TrueBlueDonkey’s, May 8 I Am a Realist post is wonderful. You should read it.
Unlike TrueBlueDonkey, I'm STILL a strong Bernie supporter--AND it is quite likely that Hillary is going to be the nominee. (Congratulations!) That said, the self-disarmament of the Democratic Party in rural areas is the reason that a wackjob like Donald Trump can win the Republican nomination.
The second, unstated point to TrueBlueDonkey’s post, however, is that a robust 50-state strategy is the single most important factor to Democratic success in this presidential election and in retaking the US Senate, US House and state governments...We must, fiercely, follow a 50-state strategy, or we could easily lose even the Hillary-Trump election. We CANNOT overlook the rural vote. This is a big part of why the 2010 and 2014 disasters happened. AND, by not ignoring the rural vote, as Howard Dean did in 2006 and 2008, is one of the major factors for why 2006 and 2008 were so successful. Heck, I marched for Barack Obama in the 2008 Butte, Montana 4th of July Parade. Obama and Dean did not take the rural areas lightly. And, yes, Obama lost Montana by 3 points, but people from Montana talk to people in the other 49 states and we can never be sure which message is the one that turns a vote one way or the other. The only thing we can be sure of is that if we do not communicate, we cede the rural conversation to the Republicans and they then have a very clear platform from which to broadcast their inane vision of reality.
The rural areas are mostly natural resource economies, but who's talking, really talking, about farming? Not Bernie, not Hillary. Who's talking about working in the woods, or the mines? Not Bernie, not Hillary. Who's talking about saving rural post offices? Maybe Bernie, but not loud enough, because it's not a union issue, it's an issue of not having to drive forty miles to pick up a package. Who’s talking about saving America’s small towns and schools? Crickets...
AND, in the face of pervasive, and overwhelming drought, who's talking about massive, federal water projects!!! If there's one issue that can start to get farmers to listen to Democrats, start building pipelines, massive pipelines to get enough water to Oklahoma and Nevada and Fresno and Iowa and Pine Ridge and Eastern Montana so that their crops don't burn and their aquifers don't dry up. There's your issue!
Here’s another one, while you’re using rural land to put in solar and wind farms, figure out how to leave some of the electricity for local, small town jobs—let’s ship our manufacturing jobs to Pierre, South Dakota, not China!
Oh, wait, I think I hear it now, yup, representatives from New York, and San Francisco and Seattle and Chicago and some lizard head guy from Louisiana talking about how it would imbalance the environment, how expensive it would be, and besides we only need to win eighteen states to win the presidency--(and won't mention that those same eighteen States are the only places they make the big bucks fundraising from liberal doctors)...
Not big on a fifty-state strategy? Here's a clue. Those 32 States, often at near starvation wages, often under threat of farm foreclosure, grow your fucking food! They mine the coal and frack the natural gas for your electricity. They, (sustainably harvest), the pine and fir and maple for your houses and furniture, and they, at least a few of 'em, listen when you bother to expend campaign resources and put Democratic operatives on the ground 24/7 to find out what their lives are about...and then they still vote 60-40 for the Republicans.
But, you know what--and this is Jon Tester's secret—if you only lose the rural areas 60/40, then miracle of miracles--Democrats get the Senate back! ...And pretty soon you get the House back, and pretty soon Democratic/Farm/Labor parties start actually turning out voters again, and Democrats start getting state houses and governorships back...all because you put resources in rural areas, began listening to rural folks again and truly, not in the Trump bullshit way, started making ALL of America great again.
50 States or Bust! Truly.