which tells me she's knows there's a campaign announcement in the future.

To me he's looking the most electable in a general election, would have strong appeal for midwest voters, and he would make a great president. I think our best and strongest ticket would be Brown and Harris.

He voted against the Iraq War Resolution, the Wall Street Bankruptcy Bill, The Crime Bill, the social & economic & environmental injustice potentials of the ISDS Corporate Ubercourts in NAFTA & TPP. Brown has never flinched from being an unabashed liberal, proud progressive and staunch champion of workers.
He would be the 21st Century FDR our Country needs so badly. (his dog's name is Franklin btw)

It seems like that would be easy since both benefit from Democratic policy.

Speeches that are nearly 100% worker/consumer low and middle class oriented without pushing the wedge issues. He is from Ohio (where I live) and he is well liked even by moderates with social right leanings. He was the only notable Dem win in Ohio in the Fall 2018 elections. He knows the message he needs to send.

If Brown can win the primary he would most likely win Ohio for the electoral votes. The same message for Ohio workers could easily resonate in PA, MI, WI, IA. Those are enough states to win the 270.

issues will bridge the gap

I guess I mean when the candidate is stumping in the midwest states sticking to working pay, income, lower taxes on middle class, jobs, farmers, etc. is ideal.

have always supported the working class.

I think he's making a distinction that many people are uncomfortable discussing, and I'll just leave it at that. Obviously, I cannot speak for him directly, but this seems to be the most logical conclusion at which reasonable people can arrive.

The poor, the working class, the middle class

We need to return to strong union support.

And we need to return to our Eleanor-and-Franklin roots as a party.

For the win!

...which rust-belt working class voters see as a distraction from bread and butter economic issues.

Read it again maybe.

make undecided voters go yeah!-I didn't know who to vote for but the "deplorables" tag really sold me on the Democrats?

Nobody said anything like that, not even if you stretch to get there. Geesh.

i think pointing out why they are deplorable and hanging them around the neck of their favored politicians does get support from their neighbors who are not violent regressives.

voters we are better off IMHO.

jobs and health care do

we have to be able to prioritize

That message will appeal to a lot of disillusioned people who voted for tRump last time.

That's always the problem. It's the same dilemma that has us calling a white general contractor making $70K a member of "the working class" but not the Latina single mom working as a home health aid. The first would like lower insurance premiums and tuition-free college for his kids. The second would like a $15 minimum wage, higher SNAP benefits, and mandatory paid sick leave.

The first would be helped by Medicare for all; the second is part of the 25% of the population on Medicaid and wouldn't particularly be helped by that. The first finds college tuition too expensive; the second can't afford to give up 4 years of income (these are two very different problems). The first one resents the second one and doesn't want his tax dollars to help her. (And, for that matter, doesn't want to pay $15/hour for his mom's home health aid, and doesn't want the gap between him and the home health aids of the country to shrink.)

99% of the time when a political figure says "workers" or "the working class", he means that first one. There may be a campaign that can tie those two interest groups together, but policy-wise they're a pretty distinct set of needs to be addressed. And complicating this all, political scientists find over and over again that a candidate's policies have essentially nothing to do with what voters support him or her: policies aside, we need a candidate who will manage to make both of those workers think the candidate cares about them, while simultaneously not making the first one think the candidate cares about the second one. It's a very narrow needle to thread.

Logic often doesn't win in politics. This shouldn't surprise anyone because a good share of the decisions we make in life are based on emotion. The people who sell stuff know this. The art of a a great politician is appeal to a wide array of people. The Republicans have operated on the maxim that the pick the most conservative candidate who can be elected and until they created the fake Tea Party were very successful. Now they are stuck with "purity" candidates like Kobach. I am quite a ways left of center, myself, but have no problem with candidates who are more centrists if thats what it takes to be elected. I would love to see a wealth tax, but I think any candidate who ran on it would go down in flames at the present time. Come to think of it Trump was for it many years ago.

Employees & the Self-Employed. Nearly everyone fits into that category. It's clear, simple & inclusive. IMHO

I felt like a dog sniffing in the wind.
I knew what I was smelling, but I didn't know how to translate it into human.

but wanted to say this is a great post. Thanks.

And she wouldn't have to worry about losing her healthcare if she made a dollar too much.

I was so confident that we would have HRC as president. Those highlights! Talk about presidential hair. Her colorist must have used about 10 different shades of blonde. And the perfection of her blowout, without being Thatcheresque. "Surely", I thought. Surely.

And Trump could never be elected. What would he do if he had to go to memorials in the rain? What if he had to get on or off of a helicopter. "Impossible", I thought. Impossible.

"To win Ohio, to win the industrial midwest, the heartland, and the Electoral College you've got to speak to the progressive base, to be sure, as I have my whole career, but you've got to talk to workers and live where they live."

The most important sentence in the entire article and the rest is just political drivel. I support the movement towards a National Popular Vote. Politicians only "politic" where they need to in order to pick up the most electoral college votes. Over the years, they have eliminated visits to most of the states in the US. We have lots of "fly-over" states. A National Popular Vote would help to alleviate this problem.

We need to seriously take back the country by running in ALL local races across EACH state, as well as, state and federal offices. We need to be blanketing all areas of the country with our thoughts and providing people with representatives who will truly represent all of us.

Speak to both, and you'll find more common ground than differences.
Stay with educational opportunities, health care, jobs, and common respect of all individuals. Talk about a future where resources aren't squandered, people have opportunities to pursue careers they want and be able to build communities where people care for each other, face challenges, and don't have to hide in small enclaves, where they can thrive with the world around them.

The major challenge we have as a party is that there are a lot of Americans who push for selfish and disposable living because "the world is going to end"; but the reality is that the world is changing and our grandchildren along with our neighbor's grandchildren are still going to have to live in that future world even after those who live for the End Times have met their irresponsibly gluttonous and infantilized end.

Haele

if you frame the issues correctly. what kind of nonsense dichotomy is he trying to set up?

I'm not even guessing there, because if you did live in such an area you'd know how union manufacturing workers turned out in droves for Trump in 2016. Though there's talk that this area is turning red, we still reliably voted for moderates Tim Ryan and Sherrod Brown in the mids.

I know where you're coming from, saying that if they were polled on individual topics they'd agree with a liberal platform, but too many of those workaday clock punchers would turn their heads and spit at the mere mention of Nancy Pelosi. Unfortunately.

the workers have been propagandized so that they will vote against any target, especially if it allows them to feed their racism/misogyny at the same time.

But, we aren't going to feed their racism.

Therefore, I think we have to hammer the shit out of economic issues. If we can't satisfy their hate (and don't want to try), what else is there?

as a fellow NE Ohioan, let me just say you nailed it.

Democrats have been consistent in championing minority rights, at least in comparison to the Republican Party, so minorities of all classes have by and large stayed loyal to Democrats. But if you look at voter break downs based on amount of education, Democrats do much better with college educated whites than they do with whites with only High School diplomas or less.

The metric isn't precise, but generally speaking those without college education are much more likely to be working class than those who are college educated. The question isn't whether progressives support issues important to the working class, they do. The question is to what extent the (white) working class still supports progressives.

and the first part I keep reading is not true for Trump, for example - that his strongest support came from wealthy whites in the suburbs, and dropped off with wealth (and one presumes somewhat with education). Not sure what the answer is though.

In one breath he warns the party about choosing one or the other..

Then he himself stridently chooses one side and says the candidate "should be somebody whose centerpiece of the campaign is dignity of work"


It sounds defeatist to me. Like he is only stoking the divide. What he is really saying to me is....Democrats cannot address both progressive social issues and be the friend of blue collar workers at the same time, so, in his great wisdom, Democrats should just give up on one "side" (the progressive base, and the hopes of new progressive stars like AOC) and only focus on the needs of blue collar workers, in a general way. Because its just too darn hard to figure out how to connect the two for people.

The harm is in furthering the perception that there is some kind of huge divide between supporting workers rights, and at the same time supporting human rights. As if we are too inept to figure out how to do that. So, just abandon one of them.

There should be a concerted effort to show the connectivity of all the issues. That is the key. Not to give up on half your base.

I like that he is focusing on the common ground between the economic and social wings of our party. But acting as though someone's dignity is based on their "work" leaves a bad taste with me. It then opens up as to what type of work brings dignity and starts applying worth to one's job.

he would be guranteed to win due to the fact that he has a shared base with trump in midwest. trump can’t effectively campaign against him.

I sure hope he's not really talking about white male workers. Last I checked, women and minority voters worked.

stupid and/or racist or misogynist. Not all white workers are deplorables.

agenda the past 40+ years. The base always determines the agenda.

Or course the base is made up primarily of workers. What is the distinction he's making?

The problem is we let the conservatives define us with wedge issues. The media only asks us about wedge issues, and our messaging never gets out.

Do you really think most voters wanted tax cuts for millionaires? Increases in healthcare costs? Of course not.

I get Senator Brown's point, but it will be interpreted as confirming the GOP talking point that the Democrats care more about pleasing progressives than the working middle class which is bullshit. When presented and asked about actual Democratic policies affecting their lives and pocketbooks, middle class workers support those "progressive/liberal" policies.

And what is this crap about not respecting the dignity of work? It is the Republicans that frown on unions, refuse to increase minimum wage and provide sick days and benefits...often overriding the will of local voters, fight to kill labor law and workplace safety protections, etc.

The idea that progressives like AOC, Warrem and Bernie Sanders are anti-worker seems like a political move to distinguish Sherrod Brown from them. It is Sherrod Brown’s Sista Soulja moment.

I was confused then as I am now. In what universe are progressives and workers different people?
What is with all this division with everything? I see it as a false narrative.

K & R

That's the code.

It's a false choice.

themselves progressives in that time.

What's happened to cause the divide between the working class and the progressive movement has been the right's ability to elevate racial tension over shared struggle.

and our naïveté or sheer complicity (in the case of so called centrists, more like righties). But we as a party have to accept the fact that somehow we let them.

Really?

What is it that workers want that is directly opposed to progressive goals?

Last I checked progressives and workers wanted good paying jobs, decent benefits, stable retirement, equality, diginity, and fairness.

What am I missing here?

that the "Progressive Base" and "Workers" ARE THE SAME FUCKING PEOPLE YOU FUCKING KNUCKLEHEAD!!!!!!!

Jesus Christ on a Trailer Hitch! It's no fucking wonder Dems lose elections.

It's not "either the base" or "either the workers". The fucking "Progressive Base" are the fucking workers of America

You want to know why Retrumplicans have such an easy time convincing the Middle Class worker that someone like fucking Donnie Short Fingers, or Creepy Ken Doll Jared are "just common folk like them"? It's because of stupid fucking statements like this.

How fucking hard is it to say; "the progressive base are the workers of America"?

We lost an important opportunity to make the very point with this bullshit. Opportunities like that are "fleeting". Dems better learn to be faster on their feet. This was a fat, juicy, slow fastball down the middle of the plate, and Sherod Brown handled it like he was playing with a Football Bat.

Fuck!!!!!!

that some of them may not xenophobes, racist or misogynists?

What the "dignity of work" means and why progressive activists are somehow the opposed to that?

Factory workers, oil rig workers, truckers, and power plant workers want their jobs, they want to be able to afford the occasional new car sometimes with a large inefficient engine which they fill with inexpensive gasoline. They want to heat and cool their houses.

Like it or not a stringent carbon reduction agenda threatens these things. Thus a wedge exists which Trump took advantage of. Add to this low skilled workers threatened by immigrants and Trump built an impressive electoral college win.

This is not advocacy for less enviromental regulation. However we need to understand how a demogogue like Trump was able to beat a candidate who up until 2020 did fairly well with working class white people. The biggest concern is whether Trump can make inroads into our solid majorities with black working class voters and other minorities that generally vote Democrat.

Senator Brown is absolutely right. Those of us who are well educated elites need to convince workers that our positions are not a threat to their lifestyle.

For too long the party has allowed the opposition to define us as against the worker. We must stop letting this happen and push back.

There is common ground on issue like environmentalism between "educated elites" and workers.

We need to do a better job going to these communities and showing that most of our goals are in line with mot of their goals.

"you speak to workers."

How so, Senator Brown? Please name names and give examples of these charges, because I'm at a loss.

his statement when you look at the economic disenfranchisement of the middle class workforce that has taken place over the past 40+ years.

in effect, what good will names do for you? I think he's right on.

I always stand up or with workers. I've met more than my share of Trumpers who fall into the "working class" stereotype, but I still tell them I believe they should get a living wage and not be in the total control of management/employer.

I suppose Sherrod Brown has to try to distinguish himself from the field somehow.

A false framing to insist that workers cannot be progressives.

the Democratic party has always been pro worker

candidate. I would vote for a progressive candidate, but I don't think you can get there with a progressive candidate, unfortunately, especially a relatively inexperienced female, African American candidate. I wish I didn't think it wouldn't work. It would work well in urban areas, it would work in the already blue states, but in the south and midwest, I can't see that happening. I think it would divide the dems and cause Trump to be re-elected. I don't want that.

My first choice, if it weren't for the sexist biases that exist in too much of this country would be Elizabeth Warren. She has paid her dues and would make a great president, but is she electable? I don't know.

I'm more progressive than most, especially among people in my age group (over 70), but I wouldn't vote of Kamela Harris or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez only because they don't have the experience and haven't paid their dues. I like them, I just don't think either could win. And I don't know enough about them to make a decs ion. Especially when comes to international affairs.

This is only my opinion. I will vote against Trump regardless of the candidate who is running against him.

important question is, what does Joe Lieberman have to say about it?


. : sarcasm: