Deplorables.
With one word in a speech to donors Hillary gave up what the ruling class really thinks of Americans. For far Right Conservatives such as myself it wasn’t some “Aha” moment, I’ve wondered since the moment the Clintons came on the scene why people couldn’t see they were all time grifters. But for the average working class Democrat that was the moment they realized the Democratic Party was no longer the Party of the working class, the hard hat, the union man.
Middle class white men are slow on the uptake as they say. Ask their girlfriends who will tell you they have to drop hint, after hint to get them to understand what they want and then to act. Blue collar middle class white men will get into a routine and just put life on cruise control. Work, softball, the big game Sunday at the stadium, date night, vote Democrat. Lather, rinse, repeat.
And for years the Democratic Party was their Party, while the Republicans were all for “big business”. Republicans represented the management they fought for a better contract, better pay, better benefits. Things usually got heated, ugly, in the negotiations between worker and management. “We” the workers were the Democrats, the working man, the engine that made this country roar. “They”, the management class, they were the “suits”, the Republicans, who were miserly until it came to bonus time, when they ate company profits freely, and drove into the parking lot with a nice, new car right after cashing stock options.
But with a single word uttered with a sneer the Democratic Party leader let the cat out of the bag.
The old Democratic Party was dead, as dead as American manufacturing.
The New Democratic Party was the Party of the donor class, the very rich, the “haves”. From Hollywood billionaires, to Silicon Valley billionaires, to the hedge fund titans of Wall Street, the Democratic Party had a new constituency. More Jeffrey Katzenberg, more George Soros, more Mark Zuckerberg, less grimy hard hats shaking hands with Hubert H. Humphrey in 1968 in Chicago.
Stereotypes die hard. Blue collar children of parents who were died-in-the-wool FDR, Kennedy, Johnson, voters to them the Republicans were all fat cats. Republicans had second homes in the UP, they drove Cadillacs, went to college and looked down on people that passed them on the street in pick-up trucks. Martinis verses a beer. And the Pabst crowd loathed the martini crowd. Vote with them? Never.
But Hillary’s utterance was a wake-up call. A slap in the face. Suddenly working class Americans, particularly white working class Americans realized the Party of their childhood, the Party of their parents, the only Party they’d ever known was no longer theirs.
Now as a die hard Conservative I find it hard to believe it took Hillary blurting out the “truth” to wake up middle class America. Somewhere around the time minorities got extra points on the post office exam just for the color of their skin should have been a concern for the white working class. Redress for past grievances are understandable right up until the generation that has to pay by taking second place is yours.
And when they lost promotions in police departments, fire departments, and in government jobs to women and minorities despite better qualifications it should have been eye opening. When Clinton pushed for the TPP and accelerated overseas manufacturing that should have been a clue that their dear old Democratic Party was no longer looking out for the middle class working class in America.
But since Hillary uttered that famous word we live in a new world. The old world has been turned completely upside down.
The Republicans are now the Party of the working class, the middle class.
The Democrats are wholly owned by the donor class. Entirely.
Blacks vote ninety percent for Democrats and are firmly on the Democratic plantation. Their votes cost little. Throw them subsistence entitlements and perhaps a cell phone, and the Democrats own their vote completely. Put half-a-dozen Black people together you couldn’t get them to agree on what movie to see, but put them into a voting booth they will reliably vote Democrat. Every single time.
The one group that is out there cluelessly voting Democrat time, and time again is the college educated female. Even when they become young parents they still sway elections with their vote for Democrats. You can give them awful public schools for their kids, indoctrinate their children into the LGBTQ+ movement at very young ages, you can tell them it takes a village to raise their children and disconnect the threads of connection between them and their offspring. You can inflate prices to the extent cars are unaffordable, housing is unaffordable, the grocery bill doubles. You can inflate all the costs in their lives from insurance, to gasoline, household goods.
All you have to do to reliably own their vote is to yell “abortion”, “guns”, “climate change”, and “equal pay”, every four years and viola!, permanent Democratic votes.
Sure I know that sounds sexist as Hell but before you attack me look up voting patterns for the past six elections. Clinton and Obama made college educated white women just swoon. As their policies destroyed their families and education. Have you seen the reading and math comprehension rates in public schools in major cities? Democrat controlled major cities? Liberal’s kids who attend public school are functionally illiterate.
Americans have been slow to respond to their new political alignment realities.
As big as MAGA gets it just can’t seem to bring over those blue collar union types whose family has voted Democrat since FDR. As much as Trump espouses a platform of middle class values, family values, he just can’t seem to bring the college educated women into the Republican camp.
Old stereotypes die hard.
We need to remove old, pasty-face, poster boy for the Country Club Republican Mitch McConnell from the Party sooner than later. And replace him with those Black twins from Youtube, show the country a different face for Republicans. Even then it will take years for the votes to follow. Old habits die very hard. Every time they put Lindsey Graham on television we lose a dozen white college educated female votes.
I grew up the son of a hard hat. A reliable Democratic voter. The man loathed Republicans, saw them as the management at Ford paying Pinkertons to gun down the working man during the strike.
But from an early age I listened to Democrats and all I heard was pandering. To me they were a hand-out Party, not a hand-up. I didn’t need charity I needed a chance. Democrats were the Party of giving me just enough so I don’t starve, but not enough to thrive was not my idea of the American dream. I’ll try to make it on my own, thank you.
So now you have to decide. It is 2024, an election year.
Are you some wealthy donor class type, comfortable getting an invite on Jeff Bezos’ yacht, hobnobbing with the Silicon Valley types in Jackson Hole, heading out to a fundraiser at Larry Fink’s house?
Or are you admittedly one of the “deplorable”, just a working class, middle class stiff, just trying to stay ahead of inflation?
Because this next election comes down to a decision as simple as that.
The Parties are well defined right now, perhaps better defined than ever before.
One is wholly owned by the rich donor class and votes and runs the country accordingly.
The other gives some nod and hope to the people in fly-over country. At least they don’t hate them enough to label them deplorable.
Is this the year you realize the past is gone, that old habits have to be broken?
Or is this yet another year of hearing “abortion”, “guns”, “climate change”, and voting against every single one of your personal interests?
The Democrats around me are not only NOT willing to examine, let alone to admit to, their own failing, sinking circumstances, they are more rabid than ever in their hatred of all things Republican, specifically MAGA. These idiots are just as ruined by inflation and the economy as the rest of us. They have sacrificed not only themselves, but also their own children to the neither safe nor effective jab and they send their kids off to government school every day without a second glance or thought. If losing their health, their children, and their money doesn't wake them up, what will?