Look, I used to argue the same way.

I didn't want suburban crossover voters because they would have Romney-style politics, and I wanted Obama-Trump voters back because they would support kitchen-table socialism.

I WAS WRONG, and I'm big enough to admit it. 2018 proved it. /1
The reality is 1) suburban crossover voters aren't actually as conservative as all that; but more importantly 2) Obama-Trump voters really are racist as heck, even more sexist than racist, and if they were ever open to socialist solutions it's only if it comes to THEM. /2
Even our best progressive data shows 3/4 of the Obama-Trump voters staying Trump even if we nominate Sanders. The other 1/4 already came back to us in 2018 for a bunch of congressional mod candidates.

The Rogan voter either doesn't vote, or will vote on man-bro cultural stuff./3
A lot of demsocs hate the idea of Biden beating Trump with mass turnout from Romney-Clinton suburbanites because they think it will destroy the left for a generation.

It actually won't do that. We can still do AOC-style primaries. 2024/2028 is still around the corner. /4
But yeah, if you think you can reverse this realignment? You can't! The whole "working class revolution by flipping non-college white men against their corporate masters" WILL NOT HAPPEN. Give up on it.

Much easier to convince the Biden coalition to support Medicare for All./5
But that would mean changing the whole stylistic and cultural approach.

Almost every progressive insurgency from Dean to Sanders obsessed over "why can't the Dem Party talk to white guys with trucks anymore?"

I'm so over it. Stop trying. They either join or they don't. /6
The left will be *just fine* if a massive swing of suburban Romney-Clinton voters put Biden in over Trump by 6 points.

It's much, much easier to convince a Romney-Clinton voter to support a big Green New Deal that helps communities of color than a Joe Rogan voter. Embrace it. /7
The movement of less educated, less urban whites away from the Democratic Party will not be reversed in a generation. It's immutable. But two generations of socdem/demsocs can convince their mod parents of the need for more dramatic changes, if we approach it right. /8
But approaching it right means not insulting everything they embrace as an identity, from the Democratic Party itself to much else.

They're closer to us on policy than it appears. They just need to know we're not trying to burn down the whole house. /end
You can follow @DavidOAtkins.
Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

Latest Threads Unrolled: