Back in May, the longtime chairman of the Mahoning County Democratic Party sent a private memo to leaders in Hillary Clinton’s campaign warning that she was in grave danger of losing not just Ohio but also Pennsylvania and Michigan unless she quickly re-tooled her message on trade. His advice went unheeded. …
The local chairman feels very strongly now that Clinton could have won Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan if she had just kept her eye on economic issues and not gotten distracted by the culture wars.
“Look, I’m as progressive as anybody, okay? But people in the heartland thought the Democratic Party cared more about where someone else went to the restroom than whether they had a good-paying job,” he complained. “‘Stronger together’ doesn’t get anyone a job.” …
Looking back at the May memo, and spending two days chatting with voters, it is crystal clear that the national narrative underplayed the full extent to which Trump’s anti-trade jeremiads were loosening the knots that had kept so many non-college-educated, working-class whites moored to the Democratic Party. CONT.
James Hohmann, Washington Post