Democrats say they’re the champions for the middle and working class. Beware of those evil Republicans; they’ll screw you over. For years, that’s been the playbook. And for the most part, it worked.
Donald Trump flipped the script. He won states that the GOP hadn’t won in years. He dominated Ohio. And it also helped that Hillary Clinton was a terrible candidate.
Yet, as the 2020 Democratic field vies for who can be the looniest of the loony bin, the professional, snobby, and over-educated elite that infest the party is starting to show. It’s quite simple. For liberals, if you’re not college-educated, you’re trash who shouldn’t be acknowledged or listened to because what could you possibly know, right? That has seeped into this cycle. Only the comfy, privileged liberal elites can think that "Medicare For All" is a good idea. Giving illegal aliens health care is a popular proposal, and decriminalizing border crossings is a tenet of inclusivity. Forced "Medicare For All" means the end of private insurance. No one likes giving illegals welfare, and open borders are not tenable. The Left’s intense hatred of fracking, which has created jobs, supercharged local economies, and has led the country to become more energy independent is also seen as another middle finger to the working class. Talk smart about jobs and the economy—they’ll listen. These folks are not die-hard Republicans. They’ve voted for Democrats before and they’re winnable for either party, but the Left’s left-wing thrust is forcing these folks into the GOP fold. One General Motors worker voiced his concerns in September, noting that Democrats really don’t know any working-class people and that their agenda, especially on health care, puts union workers’ plans on the chopping block. For all the fear tactics about the GOP taking away people’s health care, we have Democrats who want to do just that (via Detroit Times):
Matt Moorhead, a General Motors Co. employee who recently transferred to the Lansing Grand River Assembly Plant from the idling Lordstown plant in Ohio, said the health care under the current UAW contract “allows a freedom that a lot of people in society don’t have.”
“It scares me that (some Democratic candidates) don’t know working-class people,” said the 47-year-old self-described liberal who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
“It scares me that Democrats turn people away by some of the things they say... My fear is they will lose votes from working-class families who are union.
Government-run health care isn’t the way to do it,” Moorhead continued. “There are systems that run better. There needs to be government involvement, but there also needs be a free market, as well.”
Because it affects workers’ families and comes into play at times of crisis, health insurance is a "go-to-war" point of contention between auto workers and their employers, said Kristin Dziczek, vice president of industry, labor and economics at Ann Arbor’s Center for Automotive Research.
