptom of the disease of overall distrust in government and the inefficiency of our economy to ensure that all people are well off and healthy.

We have to run and elect politicians with effective messaging who will not nibble around the edges in addressing these issues. We have challenges though- Americans’ recoil from the word “socialism”, the deep libertarian streak in our politics, and the “let’s move on” mentality

Circling back to Trump, aside from the racism of scapegoating minorities and Electoral College maths, he won based on his messaging about “draining the swamp” in Washington (yet ended up “filling” the “swamp” more). Obama also won and ran based on taking on special interests

Many people I’ve spoken to are disappointed with the way that ACA turned out. Although it gave more Americans healthcare, Members of Congress’ priority that Big Insurers (who lobby and donate to them) would remain profitable under this legislation and had to compromise w/ the IM

On top of that, people I’ve talked to were also disappointed that big corporations and executives who caused the 2008 Recession were not held fully accountable, as Obama said he wanted the country to move on.

This tinkering and nibbling around the edges is what turns people off from politics or leads them to voting for demagogues who offer simple “solutions” to these complex issues and scapegoat groups of people.

Democrats should run on getting big money out of politics, going after dark special interests, hauling systemic corruption in govt, etc to win. Biden and the Dem House need to be strong in doing so as President to uncover the truth about the crimes under this current Presidency

In future elections, we cannot afford more “reconciliation” and moving on without uncovering these truths and weeding out cronyism in government. This is what Warnock and Ossoff have been trying to do in the Georgia runoffs against Loeffler & Perdue, and quite effectively too.

We also have to ensure that we don’t compromise too much in future legislation and use all the arrows in our quiver to get things done- from procedural rules in Congress to executive action from the President.

Lest we fall back to placing more financial burden on working people & their families like the individual mandate did for those who couldn’t afford any health insurance yet were penalized. Many people in power have lost re-election for putting more financial burden on working ppl

That’s just a piece of the roadmap forward.