It doesn't have to be this way

[4bonhoffer]

I heard that phrase briefly, far too briefly during the last election.
I suggest that should be the main platform for the Democratic Party for the midterms and beyond.
Thom Hartmann has pointed this out often and it was my experience too. My father had a middle class job. My mother didn’t work. Yet my father was able to buy & own a house. Every 4or 5 years he would buy a new car. His health care
Benefits from having a union job were excellent. NEVER had to worry about hospitals or any health care costs.. A two week vacation every year. I realize that I was fortunate, but this was the experience for a hell of a lot of people in the middle class. Now that middle class is shrinking at an alarming rate. Two people working full time cannot afford what on person used to be able to afford.
A huge percentage of our population has never experienced this and has no knowledge that this actually existed in our country.
This all began to disappear with the election of Reagan and the Supreme Court allowing more and more money into our governmental system. Billionaires didn’t control our government.

IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE THIS WAY should be # 1 on the Democratic platform. We can and should not ever go back, but we should move forward with the best of what we had helping to guide us.

[KS Toronado]

1. FOLLOW THE MONEY

[Clouds Passing]

9. Follow the republicans, criminals every last one of them!

[KS Toronado]

17. Exactly who's money I was talking about.

[Gore1FL]

2. I fundamentally agree, however I'd like to suggest one change.

It does not have to be this way; it can be this way instead:
Affordable food
Affordable housing
Affordable transportation
Affordable healthcare
Affordable energy
Affordable education
Clean air
Clean water
Good public schools
Livable wages
Justice
Accountability

While "different that this" is part of the message, we need to tell them what differences we intend to make for a complete and powerful statement.

[themaguffin]

3. Absolutely agree and also Dems in office need to be better at calling out GOP deflections coupled with this

[jaymac]

15. Yeah but

First they have to turn away from their allegiance to "republican light centrists" to real democrats, those who FIGHT for the undergirding of all the people and not just the well to do.
I hope this does not get my opinion bounced for calling out centrist dems. Or corporate dems, or status quo dems, or "third way" dems because that has resulted in the regime we have, prez, supremes and McConnel's minions.......EGAD!, we as democrats have some great talent, but talking heads have just hobbled them. Wake up!.........Woke was a compliment, not a curse....

[LilElf70]

4. The first step is to

eliminate Citizens United. And now, because of what the S.C. did, it may very well be the end of democracy. Corruptness and stupidity have taken over and I have no idea how to stop it, once and for all. Do you think they'd reverse what is a well known fact now? I doubt it.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

19. Secondly

Restore roe vs wade and expand on it maybe even codify into the constitution

[Joinfortmill]

5. Amen!

[PatSeg]

6. That was pretty much the way it was

for my family growing up. One income, middle class home in the suburbs, a new car every 3 or 4 years, vacations every year, etc. Plus there were four kids. As a child, I thought that was normal.

[Amaryllis]

10. Same for me.

[Ol Janx Spirit]

13. It was like that for me--and most of the white kids I knew. But for everyone else life looked...

...a lot different--a fact that was not lost on me even as a kid.

[PatSeg]

18. That is true

For the most part, we led very sheltered lives until the 1960s when most of us became aware of the many injustices and racism in the world.

[Wednesdays]

14. My grandfather was a regular lineman for Ford

My grandmother was a stay-at-home mom. They were worth a quarter million dollars when he retired, and took annual vacations overseas.

My other grandfather was a regular lineman for Chrysler. He and my grandmother owned two cars (a big deal in the 1950's) and a second vacation house off a lake. They could afford to send my mom to a private college.

[PatSeg]

20. Many of the people I knew

were blue collar workers and like your grandfather were able to live a good life and have a decent retirement. Many stayed at the same jobs for decades, as this was before corporate raiders and endless mergers. They had real pensions that they relied on for their retirement years. There were rewards for being a loyal and reliable employee.

[niyad]

7. One slight correction. Your mother WORKED, just not outside the home

for pay. As an expression from the '70's said, "EVERY mother is a working mother."

[mdbl]

8. No lie.

I never envied that job.

[AllyCat]

12. Absolutely! Mr AC always says Sunday was a day of rest

and I always ask if it was for his mom? No, it was not.

[PatSeg]

21. Ha, ha, there were no "days of rest" for women

Sundays and holidays were often the worst for them. It is no wonder there appeared to be a lot of "closet drinkers" among the housewives.

[Ol Janx Spirit]

11. This is the same thing a lot of MAGA voters are grasping for too whether they know it...

...or not.

Of course, we have to be cognizant of the fact that this was a reality reserved almost exclusively for white Americans.

It is however a powerful message. One that Democrats have tried to use I would argue--but need to find ways to use more effectively and forcefully.

One problem though is the way Republicans have quite successfully convinced a lot of Americans that Democrats will take away their guns, turn their kids gay, force them to have abortions, not let them pray or say Merry Christmas, and let boys who could never win a race against other boys compete against their daughters and use their bathrooms.

So how do we balance a message of economic populism while still finding ways to convince people that the cultural issues we care about are not a threat to their "way of life" so they will vote for Democrats?

Or do we?

This is the existential battle Democrats have faced for quite some time now.

[Cherokee100]

16. In my opinion

In my opinion, Citizens United was the beginning of the end. It legalized bribes to politicians.

[LilElf70]

22. Totally agree

And it just goes to show you how toopid the SC really was then, and still is today.