Like everyone, Tom Vilsack has an opinion on how the Democrats lost the White House. He also has an opinion about why Iowa sent Joni Ernst to the Senate and voted for Trump in 2016. They are the same reason. There are no Democrats going into rural areas in Iowa and actually talking and listening.
Unlike most opinions on the subject, I listened to Mr Vilsack because of his CV. First Democratic governor in 32 years and 8 year member of the Obama Administration. And, he seems to get the okay from Joe Biden. While Biden is by no means perfect, I trust his relationships in Washington.
So, I’m too cheap to put money in the hands of the Washington Post. I get my workarounds by using separate devices. Unfortunately, that means no copy and paste with ease so I will keep the quotes light. I will attempt to summarize Mr Vilsack’s points and reflect on them.
check out this WaPo piece for more
“We need to speak more directly to our folks in rural America … And we have to spend time there.”
“Democrats need to talk to rural voters,” Vilsack warned this summer. “They can’t write them off. They can’t ignore them. They actually have to spend a little time talking to them”
Notice that race is not mentioned. I found no mention of the White Working Class anywhere in the piece. That’s not to say that rural Iowa isn’t 94% white. It is, but I think the larger point is that there doesn’t really seem to be a Democratic Party in Iowa. It keeps losing local and statewide races to the GOP. Des Moines and Polk County can only do so much to offset the Sioux Counties of the state.
I have spent my own share of digital ink pontificating on what Van Jones called the “whitelash”. I am well aware of the anger and hatred that too many white nationalists have felt free to display lately. I agree that there is a deep vein of hate running through the nation’s middle. It has always been there. It will take generations of work to undo.
But hey, if Vilsack is telling me that Democrats aren’t out in the counties talking enough to at least cover the electoral spread, then I am going to listen.
At some point, this is a foundational point. I am not arguing for abandoning one damn thing to talk to this year’s “Soccer Moms” aka “the WWC”. I am arguing for a national party that has the fortitude to make its arguments in the teeth of the opposition.
And the call to action goes out to all of us. I’m not suggesting you move to Okoboji to confront Rand Paul about the DREAM Act. I am suggesting that we all focus on building our local parties around a few tentpole items.
My suggestions, in no particular order, are a free and fair economic system that evens the playing field for everyone regardless of how they identify or who they fall in love with, ending the disastrous Drug War (or pretty much all the wars) , establishing a way to provide basic human rights to all citizens from the cradle to the grave, and finding a way to recognize and atone for the nation’s treatment of African and Indigenous peoples.
You may have other suggestions, but I feel that these four pillars would hold up the tent of a national party pretty well, no matter who you are talking to.