Election 2020

[Eric the Green]

(04-18-2019, 10:29 AM)Tim Randal Walker Wrote: If they want to win votes outside of their base, the Democrats should focus on economics.

The narrow social issues are simply useless to me.  And, I suspect, (to) a demographic the Democrats lost-white working class voters.

Of the issues the Democrats have focused on in recent decades, health care is just about the only one that is relevant to me.

You and David make good points about the Democrats, and I don't disagree. Myself I don't look at the situation just in terms of what is relevant to me. The fact remains that in order to win, the Democrats must do BOTH: focus on the economic issues and those that affect the well-being of everyone, AND appeal to the social issues that matter to a strong proportion of their base. Democrats also don't forget that the support of that social-issue base is what got Obama elected.

In fact, inequality in America is sharply affected by the oppression of and discrimination against the less-fortunate groups on our society, such as various peoples of color, women, gays, youth, etc. The trickle-down economics policies are and always have been victorious because its champions sound the dog whistle of opposition to government programs and welfare which white men are asked to pay for in their taxes, and which they know benefit other groups besides them. Classic Xer is their representative here. 

So the two kinds of issues are and always have been linked together, and even if being upfront about supporting the desires of oppressed groups to have their rights protected turns off some whites, Democrats can't win without these groups, and so they must appeal to them as well as try to get white working class voters to realize who it is that really meets their needs, despite their fears and prejudices which the Republicans arouse against the less-fortunate groups.