Jon Tester on why Dems keep losing rural states

[Frump]

I don’t think it matters about policy anymore I think these people identify culturally with the Maga movement that it’s a lost cause

 

[mastermind]

started your day shytting on black folks in Brooklyn and now I guess it's the souths turn

@Loose, you need to get your alias under control.

 

[Loose]

@Loose, you need to get your alias under control.

?

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

I don't disagree that Dems could do better on policy, but it seems like you're kind of ignoring the elephant in the room.

Things just aren't the same as they were in 2008. The alt-right/tea party stuff blew up after Obama got elected and only got worse with Trump. Unfortunately I think Republican voters (rural and otherwise) are generally more motivated by cultural issues/racial resentment than they were back before the alt-right went mainstream. A lot of voters you might have been able to sway in 2008 have been absorbed into the Trump cult by now. So as much as I think Dems should rethink their policies and how they affect rural voters, I'm skeptical that this would translate into votes.

And it’s not just the racial resentment wing of the arm, mainline republicans became pure obstructionists during the Obama administration as well. That party has taken a hard right turn over the past 20 years and the Dems have been inching more left. The gap between the parties is the widest it’s been in over a century, you don’t just get people to come back over by policy talk at this point.

 

[mastermind]

?

When I ask you a question, @88m3 speaks first. He either your alias or Coli bodyguard.

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

The Dems certainly have issues in rural areas, but I think Tester's comment about Facebook is more telling than anything else he said.

There's a real problem with right-wing nationalist propaganda spreading on social media. Once people en masse buy into that you don't have a chance of swaying them.

lowkey...dems need to be worried about the joe rogan types...

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

I disagree on your first point.

Dems were getting destroyed in rural areas long before AOC/Ilhan/Rashida came on the scene.

Take out Obama 2012 and it is a fukking disaster.

WRONG

Obama lost the country BECAUSE he was Obama.

We're still recovering from 2012.

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

Just saw a poll that showed that AOC and Pelosi were neck-and-neck among white no-college voters in battleground states. Which is almost certainly AOC's worst constituency.

At least AOC brings something to the table in places like Montana. She's gonna energize young people, progressives, Latinos (who are a significant % in almost every rural area nowadays). Meanwhile the Democrat leadership is attractive to....who exactly?

Low-info folk called corporate dems like Obama and Clinton socialist and believed it with all their hearts, having AOC up there doesn't change anything. Look at how Bernie was actually more popular in rural areas while leading with socialism front and center. If you can actually promote policies that will help these people's lives and sell it well to them, enough of the moderates won't give a fukk what name you put on it. You'll win some of those states.

And I don't want to hear, "But the democrats have been promoting polices that would help them!" The lives of rural people in the USA have been doing downhill for 30-40 years. They're dominated by shrinking populations, losing family farms, losing small businesses, opium epidemic, etc. no matter who was in charge. Dems being somewhat better on social programs than Republicans are isn't what those communities need, they need a fundamental change in how the Department of Agriculture and federal government in general serves corporations first and people second.

an active 20% of the vote isn't much.

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

I don't disagree that Dems could do better on policy, but it seems like you're kind of ignoring the elephant in the room.

Things just aren't the same as they were in 2008. The alt-right/tea party stuff blew up after Obama got elected and only got worse with Trump. Unfortunately I think Republican voters (rural and otherwise) are generally more motivated by cultural issues/racial resentment than they were back before the alt-right went mainstream. A lot of voters you might have been able to sway in 2008 have been absorbed into the Trump cult by now. So as much as I think Dems should rethink their policies and how they affect rural voters, I'm skeptical that this would translate into votes.

Even Biden mentioned the year 2040 on the call with the civil rights leaders.

If people think white people aren't gearing up for a political Alamo, yall aren't listening.