We had a financial crisis in 2008. Historically, it takes a long time to recover from financial crises. This one has proven to be no exception, for most Americans. Yes, Wall Street is booming. Yes, the economy has been growing for a while now. But wages have been flat.
Greg Sargent has a piece up that argues that the Democrats' failure to articulate a vision of how ordinary Americans will begin to feel some of the fruits of this recovery is a major factor in last night's red tide.
Follow me over the macaroni for more.
One interesting point that Sargent makes, citing a piece by John Judis at the New Republic, is that turnout increased with some core Democratic constituencies. The efforts at voter registration and GOTV payed real dividends, but it wasn't enough because Democrats failed to get enough persuadable voters:
Democrats underperformed so badly among older voters and blue collar whites that it became impossible to make up that lost ground. This wasn’t just a turnout problem; it was a persuasion problem, too.
Democrats failed to persuade working-class whites that the recovery gravy train was coming for them. There was not a strong, clear economic vision. Raising the minimum wage and pay equity are popular, but they don't amount to a vision.
According to Democratic pollsters Sargent spoke to:
...this [underperformance with older voters and blue collar whites] was above all the result of a failure to connect with these voters’ economic concerns. At the root of these concerns, Mellman says, are stagnating wages and the failure of the recovery’s gains to achieve wider, more equitable distribution. Democrats campaigned on a range of economic issues — the minimum wage, pay equity, student loan affordability, expanded pre-kindergarten education — but these didn’t cut through people’s economic anxieties, because they didn’t believe government can successfully address them.
With voters not being able to feel the change in their bottom line, and not hearing a persuasive case that the recovery is coming to them and to the people they know, they voted for change.
To me, this is persuasive. Two points: First, Hillary supporters should find that this deficit with working-class whites and older voters supports their cause, as I think she will be able to connect with these demographics. For the Warren hopefuls, this underscores the need for someone who is good at talking about kitchen-table issues and articulating a vision for making things better for American families.