TheAtlantic: Can Millennials Save the Democratic Party? (2016 analysis)

[Fuzzy Bear]

I would suggest that WWC millennials in IA, MI, WI, and PA sunk Clinton big time.

I would bet, if you looked at data, that these "WWC millennials" are really the offspring of the older WWC folks who were directly impacted by things like NAFTA.  These voters grew up in households that were often Democratic and Unionized, but they have not been union members themselves and have not had the kind of tie to the Democratic Party, personally, that active union members have.  In What's The Matter With Kansas?, Thomas Frank shows how union membership "inoculates" folks against appeals to militaristic patriotism, religious and moral values, and the "wedge issues" of the GOP and focuses these voters on their economic interests.  "Union membership" is not likely a fact of life for young millennials in WI, MI, and PA, and some of these states that represented the heart of the labor movement in many ways (MI, WI, IN, IA, WV) are now right to work states.  In some of these states, most notably IN, Republican governors (Mitch Daniels, in particular) rammed through right to work laws after explicitly promising not to, so fewer millennials will have, over time, the experience of being unionized.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Well now new analysis is tending to show that Clinton won white college educated voters (overall, not just millennials)... which I have argued on this forum for months and was attacked quite vigorously by a certain poster or two.  The fact is that the trendlines are clear, there is one party that has a coalition that will swamp the other party in 10 years.  Hint - "white working class voters" or whatever PC term they are referred to as now, are not growing as a segment of the population... they decline every single election cycle... yet Republicans are doubling down on this group... this is not a sustainable long term strategy... at all...  Republicans just sticking their fingers in their ears and saying "but they're in swing states" need to realize that Iowa and Ohio won't be swing states forever and Democrats certainly won't need those states anyways.

Respectfully Sir, Clinton performing extremely well among White College Educated Voters (Is this a 4 year degree or a 2 year associates degree?) is in no way shape or form, a substitute for the dramatic collapse of WWC voters nationally....

There are a lot more working and middle-class White folk, many of whom voted for Obama once or twice, than there are wealthy people that swung heavily for Clinton between '12 and '16.

As Bill Clinton famously said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It's_the_economy,_stupid

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2012/09/06/bill-clinton-wonk-in-chief/?utm_term=.d266db2d8084

Millennials are currently a sliver of a much bigger pie.... We have yet to see the largest living generation in American History push the Football over the Goal Line on a 4th down.

I for one am not counting on the fickle attitudes of a future generation to deliver short and medium term results in any meaningful manner at the ballot boxes of America....

The Baby Boom generation thought they were "hot C**P" as well, and voted for Donald Trump by 5% Margins....

If you want to wait 20 years for the blooming of the Millennial generation, as part of a fictitious coalition of Millennials/ Wealthy White/ Latinos/Asians/African-American voters, to somehow win House/Senate/Gubernatorial and even Presidential races, there will be a ton of damage done....

There are a ton of White voters out there, that don't have four year degrees, many of whom don't have associates degrees, and quite a few as well that only have a High School Diploma.

If I understand your argument, then four out of my five daughters, four out of five partners/spouses are somehow ineligible for inclusion into your secret society of the "New Democratic Party" coalition.....

What about my grandchildren, one of whom is now 15, and Walter is only a few years away from graduating from High School, and regardless of his grades will likely face the choice of working for minimum wage, or going through the application and hopefully acceptance into Community College to learn some skills that can hopefully get him an entry level job competing against older workers with much more job experience?

Now--- you are absolutely correct that Iowa and Ohio are not Republican country forever, regardless of massive swings towards Trump in '16.

Quite frankly, I am a bit puzzled with your argument that Dems need to abandon OH and IA.... it also sounds like the Party should abandon Michigan, Wisconsin, and even places like New Hampshire and Maine..... Not even going to go into how the Democrats could lose two House seats in Oregon if your strategic plan is implemented in full.

WWC voters are part of the core of the Democratic Coalition, and if the Democratic Party chooses to abandon the roots of the Labor Movement and the New Deal Coalition, I will likely move to another Party that actually believes in fighting back against Corporate Greed, Wall Street speculation, Union-Busting, and ultimately a protection of all of the benefits that originated under FDR/New Deal/Great Recession and various Democratic Administrations over the years that fought to keep their promises to the working folks of America.

To put it bluntly, I'd prefer if you just not respond to my posts anymore... You have vigorously made your point about white working class voters, I do not in any way shape or form agree with it and I am getting sick of your trollish obsession with this group, as if their interests somehow matter more than anyone elses and your innuendo that the Democratic party needs to continually placate these voters at the expense of others (and in fact, your assertion that WWC voters are the core of the party is no longer even close to true simply by looking at raw vote totals).  If you feel uncomfortable in a party that has changed from a largely union based lower income white party to a diverse college educated party then adieu.

Also, WWC's are no more "working folks" than the rest of us who go into work every day and often pay far more in taxes, so stop acting holier than thou.  Just because some of us believe in free trade does not mean we aren't also "working folks."  Indeed, many of us grew up in humble means and worked far harder than the people you refer to, to get to where we are now and don't blame our circumstances on illegal immigration... so I don't really care for your "secret society" nonsense...

But the focus on WWC voters is something that made the Democratic Party the party of ordinary working folks and something that made the issues of ordinary working folks an issue.

The shift to a focus on social issues has made the Democratic Party a different sort of party; a party that is more concerned about the variety of choices available to middle class women (e. g. abortion, upward mobility into high management positions) then they are about the process that brought about the destruction of manufacturing jobs and how to reverse that.  The Democrats mirrored the GOP; while the GOP focused on how comfortable people could "keep their doctor", Democrats focused on things like how women could "shatter glass ceilings".  The rest of their passion was spent on issues such as those that are the focus of BLM, while GOP passions were spent on cake bakers and those who want to Make Restrooms Great Again (while Democrats wanted to Make Restrooms Great For The First Time, I suppose).

This is how Americans were robbed of their choices in politics.  This is how working class Americans woke up one day to find that the "party of the people" wasn't really interested in addressing the issues that would keep them in the middle class; they were interested in social issues advocated by folks who are donors.  The WWC were not wrong in believing that neither party was truly on their side.  Trump gave them the time of day, and then some.  Whether he was pulling the wool over their eyes or not remains to be seen.  But the WWC needed a Democratic Party whose focus was their economic welfare and not whether a small minority of folks could get an abortion or switch between bathrooms as their comfort level dictated.