What socialists should do to disband an ironclad Trump base
The calamitous Trump administration has seen more downfalls than successes. The current president’s undermining of democratic progressive values has the U.S feeling mortified alongside her allies. What is inexplicable, however, is the resounding support Trump receives from his voters and party. The Republican party shows an unwavering 88% approval rating for the demagogic leader. Republicans have sold their souls to support a man with no previous experience.
The silence from the opposition is equally toxic. The Democrats have failed to seek out a figurehead so radicalised for 2020. Although the party are set for victory in this years midterm elections, their established politicians and neoliberal approach is aggravating the electorate. With socialism on the rise as a counter-attack to the alt-right under Trump, it is time the Democratic party grabs socialism with both hands.
Targeting the Rust Belt
The 2016 election was a catastrophe for leftist America. A presidential candidate perfectly applicable for the White House lost out to a former reality TV star and brazen businessman. The Clinton campaign failed to galvanise the working-class vote. Instead, Trump’s flippant pledge to bring back jobs to flyover states wasn’t unnoticed. The Midwest, former ardent Obama backers, swung to the Republican side in an astonishingly surprise manoeuvre which left the Democrats perplexed.
It is significant to notice the surge in popularity for socialist and presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, in the Democratic primaries. Sanders put the American underclass at the heart of his campaign. He empathised with the Rust Belt American who’s frustrations lied with the lack of prospects. Sanders beat Clinton in Rust Belt heartland states of Michigan and Wisconsin during the primaries, taking 56.59% and 49.68% respectively.
The Rust Belt was a haven for the steel and automotive industries. The sheer decline of these businesses due to automation and relocation left a angry Midwesterner behind. Hillary’s Clinton weakness was failing to grasp America’s poor regions. Left-wing politics is meant to be saviour for the non-elite and blue-collar worker. Trump won the general election as a moral compromise from the working-class.
Voters turned the other way to racism, misogyny and callous language in a last-ditch attempt to save their professions. Socialism will help these people. A new direction for the Democratic party in flyover America is critical.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
The recent primary win to a socialist representing Queens and the Bronx is a huge paradigm shift. A young working-class Latin American woman from the Bronx beat a influential Democratic centrist in a House of Representatives bid. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a signal for the future of the Democrats.
Ocasio-Cortez roused her base through a grassroots campaign that built momentum. A former bartender working two jobs to support her mother garnered tremendous backing from her constituents. The Sanders-loving community organiser has brought socialism to the main stage. Her bid for a congressional seat has seen her travel to Kansas and other states to inspire socialist voters.
To see a normal working-class individual represent her constituency filled with similar people is warming. American voters sense empathy with their representatives if they come from similar backgrounds. It also denotes backlash against the establishment that reigns in Washington. The old-school Democrats are keen to increase their own political agenda rather than influence the country.
Ocasio-Cortez’s position is cemented in a transforming country. Although the New York boroughs she will represent are overwhelmingly liberal, to see socialism rise their is going to be a significant boost for future candidates.
Saying Goodbye to Washington’s Democrats
The centrist Democratic establishment that dominants Capitol Hill must come to an end if the left aim for a 2020 victory. The polarising Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have denounced a socialist future for their party, but fail to sense their own errors.
Senator for New York and the Senate’s Minority Leader, Chuck Schumer, has an approval rating at an 19-year low. With just over half approving of his job in Congress, a record 35% now condemn it. The same goes for Pelosi, his counterpart in the House of Representatives. Pelosi’s popularity has withered away during an age of populism.
The silence of centrist Democrats and their failure to square up to a damaging Trump is staggering. Their attacks on advanced socialism just proves their attitudes to a leftist future in America is inept. Pelosi’s remarks on Ocasio-Cortez’s primary victory as ‘not to be viewed as something that stands for anything else’ is sincerely ignorant.
Trump shifted the conservative narrative to a new right-wing. He is not a traditional Republican. Instead, an anti-established no-holds-barred celebrity who had a catchy slogan that resonated with many. A politician so radicalised with a further shift to the left will help the Democrats in the future. Populism is introduced when the average citizen is left hopeless at what their government has to offer. With no way back, they choose the most outlandish but promising candidate to fulfil their desperate goals.
