By Natalia Castro
Democrats did not just lose in 2016 because the party was out of touch with the American people, the party’s leader also insulted and shamed the American people. Hillary Clinton antagonized and dismissed Trump voters, causing her own demise. Yet Democrats do not realize this, and therefore continue belittling and demonizing Republican voters. When will Democrats notice that the American people are listening and want a candidate who knows them, not insults them?
Michael Lerner, a principal investigator for the National Institute of Mental Health, explained to the New York Times, “Instead of challenging [the] ideology of shame, the left has buttressed it by blaming white people as a whole for slavery, genocide of the Native Americans and a host of other sins, as though whiteness itself was something about which people ought to be ashamed. The rage many white working-class people feel in response is rooted in the sense that once again, as has happened to them throughout their lives, they are being misunderstood.”
From the moment Clinton called Trump voters “deplorables” she ostracized an entire voting base and energized them to go to the polls and vote for the candidate who actually respected them. Clinton has even since admitted in her book What Happened, that calling Trump supporters “deplorables” was more of a political gift than a curse.
Trump was speaking to a constituency of economically stagnant and frustrated Americans who felt unrepresented during the Obama presidency. Clinton chose to demonize this group, essentially rejecting their right to the American dream and costing her the election.
But none the less, this behavior has persisted.
Following the election former First Lady Michelle Obama lashed out against female Trump supporters. According to the BBC of Sept. 2017, Obama claimed, “As far as I’m concerned, any woman who voted against Hillary Clinton voted against their own voice.”
Yet one year into Trump’s presidency women across the country still defend their decision.
Belinda Miller, a 50-year-old emergency room nurse from Audubon, Pennsylvania, told Reuters on Jan. 2018, “My 401(k) and my 403 have soared, and if anybody doesn’t realize that, they’ve been asleep for a year. I look overall not at what he says but what he does. All that other stuff is just rhetoric, smoke and mirrors.”
Similarly, Carol Markowicz told Reuters she voted for former President Barack Obama in 2012 but switched to Trump in hopes that his business background and immigration stance would help bring jobs back to Pennsylvania.
It is these hardworking women that Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton attacked as anti-feminist for voting for a candidate that suited their needs.
This past year when NFL players refused to stand for the national anthem, Trump criticized the players via Twitter “total disrespect for our great country” and encouraged them to stand. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell slammed Trump, calling his remarks “divisive,” San Francisco 49ers owner Jed York called Trump’s remarks “callous,” while NBA player Lebron James called the President a “bum.”
As a result of the war that ensued between the players, teams, and the President, the NFL saw its worse season in years. The American people spoke up once again and launched nationwide boycotts of the sport, causing the NFL 2017 season to lose 10 percent in TV rating, a loss which caused a $30 million drop in ad revenue, according to Breitbart News of Jan. 28,2018.
Just like with Clinton, the NFL hurled insults at Trump and received the backlash of Americans who respect their country and respect the national anthem.
However, the Democrats have not learned from these patterns.
Following the passage of a Republican tax plan which cuts taxes for a majority of Americans, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Democratic candidate for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 18th district Conor Lamb asserted that the law’s benefits were “crumbs” to most taxpayers, prompting a pro-Paul Ryan super PAC to release an ad highlighting how out of touch Democratic leaders are.
The ad features Mary Beth Cirucci, a widowed mother of two sons, explaining how the tax cut is impacting her life. Cirucci explains, “Being a widow is tough. Raising two teenage sons by myself is even harder. That’s why I really appreciated the middle-class tax cut. Conor Lamb and Nancy Pelosi called it crumbs. Here’s the truth, Mr. Lamb, when you’re a single mom and everything falls on your shoulders, every dollar counts.”
The left’s attack on average, hardworking American people who are making informed decisions about how represents them has only encouraged voters to head to the polls against these attacks. It is no surprise the most recent Rasmussen Reports poll puts the President’s approval rating at 48 percent, despite constant character assassination attempts. When will the left learn they cannot bully the American people into voting for them? For Republicans seeking reelection it may be best they don’t learn, but for the unity of the American people, they must.
Natalia Castro is a contributing editor at Americans for Limited Government.
