Meet the New Trump Democrats

The Vermont senator also had advice for the Democratic party following their surprise loss: “The Democrats can not continue to be run – the Democratic party – by what I call the liberal elite”, he said.

No. 2: Whichever person is now warming the desk at the White House can not and will not affect your daily life. “Moneyed interests in both parties don’t want to come to terms with it”, he told The New Republic.

Most important, he failed to make significant progress on the principal task highlighted in the Republican Party’s much-discussed “autopsy” that followed Romney’s painful defeat: generating more support among black, Latino and Asian voters.

This is in line with a critique made against the Clinton campaign throughout the election, one that has gained new currency in its cataclysmic aftermath.

Though most of the electorate doesn’t like Obama’s policies, a majority still likes the man, far more than Trump or Clinton. Her comments followed statements by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and United Auto Workers President Dennis Williams that the unions saw a “great opportunity”, in the words of Williams, to “find some common ground” with Trump.

But not everyone agrees with this diagnosis. “How does it happen that they win elections and Democrats lose?” The message itself was fine.

I’ll tell you how I understand it.

Bernie Sanders’ strongest supporters argued the very obvious facts that he was able to connect with white working-class voters and that this is precisely what the party needs in the horrifying aftermath of its losses last week, particularly in the key blue-collar states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio. “They feel he will improve their economic lives”, West added. “Do I have concerns?”

In a speech Friday to the AFL-CIO Executive Council, meeting in Washington, Warren detailed possible points of agreement with the new Republican administration, particularly in opposing trade agreements and promoting economic nationalism. It’s not their thing.

“He said a whole lot of things”. I think SNL summed up that dynamic, and I paraphrase: “You had a 40-something charismatic black man and now you have a 70-year-old exhausted white woman”.

Sanders spoke to his sense of optimism despite the end of his campaign and discussed his hopes for the Democratic Party. Gee, ya think? The party apparently had “a growing realization”, years after it should have been obvious that Obama’s personal successes weren’t translating to the grassroots. After all, the TPP is dead, killed by Trump. But pressure from House members who want some new blood in the leadership forced Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi to delay the party’s leadership elections until after Thanksgiving.

Furthermore, the Democratic National Committee is under pressure to roll out a grassroots push in all 50 states. Also, back when Obama had an ambitious stimulus plan, Republicans fought against funding for essential infrastructure like transportation, roads, electricity, and much more. They are blue collar, in fact, working class Americans, sick and exhausted of being called racist, misogynist, sexist and homophobic.

Unfortunately, Democratic Party leaders might have expected it more than we did.

Sanders said that amounted to a choice for Democrats to decide whether they’re standing with “corporate America” and Wall Street or with a declining middle class. But that bridge never got built.

Hillary Clinton’s basic difficulty with issues was that she was caught between Barack and a hard place. And despite Obama’s current polling popularity, and despite his recent unprecedented endorsement of 150 state legislative candidates, Democrats got nowhere last week.