I want to first apologize. I haven’t written here….hell in years at this point. However after this election I think something needs to be put into perspective, and to some degree I need to get back into the game again.
Something that was missed and ignored. Not by here for the most part, no you folks here mostly understood things and felt the ship was on the right path. We knew with 100% certainty who Trump was literally from the start. No I think the ball was dropped by the DNC, and by the party at large. As has been stated before by other better diarists Michael Moore called it.
Our establishment, if we want to call them elitists, ignored so many warning calls. They refused to capitalize on the anger, frustration, desperation, and out right exasperation that the bulk of Americans have had since the great recession. Heck even before that, as jobs shipped elsewhere, the economy changes leaving more and more little guys in the dust.
Here is the thing though, we had our warning bell.
Occupy
We sounded the alarm, we had the populism until we were vilified to a corner, we had members of all ideological leanings because even if we disagreed on 80% of things, all of us agreed on the 20% that the system was rigged. We elevated the economic issues that affected the former middle class. The Joe Blow in Michigan who saw his job shipped to elsewhere because it made some banker an extra .04% on their stock options.
But we were dismissed. We were ignored as a fad. We were set out into the wilderness as some group who had no ideas, no direction, no forethought.
Guess what, that is what populism is sometimes. So all those Joe Blows who feel like the system is rigged had looked to whatever side might make their situation better. So instead of taking direction, and helping those of us in the early days of Occupy direct that populist anger towards a positive direction, you dismissed us and left a seething anger among people who feel left behind.
Trump isn’t the disease, this is the symptom of unchecked populist anger. And the inability to secure it into the better direction lays directly at the feet of the democrats, at all levels of the party.
I have no doubt, that we will survive whatever comes in the next four years. This republic, this experiment has gone through some pretty serious times and come out shining on the other side. Sometimes with a few bruises, maybe a black eye, but in general we tend to get things right at the end of the story.
I will say though, for you democrats, if you are shocked about these results? You really shouldn’t be, there have been people like me screaming from the top of the lungs warning you about the economic anger among the electorate.
We want inclusive, we want unity, we want to shine. However one thing I learned during Occupy, the guy that showed up with an open carry permit to protect my first amendment rights may not agree with nearly half of what I believe but he damn well assured me who our common enemy was because his house was foreclosed on.
That is the direction the democratic party needs to go. Embrace the populism, bring the rural into the fold and assure them “Yes, we have you in mind and we will work to make your lives better”.
There is a stark difference between the thirdway thought, and what I just proposed. Generally what I learned during my time occupying was that most people will come along with you for economic reasons, even if they vehemently disagree with you on other policys.
It literally is the chicken in every pot message that for whatever reason we seemed to have lost. So we fumbled that ball and team fascist picked it up and ran with it.
That literally is the double edged sword of populism. Something we seemed to have forgotten, and ignored.
So what now going forward. Look back in history to what potential you might have had. Find those people who were so involved in the economic populism, against the banks, for the little guy, seriously find those people. Cause you know what, we’re in our 30’s now. We out number the boomers, we are at a crux of a possible political sea change.
But it won’t happen unless you invite the rest of the country along. The Billy Blow from red state Indiana who saw his job farmed out to a HB migrant worker from somewhere he can’t even pronounce but if policy was setup correct both people would have a chance. It won’t happen without the Jill from Wisconsin who studied hard in night school to get her RN degree just to find out she’d be in debt for the rest of her life. It damn sure won’t happen without the John from Pennsylvania who would love to get on board with the high tech manufacturing but just needs a little retooling on the high tech machines.
We missed the ball, hard. But again we were warned years ago.
Now is the time to regroup, rethink, and offer open hands to those we ignored.