I couldn’t agree more with that writer. Witness the private push back from the few moderate and a few conservative House members at the Philadelphia GOP retreat on rapid repeal of the ACA. I have been thinking of a writing the upstate GOP CongressPeople a letter saying they risk alienation of anybody who loses their health insurance because of TrumpCare and there are quite a few upstate who would probably do so. But I also think those GOP people already know that, but they have made a bargain to support Trump and are riding the bucking bronco.
i agree with you that the real issue for all Democrats is how to take back the House and Senate and win the Presidency. The question that only candidates who run in rural areas can answer is what balance of issues will convince swing voters to swing the other way. We cannot answer that from our NYC bubble.
What this election made clear to me is identity politics are the Democratic equivalent of religious right and NRA issues for the GOP. The Democrats can only back off so far on identity issues because they are generally a moral issue, but they have also mostly been won and need to be defended. When you are down to defending the rights of Transgender people who are a very small percentage of the population you have won on most of the issues. You don’t need to run the oppositions noses into the ground on the issue. If a Baker doesn’t want to bake a cake for a gay wedding, go to another baker and simply never go back to the 1st baker. Of course, there are still some major issues (Black Lives Matter, Gun Control, Income inequality) and Trump is creating more of them without solving any of them (Immigration).
But I think the key issue is the loss of rural Democratic voters who respond to an economic message. That is the challenge for those of us on the coasts who have prospered in the Global Economy. Certainly a focus on income inequality is key but so is developing a set of policies that will help people develop small businesses in rural areas. That revolves around some tax policy, some access to capital issues, but also state regulations. New York’s Worker’s Compensation costs are out of control and that is a state issue that hurts small business. I don’t know a solution to the latter problem because I suspect it revolves around the amount of money the fund pays out to workers hurt on the job and while fraud is likely an issue, so is providing enough money to live on for the truly injured. So these economic issues are complicated and require some coordination between State and Federal level politicians if some rural voters are to start believing that the Democrats are listening to them and responding to their needs
The one caveat to identity issues being won is Roe v Wade will likely be overturned in 2 to 4 years depending on further SCOTUS retirements. I heard last night somewhere that Justice Kennedy is likely to retire at the end of this year and who knows when Justice RBG might retire. It will be interesting to see if the GOP allows State’s Rights to function on that issue. i personally plan to start sending some of our charity $ to Planned Parenthood. They will need increased support from their supporters.
I would like to be encouraged by an impeachment but VEEP Pence is a fervent believer in the Reactionary Right and is really no better except perhaps on international relations.
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