I am a democrat BUT... The democratic party needs to change.

[TransfemmeGoreVidal]

The Problem with the Democratic Party is that they have moved too far to the left during the Trump Presidency and continued it under the Biden Presidency.

Evidence of it is that House Democrats have 221 Seats, 91 of them belong Democratic Progressive Caucus under the Stewartship of Pramila Jayapal.

It's too to govern when nearly 50 % are Progressives.

Pelosi, Hoyer and Clyburn aren't calling the Shots in the House. It's Jayapal & her cohorts.

The Democrats need to get rid of these Cori Bushes, AOC's Jamaal Bowmans, Rashida Talibs or Ilhan Omars otherwise they will be soon in permanent House Minority.

The problem is that many of the centrists are corporatists who are just as politically inept, like Krysten Sinema who killed a plan to negotiate prescription drug benefits. The left has popular economic views but is too far-left on social issues. What Democrats need ideally is an economically populist contingent that embraces a big tent on cultural issues. David Shor has talked about this a lot, run candidates like this in purplish districts and it’s the way to go. The problem is that as evidenced by some of the comments here both mainstream Dems and leftists seem to have no interest in that.

[TransfemmeGoreVidal]

and yes many rural white people are racist. I’d rather have a world in which racism wasn’t central to their political identity and it wasn’t until fairly recently. Plenty of poor Black people are homophobic and anti-Semitic but that doesn’t mean they’re undeserving of economic justice and the same should go for poor white people in Appalachia. Their kids are innocent and deserve a shot at a better life, so do the children of poor people from any race.

[TransfemmeGoreVidal]

They're angry, but they're also too far-gone. We, unfortunately, still have to rely on these fickle suburbanites, and even more so since significant minority support for the party to make up for that seems to have only been exclusive to Obama.

Relying on suburbanites “even more so” presumably means trying to win a bigger chunk of the minority of suburbanites who voted for Trump. You don’t think they might be just as likely to be too far gone? Also, a suburbanite who chooses to vote for Trump twice is more likely to have been a Republican previously whereas at least some percentage of poorer white rural voters were previously Democrats who could still possibly be reached with a strong economic message. Even if I concede that that there were very few who still could be reached they could swing elections if it means that Democrats lose rural counties in Virginia by a 75-25 margin rather then an 85-15 one. I don’t think becoming the coast to coast suburban party is an effective strategy.

[TransfemmeGoreVidal]

and yes many rural white people are racist. I’d rather have a world in which racism wasn’t central to their political identity and it wasn’t until fairly recently. Plenty of poor Black people are homophobic and anti-Semitic but that doesn’t mean they’re undeserving of economic justice and the same should go for poor white people in Appalachia. Their kids are innocent and deserve a shot at a better life, so do the children of poor people from any race.

Eh, if you think racism wasn't central to the political identity of downscale rural whites until recently, you need to crack open a history book. And the difference between white racism and black homophobia/antisemitism, to the degree it currently exists, is that we can actually win elections with the latter. We can win elections and pass progressive legislation with black voters. But we can't do the same with downscale rural whites, because their racism trumps everything else. They prefer a racist con artist to a reasonable, moderate Democrat.

It hasn’t been central to their political identity at all times in all places. The decline of unions combined with Democrats completely abandoning any effort to win them over has made it so there’s no countervailing force. Racism at times has been the driving motive for white Americans of every economic strata, in the era of white flight it was for white suburbanites yet that doesn’t stop Democrats from aggressively courting them.

[TransfemmeGoreVidal]

and yes many rural white people are racist. I’d rather have a world in which racism wasn’t central to their political identity and it wasn’t until fairly recently. Plenty of poor Black people are homophobic and anti-Semitic but that doesn’t mean they’re undeserving of economic justice and the same should go for poor white people in Appalachia. Their kids are innocent and deserve a shot at a better life, so do the children of poor people from any race.

Eh, if you think racism wasn't central to the political identity of downscale rural whites until recently, you need to crack open a history book. And the difference between white racism and black homophobia/antisemitism, to the degree it currently exists, is that we can actually win elections with the latter. We can win elections and pass progressive legislation with black voters. But we can't do the same with downscale rural whites, because their racism trumps everything else. They prefer a racist con artist to a reasonable, moderate Democrat.

It hasn’t been central to their political identity at all times in all places. The decline of unions combined with Democrats completely abandoning any effort to win them over has made it so there’s no countervailing force. Racism at times has been the driving motive for white Americans of every economic strata, in the era of white flight it was for white suburbanites yet that doesn’t stop Democrats from aggressively courting them.

Whose fault is the decline of unions? Did it have anything to do with WWC voters supporting Nixon and Reagan? And did Humphrey, McGovern, and Mondale really abandon any effort to win over Southern whites, or did those voters abandon the Democratic Party for racist reasons? This can all be traced back to the 1960's, and yeah, poor whites chose to sacrifice their economic power on the altar of white power! A truly reprehensible act they repeated in 2016. So mee-maw and pee-paw have no one but themselves to blame.

And Democrats are aggressively courting educated white suburbanites because the party has made significant inroads in those communities in recent years. So, essentially, the exact opposite of what's transpired in AL, AR, KY, LA, MS, WV, etc. When poor whites show any inclination of voting Democratic, they too will be courted. But don't hold your breath!

You don’t think Democrats themselves have some responsibility for the decline of unions? See NAFTA/Obama’s failure to pass card check.

I don’t think that Democrats would win whites in the Deep South which has never been unionized fo begin with and they were inevitably going to be lost to Democrats because of the civil rights act which was a worthwhile tradeoff. Appalachia and the rust belt are a different story though.