Meet “Truck Nuts”. (I use a man here but I could easily be talking about “Bumper Boobs”) By just about every measure he’s a asshole. If you met him at a party you’d probably move to the other side of the room as he spewed bullshit about Benghazi or Vince Foster or some other absurd nonsense. He votes against his own interests, he’s bitter, and he’s been raised to believe that “the other” is the cause of his misery. He has no (or few) POC friends and he doesn’t care to make any. He also makes up a the largest block of economically disenfranchised voters in America. In many key swing states he outnumbers POC living below the poverty line 2 to 1.
Population Living Below the Poverty Line
White Black Hispanic
| Ohio 1,105,300 | 431,000 | 121,300 |
| Indiana 561,000 | 203,400 | 150,200 |
| Michigan 768,700 | 474,300 | 113,300 |
| Florida 1,351,200 | 827,600 | 1,039,500 |
| Colorado 354,000 | N/A | 209,000 |
| Illinois 720,000 | 473,200 | 469,500 |
| Virginia 384,500 | 290,000 | 94,500 |
The Democrat brain trust including MSM personalities, party establishment, and many “progressive” alternative media personalities would have you believe that Truck Nuts should be ignored. He’s not important to building a democratic coalition. After all you don’t change hearts and minds you just create policy.
According to the Democratic brain trust you carve out the necessary reliable demographic constituencies that will give you a narrow victory, and try your best to get those particular demographics to the polls. Truck nuts is unreachable. You see the same logic on the GOP side; “Those <fill in the ethic slur here> are always going to vote Democratic, so f@k’em”.
I don’t write off Truck Nuts any quicker than I’d write off this guy:
(If you have not watched Lawrence O’Donnells on Obama & Byrd do so)
Funny thing happened in 2008 many of our fellow “Truck Nut” and “Bumper Boob” Americans got into the privacy of the voting booth, and despite outward braggadocio voted for the black guy with the funny “foreign” name. Their better angels prevailed. The left had the courage to say we believed the political playbooks of old should be discarded. That, in fact, a black guy with the name Barrack Hussein Obama was electable. In the midst of an economic meltdown we went door to door to a lot of older white people who’d been raised to distrust “the other” and said “put aside your fears and prejudices and vote for the guy who’s been right about the Iraq war, and who understands we need to reverse our horrible trade policies “
The Result? A wave victory that gave the Democrats a 60 vote majority in the senate. I wrote in 2008 :
EITHER
You believe that our political system is static and unchangeable; that our media, and the corporations that own them, control the debate and always will; that the American people will always be duped by the smears of the 527s and FOX news.
OR....
You believe that we, the people, control our politics. That, in fact we can change the game entirely.
It is a simple choice of politics as usual, or a whole new game.
2016 proves to be the same choice. We all must decide if we believe that hearts can be won or if the demographic slices (between two minority parties) are set in stone.
The economic bleeding has been stemmed and health care costs have leveled off at “absurdly high” instead of reaching “ludicrously high”. These were major accomplishments. At the same time criminal justice reform has stagnated, the systemic risks inside our financial systems has gotten worse, and yet another horrible trade deal looms. So here is the thing; “truck nuts” is going to be screwed over by these things as much as anyone else, and at some level he knows it. He realizes another interventionist war would be a disaster. He’s aware every time he gets nailed for 2 bucks at an ATM, just to take out 20, that the banks are ripping him off. He also knows that, (when he adds up all the mortgage interest, fees, insurance, & percent of his tax dollars that go back to banks in form of debt servicing) the banks are bigger problem than the government. (Fellow Kosack Egberto discussed this earlier)
Now if you were a progressive brain trust planning to run a candidate that would have wide populist appeal you might look for a candidate who had an impeccable record of championing workers rights, and speaking out against bad trade deals. You’d also look for a candidate who can bring in minority voters by having a record as a civil rights activist, who supported the rainbow coalition from the start, endorsed Jesse Jackson in 88, and was against the war on drugs that locked up a generation of young black men and was cancerous to police community relations. A candidate that could bring together the economically disenfranchised of all colors. Something like that would have real power as a movement.
If only we could find such a candidate.
Of course that would require demographic blocks that want to remain “king makers” and see themselves as the key constituency, putting aside their identity politics and judging a man by the content of his character. Maybe a “real progressive movement” that started with ideas and the people who champion them regardless of their skin color.
Let us be real about the reason the economy was so good in the 90’s; Trillions of dollars of capital flooded into the economy as corporations race to get on the internet & every wealthy person in the country raced to be the next Bill Gates by investing in tech start ups. That giant influx created all kinds of service jobs in support of the new technocratic class. For about ten years the tech talent overseas was just not on par with American workers, and companies had no choice but to keep those jobs and salaries in America. There were smart policies in place to keep the internet open and available, and the tax structure became more progressive, (good things Clinton did) but the industrial middle class, the poor, and small farmers were thrown under the bus in the name of “progress”.
Hillary Clinton, leader on TPP, supporter of NAFTA, CAFTA, and just about every other bad trade deal, was never going to be an outlet for the populist rage brewing under the surface of American politics. For those wishing to play identity politics it was her “turn” and she would inspire women to come out in droves. Turns out not so much.
It looks like Donald Trump will take the GOP nomination. While I doubt he’ll win in the general election there is an x-factor of populist rage that shows up when polls when you give people an outlet to express it.
Consistently Trump vs Sanders head to head polls show Bernie managing to siphon off Trump supporters in big numbers that just aren’t there for Clinton.
There is still time to swing support behind sanders for double digit victories in NY and CA. ( This is likely what it will take to catch Clinton in real/pledged delegates. ) If only we could come together, look outside the political bubble of the 30% of the voters that call themselves Democrats, and get behind a candidate that’s liked by the 43% of voters turned off by both party’s politics.
If only we could come together, start believing, and give “truck nuts” a real choice between Love and hate.
