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November 2016
Letters to the Editor: David RePass says this is a wake-up call
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George,

The election should be a wake-up call for Democrats. Trump won because he was more in tune with voters' feelings—anger at a do-nothing Congress, the feeling that they have been forgotten, stagnant wages, many good jobs have been shipped overseas, etc. It was a vote for real change—someone who would shake up Washington and get things done for the people. It was anti-establishment and a call for bold solutions. Hillary Clinton is part of the establishment and a Third Way incrementalist.

For some time now the Democratic party has abandoned the working class and the unconnected ordinary citizen. It has emphasized doing things for the "middle class." Only about 35 percent of the electorate identify with the "middle class," the rest are either "working class" or have no class identity. Aiming to appeal to the "middle class"—the minority of citizens—is not a smart strategy. Besides, the middle class is largely composed of conservatives.

The Democratic party needs to return to its roots, roots that began with the New Deal and reappeared with the Civil Rights Act and the Great Society of Lyndon Johnson. It should not be afraid of right wing attacks and name calling. FDR was called a socialist yet accomplished many programs to help the ordinary citizen. (His picture still hangs on the walls of many homes.) Bernie Sanders comes along with definitive New Deal type solutions to the many problems that ordinary citizens are having: need for a living wage; the cost of a college education; treatment of Blacks; major highway, bridge and airport construction; family leave; workable health care system (single payer); ending reliance on fossil fuel; gun control; reinstatement of New Deal bank regulation (Glass-Steagall); and so forth. Yet the Democratic party establishment impeded, rather than welcomed, Bernie Sanders.

This was a year when a great number of people wanted major change—a revolution. We could have had Bernie Sanders' revolution instead of Trump's revolution. Hopefully, next time the Democratic party will have a better idea of the concerns of the American people.

David RePass (Electronic mail, November 9, 2016)



Comments? Questions? Write me at george@loper.org.