The title is a direct quote from a friend in Wisconsin who voted Democratic for decades, but voted for Trump last November. To put it bluntly, he’s pissed at the Democratic Party.
In comments on a recent trip through Middle America, Thomas Frank addresses some of the reasons ‘John’ voted for Trump and speculates on whether Democrats can win back John’s vote.
Many midwesterners I met share an outlook that is profoundly bleak. They believe that the life has gone out of this region; indeed, they fear that a civilization based on making things is no longer sustainable.
They tell me about seniors falling prey to Fox News syndrome and young people who are growing up without hope. And just about everyone I talked to believes that the national Democratic party has abandoned them. They are frustrated beyond words with the stupidity of the party’s leadership.
If the Democrats are truly interested in regaining the voters they lost to Trump, the first thing they need to do is start listening to them. So far, given the non-support in Kansas and the hoo-ha in Omaha, that’s not happening.
Unless they change their message and do it quickly, the Democrats’ chance of winning back the former Democratic voters who voted for Trump is infinitesimal. Democrats may regain those voters in 2018, but right now it won’t be because they’re getting it right, it will be because the Republicans are getting it so much more wrong.
And that’s a lousy way to run a democracy.