Thank you, Mayor Whaley. Wise comments, which would be wise to heed.
4
With over 11 million individuals how can anyone define an entire state of being anything definitive? Borders and politics are horrible ways to judge people unless you are Donald Trump or maybe more like him than you realized.
4
Mayor Whaley's main point is that people fundamentally need respect and empathy. It's amazing how many commenters are reacting to this piece defensively and slamming Dayton and the entire midwest as ignorant.
Where did Ms. Whaley blame blue coastal cities for Dayton's problems? Is it such a grave insult for her to suggest that one could learn something from Ohio's experience?
Why would anyone be attracted to a party dominated by smug snobs?
13
We cannot judge all the Midwest's voters based on 2016. I know it is great to describe the rural deplorables of Wisconsin flipping the state for Trump in 2016; but if those voters are so benighted how did they elect a democrat governor in 2018 or send the very liberal Tammy Baldwin back for another term in the Senate that same year (statewide elections, no gerrymandering there)? The same voters who went for Obama twice? Apparently they all got stupid suddenly in 2016? OR maybe they are voting on issues and trying to find a solution. And their votes are based on that and not their "backwards" religious views or their racism. Or I guess all those bible thumping racists moved in after 2012 and moved out in 2017.
7
Okay how about a Klobuchar/Booker ticket? Amy for intense, focused practicality. Cory for empathy.
2
We love you, Nan!
5
I have lived in Ohio, and still consider it a legit vacation destination, one I have visited multiple times. All of its major cities are worth visiting. Everyone I ever met in Ohio, from local leaders down to the kid working the register in what might graciously be called "a struggling neighborhood" has been hardworking and friendly, above and beyond the call of duty. I'm saying I love Ohio, its beautiful parks and its people and its history. And I get that things are complicated.
But I agree with those who say the housecleaning must start internally. If logic and reason could convince people to vote for their own economic interests, if gentle words were enough to explain why you must respect other people, we wouldn't be in this mess.
There's zero reason to engage with someone so in thrall to propaganda that they genuinely believe this president cares about anything but the grift and the long con, and writing off that failed strategy is not the same as writing off Ohio. It's telling Ohio they can come back to the table when they're ready to be part of the conversation again, but _under no circumstances_ is bigotry (racial and religious) going to be part of the conversation.
4
I grew up in Cleveland Heights, Ohio and graduated from Case Western. My dad made a good living in manufacturing. My aunts and uncles all owned a nice home in the area and made a decent living. Clinton signed NAFTA, and jobs started leaving, factories closed, and people lost hope. Drugs and alcohol, especially opioids filled the void. Wall Street democrats like Hillary Clinton and even Obama only half paid attention to the plight of the people of Ohio. Cynicism toward the Democratic Party set in after people lost homes in the Great Recession--bankers were bailed out and used taxpayer money for millions in bonuses while average people lost their homes. This group of people were easily persuaded that Democrats didn't care, and that Trump would save them from immigrants taking their jobs. Trump lied. But middle of the road Democrats promise more of the same policies that didn't really lift people back up again. A progressive Democrat who speaks to these economic issues and connects with these voters can beat Trump in places like Ohio. Point out that Trump sold them out with his tax plan, tariffs and mismanagement of the economy are hurting manufacturing and farming, and he has no plan for healthcare except to take it away. If Democrats can't win back the Presidency now, they never will.
10
People in the mid-west must watch the Democrats debate with the sound turned off. Climate change, healthcare, education, social Security & Medicare, gun laws, voting rights, foreign policy, etc. are what candidates are debating because the candidates care about everyone in the country and not just the 1% and corporations that pay for politicians to lie. And if it is difficult to watch the debates because Fox News is where you get your "news" then stop blaming anyone but yourself for the disasters in your cities and towns. And if you enjoy going to rallies led by the Orange King because those are more entertaining than debates stop blaming others for the woes you are creating by voting for Republicans and Trump who could care less about your problems. Rather than go around finger pointing at others try looking in the mirror and decide to take charge of your lives locally and then nationally by voting for people who are trying to help. And make some effort to find out the truth about anyone who tells you Democrats are evil.
2
This is a misinterpretation of our culture.
It's been exploited by Conservative media which very few of us understand the extent of influence. Talk radio, FOX etc have used the inherent immorality of IDENTITY POLITICS & the revulsion to gross generalizations of white males, most of whom ARE good people, as a Trojan Horse vessel to promote conservative economic & cultural ideology. This is how the GOP cons people into voting against their own best interests.
This can't be overcome with tweaking the presentation. Trump & GOP success is a reactionary movement to politics of race & gender. Advocating or using rhetoric for public policy that is not overtly presented in the best interests of EVERYONE is anti-human, anti-American.
History cannot be changed; the sins of our fathers need to erased from consciousness so that love & reason can guide us.
In any area of life, dwelling on negativity is a psychologica PTSD cancer that corrupts the present just as much as taking dysfunctional baggage into a new relationship. The new & innocent in our lives should never be punching bags used in lieu of therapy.
My travels thru the SW & Central CA has been clarifying. Hispanic Trump voters & women of all races who are not wealthy or privileged in any discernible way, with classic liberal belief systems, have white husbands & cannot fathom the idea of supporting a political ideology in which their innocent children are going to be unfairly branded for life with some sort of original sin.
Perhaps its time for Ohio voters (and Michigan, Wisconsin, etc.) to stop telling Democrats what they need to do, and start asking themselves why they continue to vote against their own interests by electing Republicans -- Republicans who are no longer fiscal conservatives, who no longer seem to have any reverence for the Constitution, and who sell themselves cheaply to keep their Congressional sinecures. Remember when Republicans all used to carry a copy of the Constitution in their suit pockets? Did any of them actually read it? If there is a family farmer, or industrial worker in the midwest -- yes, you Ohio -- who votes for Trump again, well shame on you. No one is coming for your guns, and you can thank Mr. Trump's tariffs for the loss of your jobs and ag markets. Health care? Who has been promising for ten years to "repeal and replace" and has yet to come up with a replacement plan? Who has stalled over 200 bills in the Senate? Not all of those bills can be that bad! So, Ohio voters, WAKE UP
6
@Rick Green
One second here... just to reiterate in different words... you are saying people in the Industrial Midwest should stop telling the Democratic presidential candidates what they need to do in order to win the hearts and minds of the voters.
Nan Whaley (mayor of Dayton), Gretchen Whitmer (governor of Michigan), and Sherrod Brown (one of Ohio's Senators) are all DEMOCRATS sounding the siren on how to win back the vote from Trump. They are the boots on the ground who know what is going on in the local communities and what the needs are.
Maybe here is the inherent problem... Coastal Democrats DO NOT WANT to listen to the Midwestern Democrats. This country will not move forward if those on the coasts want to constantly use location as a political cudgel.
9
Voters don't want honesty about the struggles you're facing, Ms. Whaley.
Democrats try telling the truth about those jobs not coming back and climate change being real but evidence and scientific studies show that approach doesn't work.
Trump won by lying about jobs that would come back, lying about immigrants, lying about climate change, lying about tax cuts, lying about his border wall, and countless more lies that pile up by the day. I'd say that's prima facie evidence that a lot of midwestern voters want the lies that feel good instead of honesty and compassion rooted in truth. Trump knows it which is why he keeps feeding it to you, and why should he stop when he knows you'll keep buying it?
The Rust Belt took the auto bailout and a focused effort by Obama to lower unemployment (which he did) and improve healthcare (which he did, too) and responded by throwing it back in our face and calling us coastal elites who hate our country. We get yelled at about wanting to give too many handouts yet those same people who say that complain that the government isn't doing enough to help them.
Forgive us if we're sick of being told to listen to Rust Belt moderates when you all get all the attention and visits from presidential candidates already anyways.
9
"Democrats are arguing over whether the key to winning the presidential contest next year will be moving to the left to energize our base or to the right to persuade those Obama-Trump voters."
Excuse me... I've voted Democratic all my life. Can I be considered part of the "base"?
I don't need a move to the left. My presidential candidate doesn't have to promise no limits on abortions or eradicate ICE or whatever qualifies as leftist now.
Just this... End the trade war. Fix relations with allies. Honesty in foreign relations. Promulgate scientific truth. Rebuild the federal science agencies and stop censoring climate data. Get the fortune grubbers out of public service. Staff the EPA with people who support its mission. Rebuild the diplomatic corps. Facilitate legal immigration and treat refugees humanely. Promote democracy.
11
Obama may have inspired people to vote for HIM, but when it came to his agenda, and the Democrats in congress whom he needed to pass his agenda, I think by any objective measure, his approach failed.
If your support is so personal that you can't get your supporters to turn out when you need them to in the midterms, and keep the people who voted for the ACA in office, or vote out the Republican governors who refused to expand Medicaid, or turned down stimulus funding, then I would say it is not a winning strategy for Democrats.
3
Nan Whaley's editorial is thoughtful, and her suggestion that the Democrats pivot away from a simplistic left/right battle within the party is a good one. I am disappointed by the snide and arrogant responses from some of the folks writing in - particularly those from large east coast metros. I live in such a metro, and understand that significant chunks of my blue state are rural and red. It is naive to assume this is an Ohio vs. CA/NY problem.
8
I've visited Dayton several times for business. People don't know that Wright-Patterson AFB is in Dayton, and that this base serves as the advanced post graduate school for Air Force officers. The base also houses the National Air and Space Intelligence Center. The people of Dayton want the same things that all of us want: a job that pays a good salary and has benefits, good schools for our children, and to be treated with dignity by those who are more fortunate.
7
"Empathetic leadership." Why does this NOT make me think of Trump?
Obama listened. He cared. He wanted to make people's lives better. Trump? There's only one life that matters to him.
Empathy. Some feel for the needs and desires of everyone, including those without power. In others, empathy is reserved for their own kind.
Maybe Clinton was the real reason Ohio was lost.
3
As part of the soul-searching that followed the 2016 debacle, much consideration has been given to the citizens of the Midwest, despite their claims that no one is paying attention to their concerns.
For three years now, the op-eds and essays have continued to beat the drum about how we snobbish coastal elites are ignoring you or looking down on you.
The Midwest has been showered with attention and concern, but I don’t see that acknowledged. Yes, we are paying attention and, no, we’re not dismissing you or your lives. Even those of us in the blue states have to get out of bed every morning and put one foot in front of the other. We worry about many of the same issues you do, and some that aren’t on the Midwest radar.
The middle of the country is started to look addicted to grievance; otherwise, the region wouldn’t cling to it so tightly.
6
Obama was a left of center moderate who ran as a traditional mid-twentieth century centrist liberal. At that time the country had not yet splintered into factions and the approach was inclusive not partisan as it has been since the last quarter of that century. His approach appealed to all to everyone.
7
Dayton and the manufacturing jobs that sustained it in the post-war years is a memory of the past. The jobs of the future are tech jobs, and manufacturing jobs are going the way of the robot. It's easy to blame politicians for this, the fact is it's going to take a lot of soul searching and awareness to save Ohio and the rest of the rust belt from a terrible future. Just as the time for Pennsylvania coal miners to wake up and see the future, so it is with those who are now doing the job a robot can replace. The future lies in building and maintaining those robots, their software and hardware. Like the tide, the future waits for no man.
4
I am a Buddhist, progressive Ohioan with a PhD who lives near Dayton. I worked for Bernie, then campaigned 12 hours a day for Hillary Clinton. And I’m offended by some of the comments here. It is no surprise that trump supporters cling to their evil hero. These comments are condescending and hate filled. Yes, we have problems, but our largest city, Columbus, is flourishing and solidly blue. All of our cities are blue. And, by the way, one of these is Dayton. Dayton is busy reinventing itself, welcoming immigrants, and working hard to attract people and companies in the new economy. Come to Ohio. You might be surprised. In fact, we’re starting to get refugees from the coasts who can’t afford the cost of living. My anecdotal evidence indicates they’re all happy with their decision and their quality of life has improved. All of these people vote blue.
18
Trump supporters in Ohio and across the country need to remember Trump's failed policies...from Mexico not paying for the Wall, NK not denuclearizing,the failed Gov't Shutdown and Trade War to now abandoning the Kurds and Russia's takeover of our postions etc. They need to remember that he played Golf more than Obama ever did and that MAGA has turned out to be a HOAX ! Remember also...Mueller and Cohen warned us...he's a Con and a ...Lying Cheat !! That's all any of us need to remember as we choose to Vote Blue in 2020 !!
4
It seems from the NYT selected comments here that empathy is in seriously short supply, while arrogant self praise isn't. I'm appalled and feel ashamed.
11
@Craig H. - I agree and as a person raised in a Democratic household I am increasingly turned off by the casual class snobbery I see exhibited by many Democrats.
7
When frustration reigns demagogues like Trump step in to fuel that latent anger. It is understandable but ectremely destructive and will not lead to the prosperity that the frustrated crave. Democrats need to acknowledge that frustration then show a clear path to making things better for everyone. Health care reform, infrastructure, community development and income inequality are good places for democrats to start addressing these frustrations and problems that goes beyond Trump's empty bombast.
I wish Sherrod Brown were running.
35
@Evelyn Sherrod Brown would make a first-rate president and I think he could have defeated Trump in November. But he spent a lot of time and effort considering a run and decided against it. He didnt endorse Medicare for All, I think wisely, and he never did release a climate plan during his Dignity of Work tour -- no doubt because it's hard to do. He's less well known than Warren, Biden and Sanders and if he'd run, it may have been hard for him to find a lane to run well early. I think Brown made the right call.
5
@Evelyn
Amen. HE was my dream candidate.
4
Nan you write, "Democrats like Mr. Obama and Senator Sherrod Brown have been successful in Ohio not because voters agree with them on everything, but because they made voters feel that they were on their side."
The problem with this line of thought is that all Obama did was make them think he was on their side. He never really was. Through the lack of public option in Obamacare, as well as bailouts without enforcement of fraud by financiers, "Yes We Can" really meant "But We Won't".
The way to win states like Ohio is to ACTUALLY help the working class with policies that democratize the workplace, create Medicare For All and free the ability to seek post high school education or trade school.
Democrats are strongest (see FDR) when they show their allegiance to the workers and poor, and help to insure that the meek may truly inherent the earth.
2
You know who’s really not on their side? “Leftists,” who refuse to know that Dubya bailed out the banks, not Obama. And to notice that there weren’t a lot of other choices at that point.
3
Democratic candidates can start by apologizing to all of the Rust Belt industrial towns for telling them starting with Bill Clinton in the 1990s, that while free trade would eliminate millions of well paying manufacturing jobs that those jobs would be replaced by even better jobs in new industries. The problem is the old jobs went, but where are all the new better jobs that were promised with free trade? Obviously, they are not in Dayton. The Dems threw the industrial Midwest under the bus in the 1990s, and now need them back at the polls. Good luck with that.
6
There are a whole lot of coastal commentators. First: I love your areas of the country and have been there many times. Second: You've got your own houses to clean before you can sling stones at mine. You've got racism and gentrification galore, you've got crime and high cost of living, you've got the same opioid epidemic we do, and most of you have got no idea who we, as Ohioans, are as people.
The core of Ohio's heart is, was, shall likely always be about jobs. He or she who promises those will win, because before you can give a dang about any other issue, you have to be able to feed your family and keep a roof over your head. I am about as anti-Trump as they get, and I am by far not the only Ohioan who is. I voted blue and will keep voting blue. But even I know that trying to blame God, guns, religion or whatever else is pointing at the wrong target here. You want Ohio? Jobs. Green jobs. ANY good manufacturing jobs. Infrastructure will come right after.
It's easy to sit on the coast, in a reliably blue state, and pat yourselves on the backs. Good for you. But your own houses sure aren't perfect, either, and maybe that's something to remember before you turn your shotguns towards mine.
11
Let’s not dwell on the thought that the American democracy, somehow, better than other democracies, should elect someone reasonable and decent into the White House.
Well, large enough a number of Americans who like what they see in Trump will vote for him and Republicans to continue the degradation process of the US domestically and internationally. Germans once elected through a decently democratic process the monster, did we forget?
1
Oh the irony. How much opprobrium do you imagine white Ohio voters heaped on the African American population over the decades? "Those lazy shiftless people don't deserve welfare."
Wow, karma. Now it is Ohioans who have been abandoned by "job creators" and turned to drugs. But do they see that the solution is common cause with black folks, or are they going to allow the divide-and-conquer racism of the Republican Party to rule their votes? Not holding my breath...
2
@Thomas Sir, Im a white Ohio voter, in a city of 900,000 that went Dem 80%. Ohio is actually a big, diverse state.
6
Ohio, are things better for you now than they were 4 years ago?
2
But Ohio remembers how Obama lied, just like every other politician that visits the rust belt. The TPP would have been the final nail in the coffin.
3
Elections are big complicated things, and all explanations of why someone won or lost that fit into an op ed column space leave way too much out. There are multiple Ohios and too many of them are struggling: the Marions and Mansfields and all the rest of the smaller cities that had factories close. The small towns. The inner cities and inner ring suburbs. Dayton, Akron, Youngstown. One thing I know is that the ugliest messages since George Wallace won Ohio by 8 points. And the first woman to run on a major ticket lost.
27
Dayton points at the coastal elites' lack of empathy and the coastal elites point at Dayton's failure to address its economic issues. Finger pointing gets you no where as a society - which is why I would encourage it if I were comfortably placed in society just now.
Conspiracy theories aside, there is nothing particularly mysterious about those with money and power wanting to keep them (and increase them at the expense of others). In America, the tried and true strategy for this has been to encourage polarization on social and cultural issues as a means of suppressing discussion of class and wealth inequality. Even broaching the latter subjects will earn you accusations of "Communist" or "Socialist" .
Meanwhile, labor union membership has fallen from 35% of all workers to 13% in the last 3 decades. The middle class has been gutted and Picketty and Saenz (Capitalism in the XX Century) point out that wealth inequality in the United States has reached a level not seen since 1929.
When Dayton and the rest of the country focus on those facts, issues like gay marriage and bathroom rights might not seem so determinative after all.
8
True-Blue NY Times readers can diss flyover country all they want, it's not going to dislodge Donald Trump from the White House. Democrats continue to learn nothing from their defeats, and the whole country continues to suffer.
21
@Carla We're all Americans and some, more than others suffer in today's economy. We need to pull together as we've done in the past and once again be the country where all have a chance to share in the American dream. Please don't stereotype New Yorkers and believe we're all sitting around dissing folks from other parts of the country.
19
@Carla
I grew up in Ohio. Much of my family still lives there. In fact, I was in Dayton several months ago. The NYT comment section is not representative of the entire viewpoint here. BTW "flyover country" is a divisive and disparaging term which is unlikely to contribute to the dialog. I do, respectfully though, see how many of the comments can be viewed as a personal affront to you as they are insulting much like those of our President. As such. the country does, indeed, continue to suffer.
2
"The key to success in Ohio — and in communities across the Midwest that feel overlooked and left behind — is empathetic leadership that is honest about the struggles we face."
Isn't that the key to success everywhere?
2
Obama won Ohio with his cool jazz style. But he left Ohio behind for eight years. That is why Trump won Ohio.
Obama's legacy is not simply about his own wins. It is also about the destruction he did to the Democratic party that lost majorities in statehouses, governors mansions, the House, Senate, and ultimately the White House on his watch.
4
I shouldn't be surprised at the coastal smugness reflected in some of these comments. But all large states are complicated, diverse places. I've spent a lot of time in California and I love it. I live in a solidly Democratic, gay-friendly, thriving Columbus with beautiful historic neighborhoods, a population that passed San Francisco's, and in some ways a better quality of life than large coastal metro areas. I've also lived in rural Seneca County Ohio, and while Im appalled that its Republicans helped nominate a Trump, there is a self-reliance and lack of pretense in small-town America that many could learn from.
6
Trump won state electoral college votes in a vast majority of states not because of plans, but because of a complexity of causes having to do with the non-cerebral gut instinct of voters -- appeals to racism, nationalism, economics, alienation, feelings of being ignored, political correctness, culture wars, anti-Obama-ism, etc., etc.
Yes, he lost the popular vote -- but in the real world, that doesn't matter.
The on-stage debate last night convinced me, a far-left Democrat, once again that "plans" will lead us to lose in 2020. We need to know how to appeal, deep down, to the heart, gut, and soul of a massive number of voters "where they live" -- whatever state that happens to be.
5
The Industrial Midwest elects the President, and Nan understands it perfectly. Coastal people, please try not to be defensive and read this piece again. If we want to regain the presidency, our party must be responsive to the millions of swing voters, many of them union or non-union blue collar workers, who live in the Midwest.
6
I live in a mid-sized city roughly 1,000 miles from the nearest coast. We appear to be doing just fine. Good jobs. Growing economy. Quality of life is good and getting better. Population growth is almost out of hand. We have problems. What city doesn't? On the whole though, we're doing pretty alright.
You can find other examples. We're not special. Politics don't really matter either. I liken our circumstance to Iran. We're ruled by a fiercely conservative legislature but our economic engines are surprisingly liberal if not down right progressive.
The primary difference is we don't get to decide national elections. Dayton's misfortune has endangered our prosperity. Trump didn't win a majority in Utah. I don't really care what Ohio has to say about the next election. Stop messing with our lives.
Barack Obama came into office facing an economy that was plunging into a Great Depression. He faced Republicans vowing they would block everything he tried to do, and he still managed to get some stimulus and Obamacare passed. Blaming Democrats for failing to address de-industrialization isn't fair-you should be blaming Republicans for blocking every progressive measure Democrats attempt.
We should also be realistic about de-industrialization. Labor-intensive jobs in apparel, footwear etc left the north for the south, then the south for Asia. They will always remain low-waged. We need an industrial policy that fosters tech-intensive, capital-intensive high wage jobs--and then mandate a living wage for everyone. Like the Green New Deal--Democrats are promising just that. Whether they will be able to accomplish that depends on whether enough Republicans are elected to block them--because that is the mandate of Republicans-block and blame Democrats, and then let the unregulated market, twisted to enrich the few, to do just that.
8
I grew up in NE Ohio and have lived in 9 states and 2 countries since. Mayor Whaley is clearly onto something (sans the whining/self-pity)... if Dems want to take back 'deep purple' Ohio, they must expand their base into the far suburbs/exurbs then leverage it to win state house seats bottom up to fix the gerrymandered mess there and reduce the voter suppression in Cuyahoga, Franklin, Summit, Loraine, Lucas & Mahoning counties (the other 82 are too small or lost causes -- for now anyway).
So just use your imagination as to what would help turn the outer suburbs/exurbs (hint: think honesty/integrity/empathy, healthcare, education, jobs/dignity of work, infrastructure, climate change, crime/criminal justice). If that's too difficult, just think Sherrod Brown!
4
After 2016, I can't even think of Ohio without feeling sick and very angry. I don't care what its problems are -- there is no excuse for voting for Trump. None. Don't even think about telling me what Democrats or anyone else needs to do to get you to behave like a sane, rational, and responsible citizen of the United States. This democracy is *your* responsibility as much as anyone else's. A person who supports Trump does not deserve a good job, a thriving economy or to live in a great country. A person who supports Trump is not an American at all. I don't have to win back your support. You have to win back my respect -- and it sure won't be easy.
7
Democracy ain't that high on your list when you're priority is food and shelter.
4
Whatever your feelings, winning presidential elections means appealing to customers voters in states like Ohio. Not looking down on them because your state's demographics changed. And the Electoral College isn't going anywhere in the foreseeable future.
3
I hope the country learns how much disproportionate power your state commands in a national election--and vows to diminish it.
5
Obama won Ohio because he lied about who he was.
Aldo, McCain and Romney were lousy candidates with no fight in them, and shifting values.
1
I’m still waiting for this author’s punchline. Ohio voted for Obama because he showed empathy. There’s still no explanation for Ohio’s turn to Trump. You believed Trump capable of greater empathy so bought into the MAGA line? With absolutely no evidence of any rational plan (other than The Wall)? That reeks of a pitifully sophomoric populace.
9
One other reason Clinton lost in Ohio is that she didn’t show up anywhere except the big cities. The Obama campaign was a highly visible presence in smaller towns and rural counties. While Obama may have lost the overall vote in such towns and counties, he won significantly more votes in there than did Clinton, and that contributed to his overall success. Senator Sherrod Brown and Rep. Tim Ryan are excellent examples of Democrats who do well in Ohio - they take working people’s concerns seriously and advocate for policies and solutions to help them. Any Democrat who wants to be president would do well to study their approaches and emulate them. Buttegieg “gets” it; Warren and Sanders do not.
11
@J. Hillary Clinton put forth good policies that would have benefited Ohioans. And Tim Ryan hasn't won anything bigger than a majority-Democratic congressional district.
5
Ohio in 2019 is a political enigma. It went for Obama twice, then went for Trump by almost half a million votes. Outside major cities Ohio is now a sea of red. 2020 will show a lot about where Ohio is now as a presidential state.
5
I couldn’t agree more with this column. I’m an east coaster who spent 25 years working in Ohio, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The reality is that our corporate focus on shareholder value, trade policies and world shift in manufacturing has decimated the middle class in the Midwest. People do want to be heard and I think understand there is not a quick fix like tariffs which tend to backfire. But some industrial plan from the Democrats might help. Do we really think we can be a wealthy nation and make nothing? Why not take a page from Germany and propose federally funded training at an early age in advanced high tech manufacturing and an apprentice program for example. Ignoring the vast region and pretending that all cities should be like San Francisco is a sure way to have Republicans win again.
11
NYT appears to feel the need to put out at least one piece a day blaming the Democrats for Trump by implying they have not been making people who voted for Trump feel that they are "seen," when in fact it is the Democrats who drive policies to support and uplift people with goals such as healthcare and education for all. Meanwhile, Republicans use issues such as immigration to focus Americans' attention and emotion so as to distract from the enormous financial giveaways to the rich. Trump won for a number of factors, but perhaps the greatest factor is that too many Americans find critical thinking too difficult a task when faced with right-wing propaganda, especially when it provides them a scapegoat for their own insecurities. Simply put, it seems health and education should easily win over hate and obfuscation, but it requires engaging intellect over emotion.
11
Brilliant comment, thank you.
3
Why HIllary lost Ohio by 450,000 votes (8%) just four years after Obama won it by 2% is a mystery, especially since Trump won MI, WI and PA by less than 80,000 votes combined. And much as I respect Mayor Whaley, it's not a mystery that's as easily explained away as her column suggests. Sherrod Brown is a great public servant who does show compassion for working Ohioans. I admire him and Im proud to have supported him. He's also been in office since his 20s when he was elected state representative, and he drew a mediocre opponent in Jim Renacci last year.
3
Well written, in other words don't run an identity obsessed, social engineering campaign on social issues and a neo con campaign on most other issues like Hillary did, exactly what a majority of voters in this state did not need or want.
Do run on a moderate progressive campaign for that a majority of Americans need including Ohio, number one being a national, affordable, health plan.
5
How do the citizens of Ohio like their Trump infrastructure?
How do the citizens of Ohio like their Trump health care?
How do the citizens of Ohio like their Trump tax cuts for billionaires and corporations?
How do the citizens of Ohio like their Trump border wall?
How do the citizens of Ohio like their Trump trade tarriffs?
When the citizens of Ohio start answering questions like that and describe how it affects their lives, then we can begin a conversation.
10
@June Not to point out the obvious. But Ohio is pretty much split 50/50. Must all the Hillary voters apologize for their states temerity? I’m sure this group would be the first to say their neighbors made a terrible decision. And I’m sure a chunk of the Trump voters would say the same thing.
6
There's one big problem with this. And with last night's debate for that matter. The president isn't the primary driver of domestic policy, and certainly can't do it alone.
If the voters persist in looking for the one person willing to connect with them personally, and who also delivers for them, they'll be waiting forever. Our system isn't set up like that. To make change, we need tons of different people from all over the country to come together and work out the details, then make the necessary budget priorities and assign the work to a group of bureaucrats who will carry it out. Presidential candidates can talk till they're blue in the face, but in the domestic sphere they can't do much if that machine isn't activated.
As we're seeing now, the one place presidents can act largely unencumbered is foreign policy. We need to quiz the candidates a lot harder about their plans in this area.
3
The critical challenge before us is to reverse the tribalistic trend that is fracturing the country unlike ever before. Electing a strong leader who can engage with us all about the complex and diverse realities we face is imperative. Then governing and frankly educating us all with the idea that progress will never mean perfection, but that together Americans can achieve much in service to our values and for the betterment of all. This takes much more that soundbite politics, and 128 characters.
1
The author is correct. Sen Brown’s re-election confirms the import of focusing on the dignity of work and having respect for the entire country, not just segments of society. Although Gov Bullock was not on the stage last night he exemplifies this op-ed. A Bullock-Brown ticket will win the electoral college.
I admire Sherrod Brown. I don't think he'd win against a Kasich or some others nearly as easily as he did over Jim Renacci, who the GOP wrote off.
2
"Progressives, especially young people and African-Americans, felt disengaged and stayed home. Working-class voters, tired of decades of broken promises, rolled the dice with Mr. Trump"
I'm not sure how true this commonly-told story of 2016 is -- let's not forget that millions of "working-class voters" *are* young people and African-Americans.
However -- if the main point of this article is that Democrats need to listen to and respect working-class voters in places like Dayton I certainly agree. Bernie has led the way on this, and after decades of neglect I'm glad to see most Dems following suit.
2020 may well be turn out to be the year of the working-class progressive voter. The idea that working-class people in general lean conservative is a myth.
2
I moved here 20 years ago Married raised a family, divorced, became a single father, a business owner, and now, will sell my home and business to move from my adopted state. I have never in my 20 years been reprepresented here. Never been tolerated by my neighbors they are nice enough but view me as an out sider. My son who won a merit scholarship in Mass and hopefully will not come back here has seen a moderately conservative state become repressive and corrupt. There is much good about Ohio and the mid west but it is so out touch with America and continueing down the same path only leads to a diminishing population and Tax base. There is a difference between religious and demigod, These folk want the good old day that never existed an are never coming back. The follow currpt politicians both Republican and Democrat down the same Rabbit hole. I wish them Luck.
Chuck From Ohio
9
@Charles Rogers It seems unlikely that an economy that allows a working class white male to comfortably support a family of 5 will ever return. But there is a lot of hay to be made by politicians as the tail end of this era is still within living memory and is immortalized at every opportunity. The fact that the fruits of this prosperity were not distributed evenly is always glossed over, or in the case of the most deplorable voters, viewed as a feature rather than a bug.
This was a 20 year window in human history. It wasn’t long before this perceived golden era that children were working in sweat shops, and you don’t have to go back too far to find a time that the lower and middle classes of all races and on all continents were living in brutish and squalid conditions.
2
@Bruno And even when it happened, it depended on an active labor movement and high taxes on the wealthy. It didn't just spring into existence because of market forces, and following Republican policies is no way to bring any of it back.
2
The truth of the matter is that a Democratic victory in 2020 is not going to solve many of our country's glaring inequities or make much headway in reducing the damage Trump has done.
There may be progress here and there, but it will be limited and come very slow.
Poor people will remain poor. College debt will not suddenly be wiped away. There will be no Medicare-for-all. The national debt will not be addressed.
Republicans will not suddenly change their spots, 40% of the country will remain in Trump's corner and the man himself will still be at Mar-a-Lago tweeting and plotting away.
I hope the Democratic candidate in 2020 is the one who -- in the time remaining before the election -- does the best job of leveling with the American people regarding the severity of our problems and puts forward no blue-sky proposals regarding what can actually be accomplished by our next President.
9
@A. Stanton
Some things can be done. If the GOP can spend over 1.5 trillion on a tax hijack, then money can be found to do some good things. First would be reversing the giveaway.
12
You are correct, but this will be a tall order in what will likely include a closely divided US Senate. I fear the Dems, or most of them, are over promising without a feasible strategy to pay for or realistically enact such programs through a closely divided legislature. Americans have grown cynical over broken promises. Pie in the sky rhetoric won’t cut it when you can’t save or pay your monthly bills. Americans feel the political class is not in touch with this reality.
1
I believe there are two Americas. In one, the college educated work and in the other the non college educated try to eke out a living. Trump understood this and pandered and exploited this division to get elected because Hillary largely ignored half of the America. The Democrats need to demonstrate that they can connect with the Walmart worker and the HVAC repair guys if they want to win States like Ohio, and the election.
3
@Douglas Ritter
Exactly right.
I am a lifelong Dem and I consider myself to be part of The Base. I am a college grad. But I don’t think the working class is “Deplorable”. I am an agnostic. But I don’t think Warren’s snarky, condescending, oh-so-superior comments about faith and marriage a couple days ago showed respect for men or for people of faith.
Her dismissive attitude exhibits the same sort of out-of-touch hubris that lost HRC the election.
12
@Douglas Ritter
Secretary Clinton has worked her entire political life to make things better. I suspect she knows and empathizes more with the trials and tribulations of ordinary Americans than most of the politicians.
That would certainly include Trump because the evidence shows that he knows nothing but robbing, exploiting and betraying people. His voters are definitely distracted or brainwashed!
2
@Blanche White
I do think HRC may very well care about working people. But in her campaign, she ignored them in the rust belt and insulted them with the Deplorables attack. She seemed out of touch and weighted with hubris.
It was as though she was doing everything she could to drive voters in the Middle away.
1
I am a young gay immigrant currently living in Ohio.
I love Ohio, it has remarkable natural beauty and precious pockets of immigrant and refugee communities. But it's dark side was exposed in 2016. I and many others want to move away as quickly as possible. This state and the Republican government has made it nearly impossible to live a middle-class life. Threatening women's rights by trying to ban abortions. Pill mills that are fueling the opioid crisis in southeastern Ohio (see Dr. Troy Balgo). Gerrymandering the state legislature so that Republicans will always have a supermajority. Gerrymandering the congressional districts as well. How do you think someone like Jim Jordan got elected??
I love Ohio, the people of this state deserve better. But I cannot wait for change, as it seems it will never come.
15
Those of us originally from Ohio or the entire Great Lakes area have always believed we come from a great place to be from. A pragmatic approach to life, resiliency, respect, and reason -- these are our passport to anywhere in the world and not get lost. Northeast Ohio, where I'm from, was settled as New Connecticut, with a more worldly outlook; a major center of industrializing America, it's always had a progressive strain.
I'm not so sure any more. They only see life that's changed, not that they changed. There was no 'liberal bias' -- until they were told there was. People who supported helping the poor are now angered at 'free stuff' going to 'other' people. Their party was hijacked by activist Southern plutocrats -- they still think it's the conservative party of Reagan. They don't believe the GOP has been incorporating racism in its political philosophy since the 1960s
The greatest nation in the world has been turned into the greatest nation of victims -- afraid of black women on welfare (that doesn't exist anymore) but not white supremacists . The richest nation in the world is told it can't afford big dreams anymore-- only big profits and CEO pay. They complain about high taxes, but are ignorant of our own history of taxation. We can have tax cuts, pay for government, lower the deficit, and grow the economy. They think the world should conform to what they want; they don't think they should conform to what the world has become.
13
I grew up in Dayton and this article by Nan Whaley makes me proud. The comments section in this newspaper, however, makes me understand why so many people would vote for Trump.
10
Don’t understand why Senators Sanders and Warren won’t abandon sounding so aloof with their frequent recalls of myriad stats/numbers and words like data, research, policy etc.
I don’t think there’s anybody who doubts that they’re intelligent so it’s time perhaps to connect on the emotional level more so.
5
So, Mayor Whaley, I live in a small town outside of Akron, Ohio, and I like what you say:
"Democrats like Mr. Obama and Senator Sherrod Brown have been successful in Ohio not because voters agree with them on everything, but because they made voters feel that they were on their side. "
And the candidate that impressed me most tonight, although there were others, was Amy Klobuchar. I can see her on the debate stage with Donald Trump. I can see her in the Oval Office. I can see her representing the United States in a meeting of the G7 in Biarritz, France or La Malbaie, Quebec. Or conferring with our Generals in NATO.
And I don't know if Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders will be "on our side," but I am sure that Senator, - and hopefully soon-to-be President - Klobuchar will be.
I'm just one citizen, but I believe that Senator Klobuchar will be on our side, if our nation is wise enough, and lucky enough, to make her our President.
9
This is what they mean about Dems 'eating their own'. The fact that she lives in a state where 52% of the voters chose Trump doesn't mean that she is one of them, responsible for his election, or deserving of scorn. Stop venting your spleen on somebody who is trying to help.
There are quite a few states Trump won that are filled with voters who didn't vote for him, or who voted for him but have come to regret it. It only hurts our cause when we alienate those voters by lumping them in with their Trumpist neighbors. We have a better chance of beating him by listening to the ideas of voters from different backgrounds, beliefs, and geographical areas, and try to focus on our fight to evict Individual 1, rather than attacking and alienating fellow Dems. And I'm pretty sure that by listening to voters of different backgrounds and geographies, we will find that we all want the same thing, we just all call it something different.
Yes, you're angry. I'm angry. My neighbor flies a confederate flag off his truck on occasion and still can't explain to me why he thinks that's a good thing, but I don't punch him in the face (as much as I am tempted); I take a deep breath, I listen to what he has to say, and then try to get him to understand why he is voting against his own self interest and the interest of his daughter and grand daughter, and you know what? I will keep doing that every time I see him between now and election day, and maybe, just maybe, I will win him over.
16
Ohio is plagued with the "left behinds." Ohio demographics have changed since 2008. There has been overall population loss and devastating population loss in many areas. Those who left are younger, better educated, skilled and more likely to be progressive and forward looking. Those who are left behind look backwards for better days. Their current plight must be somebody's fault. Trump gives them the perfect out, everybody else is to blame. The changes in the country all seem to have conspired against them---feminism, diversity, technology, LGBTQ and on and on. The (white) man doesn't sit at the head of the table anymore. Trump is the perfect expression of their feelings, fears and resentment. And just like his promise to bring coal back, they don't really believe it or him, but they like what it and he symbolize. He brought them out to vote and their ready to do it again. Facts do not matter. It's an emotional connection. Democrats aren't going to win the left behinds. Democrats can only win by offering a plausible vision for better future that get can the "immobilized, but waiting for something to give them hope"---young, African Americans, low wage workers, educated but underemployed and in debt et. al.----out to vote. If not, we are all going to be left behind.
9
@Greg
Good comment but I would not want to write off the left behinds.
Their complaints are real. Left behind?...I think thrown under the bus is a more fitting description.
They need to be heard and recognized. I hope we can do that.
1
I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings to Ms. Whaley, but no one cares about Dayton or the travails of cities in similar situations. That's not to say that Dayton is entirely useless, as evidenced by the many eloquent commenters here, several rewarded by Times Pick designations, who have found it a convenient punchbag for their virtual signaling. But even the malign neglect of blue-state condescesion may not cost Democrats the state of Ohio in 2020 because the election invariably will be a choice between the lesser of two evils, and recognizing which the lesser one is for a place like Dayton is looking more and more like a toss-up. In honesty it isn't clear what can save Dayton, whose demise has been decades in the making as Ms. Whaley pointed out. The broader implication, that prosperity will be limited to a small number of densely-populated urban enclaves while the remaining 99.9% of our country of more than three-million square miles is reduced to penury, is rather unsettling.
4
@Bob K. Those few densely populated cities are too full and too expensive. The older cities of the Rust Belt often have more infrastructure than they currently need, and they would seem ripe for bringing into the more modern economy. It would have to be an organized effort, though. Most companies don't want to move 30 workers to a city with no amenities. But if a lot of companies do it, the amenities will come.
This does not necessarily help older workers who are unable or unwilling to train for new kinds of work. But it could be a way to keep college grads in the state, and with some involvement by the community college could provide economic opportunities for more of the young people who don't currently have degrees.
2
@Bob K. We will make sure your comments are remembered when your house is swallowed by the ocean.
2
America needs an industrial policy that rewards companies for manufacturing goods in America and punishes those that don't. As every Asian power does: China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan.
They learned this strategy from the United States of the 19th and early 20th centuries. A strategy developed by none other than Alexander Hamilton. If we really wanted to make America great again, any economic historian -- or expert in Asian economic development -- can read you the playbook. We can go back to what made America great if we really want to.
The jobs won't come back by themselves, but through wise government action, those jobs -- or 21st century versions of them -- can be brought back. Furthermore, it is cynical in the extreme to tell our young people to invest their hopes in education. Why should they, when Corporate America feverishly sheds jobs in America while creating them everywhere else. No wonder so many college graduates find only minimum wage jobs that don't allow them to repay their loans.
Corporate America can be expected to fight any attempt to establish industrial policy tooth and nail. But once you accept that "good jobs are not coming back" you have given up. And giving up is, well, un-American.
7
@Sunlight - You are right. 13 factories with 1K jobs each is more jobs than 1 factory with 13K jobs that never gets built - like Foxconn in WI. Automation is the key.
4
Manufacturing jobs are like the farm jobs of old gone. Jons should serve an economic purpose, else its nothing more than occupational therapy.
The Democrats are appealing to their base by promising to exercise leadership where by they will implement their policies regardless of the opposition because it’s good for all whether they know it or not. It’s going to alienate centrists and right of center voters, the swing voters needed to defeat the Republicans’ candidate.
3
In the 1770's the Redcoats and their Hessian mercenaries marched south from Canada into the American colonies and laid waste to the countryside. The patriots united and fought back. A nation was born.
In the late 20th century gangs from the south brought enormous quantities of lethal drugs to the United States that destroyed the lives of tens of thousands of our citizens and brought hundreds of thousands of American families to their knees. The response?
"Who's fault is that?"
5
I believe the mayor is suggesting that a successful candidate should demonstrate an authenticity that voters will recognize as genuine and lasting. Seems logical, but we still wonder how the same voters saw the mendacity and bombast of Trump as honest, and "rolled the dice" with him. Still cringing from the thought.-rolling the dice!!! Were they hoping for the Taj Majal?!
6
How shockingly disingenuous and revealing to say back to back that "working class voters" grew bitter, and then that they "rolled the dice" on Trump. Bitter people do not take risks to better the world around them; hopeful people do that. These voters preferred Trump because he would stop Muslims and Mexicans from coming to the country, not out of some hail-mary shot for a better life. Does the author have such contempt for the people of Dayton to assume they didn't even know what Trump was in 2016?
Race is the screaming elephant in the room (the author even distinguishes "working-class voters" from "African-American voters" and, I fear, not because every black person in Dayton is wealthy. I know what "we want to feel heard and respected" means, here; it means "don't ever call me racist, even if I do things like vote for Donald Trump."
But Mythical White Voter, you're putting me in a paradox. If I respect you, then you're someone worthy of being given my honest moral criticisms. Do you want to be coddled and told you're a good person no matter what, or do you want the truth as I see it, even if it might be challenging to hear? You can't have both.
9
When it comes to jobs and the local economy, I really don't know what the federal government can do about it except spend tax dollars. Republicans don't want government spending money on anything but the military, and most voters don't want their taxes raised to pay for anything, even if it would directly benefit them.
Ohioans need to do what Americans have always done. Pack a UHaul and go where the jobs are. If your occupation or skills are becoming obsolete, get training or education to change occupations. (Government run by Democrats can help with that.)
4
What we can all learn from Ohio is how to vote against our own best interest. Does anyone ever take responsibility for their own actions. Why the heck do other states have to save Ohio. What is wrong with the people of Ohio that they want to hurt themselves and then fail to admit their own culpability in choosing that?
It is time we stop trying to understand people who are self destructive. Empathy is wasted on them since they continue to choose pain.
2
African-American voters stayed home in Dayton in 2016?
I thought that one of the arguments of the Clinton supporters that she and not Sanders could turn out those voters.
4
Bernie would have won Ohio. That's the lesson.
9
@Parapraxis No, he wouldn't. And he would've lost the election nationwide. Sanders ran in Ohio. He lost. He lost California for God's sake. And that's without the attacks that would have come from the GOP.
3
Ohio is not a Red State. There are more than enough Democratic voters in Cuyahoga County to keep Ohio blue for the foreseeable future. The problem is that the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party is absolutely, irredeemably, corrupt and incompetent. Years of one party rule have made the party as flabby, sclerotic, and incestuous as the Habsburg court. Ohio will be saved when the Dems get real competition, from the left.
11
The problems of American began IMO about 60 years ago, when American and GM fell in step with each other. Hello, suburbs (poor land management policies), continued in the 60s moving manufacturing overseas -- first the shoe factories, then clothing (I remember my first trip to Walmart by which I was totally appalled in comparison to what was at Marshall Fields (on sale), then the steel mill (now replaced by a Walmart), the coming of McDonald's and the other food chains, the elimination of trains and stations... take it however you like. The great migration North led to lots of talk about all sorts of things including welfare queens. Why did Obama win? Precisely because he was different and Trump may well have won for the same reason.. altho Southern Ohio is very Republican.. Recently, a high was was put in to bypass Portsmouth on 52, 23 still runs thru down. A dying community (the steel mill gone, the locally owned stores pretty much gone, ditto many a restaurant. But MDs do well. The creation of a small university meant that some of the better architecture in town went bye-bye.
Is the problem Wall Street and DC? Do Ohio's Congress people represent the people of Ohio. My stepmother (92) thinks not. Trump did make the right noises - nostalgia. I am afraid the election is really Trump's to lose. But the Democrats must keep making noise, impeachment hearings must contine (why the fear, Pelosi?).. maybe there's hope?
5
Ohio Native here, and Dayton specifically. What’s the matter with the formerly great State of Ohio ??? It’s been taken over by Religious Nuts and the GOP. Do you REALLY want to be the next Kansas or Oklahoma ? I always thought people in MY State had more common sense. Perhaps I was wrong.
Sad.
36
Ohio is a red state that is getting redder by the year.
America does not need Ohio to vote in any special way.
5
Enough with the one-sided demands. Enough with the finger-pointing at successful blue states when the fault and answers lie with your state alone. Take responsibility for the consequences of your decisions. If you want to be listened to and understood, then you must do the same for us. Burning down our house in a tantrum as you did with electing Trump only further alienates us.
Every issue you mentioned is economic in nature, yet red states and Republicans focus solely and obsessively on cultural issues such as abortion, restroom access, and gay marriage, issues that have nothing to do with your economic woes. Stop focusing on people’s personal lives and demand that your governor, legislature, school boards, senators, and representatives do the same. I can’t emphasize this enough: STOP trying to legislate other people’s sexual morality.
Accept reality and science. The 20th Century is over and never coming back. Women have the right to end an unwanted pregnancy without any government intervention, gays have the right to marry who they choose, and minorities of all kinds are entitled to all the voting, employment, and civil rights that white heterosexual Christian males have enjoyed. Human-caused climate change is real; petroleum industry-created propaganda is not.
Blue states are successful BECAUSE we focus on reality instead of nostalgia and sexual obsession. Blue states thrive because for us, religion is a private, not civic, issue. Open your minds, learn, evolve.
483
This is it, exactly. Thank you!
67
Love the way you think, but religion can mean everything to these folks. It is hard to describe without creating a condescending cringe worthy statement. Little can break the spell between preacher, church and congregation. Fear of god’s retribution is so much stronger than any other emotion.
22
@left coast finch - We're not that successful. We're just a little luckier.
24
We have learned from Ohio. We've learned that Ohio Republicans utilized racist voter suppression laws to stop Blacks from voting. The result was more Republicans elected.
We saw that even when Democrats voted to extend affordable healthcare to low income Americans, many in the midwest, those voters still voted for Republicans.
We saw that even though it was Democrats who have steadfastly defended union rights, midwesterners still voted for Republicans who destroyed their unions and made them poorer.
It's not Democrats who need to learn from Ohio, but the people of Ohio who need to wake up and figure out who's been victimizing them for so many years.
Answer: it's not Democrats.
516
@Sean
Thank you.
I see a steady stream of NYT Opinions and comments identifying the failures of the Democratic Party to connect with the 'real people' or 'rural people' or whatever demographic that feels abandoned by the Democratic Party. And yet I keep wondering what it is that the Republicans are selling besides wedge issues and fear that these people find so alluring.
It seems the major offense that the Democrats committed was believing the American Dream should also be made available to minorities and women. For that, these people felt so neglected, so abandoned by the Democrats.
Many white Americans got lifted up into the middle class through the efforts of the Democrats. That battle wasn't easy. And the moment that this dream got expanded to other Americans, many white middle class voters left the Democratic Party and started following Reagan.
134
@Sean
Right on!
23
@Sean Rather, it’s both the Republicans and the Democrats. Obama did nothing to punish the bankers who leveled the economy 10 years ago. The D’s did nothing. Absolutely nothing to prosecute businessmen who robbed people of their homes. And who finances both Ds and Rs campaigns? Businesses and banks. Only 50% of Americans even vote, and that’s because both parties are the same.
27
What harmed the Midwest? The South. For decades, southern states attracted a mass exodus of corporations, factories, and jobs by throwing huge sums of public money their way. Hundreds of companies in Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Illinois fled cities like Detroit, Dayton, Milwaukee, and Chicago for the likes of Atlanta and its Southern sisters. On top of it all, the appeal of super conservative Republican state legislatures that would bust unions and back corporate boards was the cherry on top of a milder climate and poorer people who accept even lower wages. The Great Lakes has been played by the South. It's a Republican race to the bottom of the wage barrel where the only man left standing is the super wealthy shareholder.
The Democrats are strong backers of unions and fair wages and have wanted our federal government to protect union workers and to establish a federal minimum wage that would partly protect those workers.
Back in 2010 I recall seeing lots of pickup trucks with bumper stickers that said "how's that hopey-changey thing working out for you?" In 2019 I want to ask those same folks "how's that Makey America Greaty Againy thing workin' out for YOU?"
241
@Evan H. P. . The Hopey Changy Thing actully saved the country, particularly the industrial midwest, from decending into a full blown great depression rather than the great recession from which we are still recovering. The recesion was the result of an eight year Republican administration that also took us into war based on lies. We continue to try and work our way out of that. Given all of that we still had an electorate that was gullible enough to believe a carnival barker, con man T V personality who has done nothing good is likely a criminal and yet may get reelected.
58
@Evan H. P. The wage race to the bottom is a global issue. Southern factories might pay less than northern factories do but the real problem is that there are billions of people in countries where labor cost 1/10 what it does here.
8
@Evan H. P.
Very true and often overlooked. NCR started in Dayton and was there for over 100 years. Atlanta offered them millions to move, and they did. Mead Paper - same situation, merger with Westvaco and off to Richmond VA they go. And thousands of automotive jobs have gone south, and they are not all south of the border. New businesses are sprouting, but it takes a long time to replace what's gone.
11
I grew up in a city not unlike Dayton, Indianapolis. At one point, to demonstrate how moderate Indianapolis could be - it bounced back and forth between men like Dick Lugar, Bill Hudnut and Andy Jacobs. Today much of Indiana (and Ohio) has become enthralled with a past that never really existed - has turned away from reason, moderation and science- and has become a center for the hatred of government. The state(s) is focused on enforcing a hard core Protestant nationalism. Fear of vaccines, fear of women having control of their own bodies, ignorance towards the changing climate, and the right of minorities to vote. And the high rates of opioid use, lack of wage growth, closing factories and retail centers, incidence of preventable diseases, and coal related cancers are what has been sown in that soil. It’s sad. But the Midwest will likely continue to decline as many well educated (like myself at Purdue) will make the trade off of leaving for what are far more expensive locations because of the lack of quality of life and backward thinking in the Midwest.
148
@Marston Gould
I'd like to know why the Midwest continues to think that they and they alone are the ones suffering.Plenty of cities in the North East lost tens of thousands of jobs also.The Midwest continues to act as if they've been abandoned ,then turn up at the polls and vote time and time again against their own economic self-interest.If you continually vote in republicans you can't expect things to get better for working people.
54
@Marston Gould Yes, I was from there.
5
@Marston About the time you were growing up in Indiana, your new home of Seattle was just Boeing and really not much else. Now, thanks to forward progressive thinking, smart management and an embrace of innovation, the city is thriving, attracts professionals like yourself and now is trying to solve problems around affordable housing and traffic brought on by economic growth. You made a good move...
24
Ohio voted for Trump in 2016, perhaps it's you who should learn from the Democrats. How empathetic to your struggles is Trump at this point of his term? Even if you believed he may've feigned some variation of empathy in the 2016 general election, do you believe he did anything to underscore his profound empathy for the working class while in office? Please, there was nothing at all poetic, forthright nor empathetic about Trump carrying Ohio in 2016, it was about a plurality of Ohio's electorate being cynical enough to believe he'd make it Christmas everyday of the week by bringing back jobs that no longer exist for all the right reasons. Democrats talk growth and adaption for the future, while Trump's Republicans talk isolationism and pigheadedness for the past. Let's hope Ohio 2020 will have learned from their four year lesson that Christmas only happens once a year and the money required to pay for the gifts isn't going to be found in the past.
154
I grow tired of cities in the mid-west bemoaning their fate as if they are the only ones it happened to.Here in NY our cities have faced the same problem as the cities in the mid-west have.
Syracuse,Buffalo and Rochster to name just 3 have all lost huge industries that employed tens of thousands of people.What they didn't do was act as if it was the fault of the coastal elites and vote in right wing republicans like Ohio did.Neither did they help gerrymander the state so only one party has a chance of winning.
I don't know the answers but I know acting as if you are the only place to be hurting and then voting in republicans isn't the solution.That trillion dollar tax gift the trump republicans gave to the 1%ers could have done a lot to help cities like Dayton and Syracuse.Try to stop voting against your own economic interests and things will get better.I'm not voicing this to the mayor and the other dems but to the ones who don't show up to vote and those who vote republican.
222
@RJM
I worked at a location in the Pittsburgh area that attracted a lot of commuters from eastern Ohio. They thought the hour commute worth it because the taxes were so low in Ohio. They never stopped to think that maybe the jobs were here instead of there because we had tax money to invest in our economy.
57
@RJM And Buffalo will rise again as the most liberal city in America. I can't understand why it isn't, now, the most liberal city in America. Buffalo has been transformed by the 30% foreign-born (mostly refugees seeking and granted asylum) who have revitalized the city.
I lived a great life in Buffalo---for 20 years.
3
Trump was a failed businessman playing a more successful businessman on television. It took very little digging to learn this truth early in the 2016 election. Every other word out of his mouth was a lie. His rallies were never about policy or team building, but rowdy festivals of hate: “Crooked Hillary”, “Lock her up.” Russia, if you’re listening.,. Bizarrely these festivals have continued Nazi-like nonstop after he was elected — nobody batted an eye.
And yet, Trump’s election is somehow the fault of Democratic candidates who didn’t listen to Midwest voters who voted for this fraud and subsequently sold our admittedly flawed country down the river?
You know what? My hometown on the “Left Coast” is in no better shape than the towns In Ohio. There are people hurting everywhere.
But it’s not all about Midwesterners anymore than it’s all about people in my poverty and meth stricken home town. It’s about all of us. We need to start rerouting tax money away from corporate oligarchs and towards making this country a better place for people. Or we will continue to live in a country ever more defined by the few haves and multitudes of have nots.
You have to wonder how it is that Midwestern voters cannot see with their own eyes, with years of tragic experience, that a corrupt GOP now led by an even more corrupt President, has never acted in their best interests, and never will.
If you love your country, turn off Fox, and open your eyes.
247
@Chickpea
I don't think I have ever liked a post more than yours.
Why can't these people see what is right in front of their eyes? That anyone could vote for someone so foul is breathtaking.
I think that is the frustration that has hurled us into our respective corners and created enemies of friends and family.
26
@Chickpea
Indeed, if you aren't happy with what government is doing, there are better ways to address it than sending an obscene gesture, personified, to the White House. Thirty percent of Americans don't agree.
7
@Chickpea
Yeah...no. I mean, yes, there are problems everywhere, but you and I both know that California is reliably blue. Mayor Whaley is speaking specifically about Ohio, a bellwether state which could go either way. She's telling Democrat candidates what it will take to turn Ohio blue.
2
Some of the comments here are criticizing Mayor Whaley for not having "concrete steps" for Democrats to take.
Elections are very rarely decided on concrete steps. Successful campaigns craft a compelling narrative for the next chapter in our shared story; Barack Obama won Ohio because Ohioans, including white working class voters, were a part of the story, and his message spoke to their better angels.
Can the same really be said of many (perhaps most) of the Democrats seeking the presidency? Right now, they are crafting a narrative for a very specific audience: social justice activists on Twitter. Mayor Whaley, like Barack Obama before her, rightly intuits that this narrative strategy is a disaster for the Democratic Party. Voters don't want to be lectured about their privilege, they don't want to be told that the country they love is evil, and they don't want to be blamed for events that occurred before they were born.
The same policies that will create opportunity for black communities and immigrants will also create opportunity for poor, working-class, and middle-class whites. If Democrats can't learn to speak with the same empathy and understanding for Obama-to-Trump voters that they have for migrants at the border... well, they'll be throwing away a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to sell their agenda to a dejected electorate.
90
@Michael So agree. It feels like for many American voters, in Ohio and on the coasts, that nobody speaks for us. The GOP are puppets of the ultra-rich, and the Dems have perfected the art of shameless pandering.
10
I’m from Ohio. In the eight years that he was president, I never ever felt like Barack Obama cared about my state or the Midwest in general. And the same could be said for Bill Clinton and George Bush. Sure, they showed up in the year leading up to the presidential elections, but after they took office, crickets. Presidents that have treated the states in the Rust Belt (formerly known as the industrial Midwest) like step children. And they watched as globalization quickly dismantled any semblance of a middle class in this part of America. Texas and the East and West coasts have prospered in this technology driven economy. There are many corporations that have the potential to reach $1 trillion in market value within the next ten years; its turned hundreds of wealthy people from millionaires to billionaires. And now we have Elizabeth Warren vowing to shut down fracking by executive order the moment she became president; the one industry that has put thousands of people to work in places where jobs are desperately needed. Is it any wonder that Donald Trump, despite his dumpster fire presidency, can very well win reelection in 2020? Where are the candidates that are committed to rebuilding our American middle class? This country is turning into the rich and the poor. We desperately need job creation for all people irrespective of skin color, ethnicity, or sexual orientation. The candidate that’s committed to jobs creation and rebuilding the middle class will win in 2020.
33
@Jones 4 Humanity
Obama saved the US auto industry based in Ohio and other midwestern states—do you not recall that? That bailout, by the way, was funded by people like me, a progressive coastal elite. You’re welcome.
55
@Jones 4 Humanity
So instead of fracking - which ultimately serves to poison us all - could well be replaced with solar and wind power and create many more jobs. Oh, wind turbines cause cancer? Where might we have heard that? If we want genuine and sustainable job creation, those jobs will need to be green...or we will all suffocate on the fumes of the toxic atmosphere. And if one thinks that Trump will rebuild the middle class, brother, have I got a bridge to sell you.
40
@Jones 4 Humanity
Obama help saved the RV industry in Elkhart, IN and visited the area a number of times during his presidency. They thanked him by voting overwhelming republican in the 2016 election.
48
Please god save us from these debates!
5
I'm tired of the notion that democrats are "over promising" or are fielding "unreasonable goals".
This is coming from a country that put a man on the moon, is now cowed because issues like Healthcare (which has numerous working examples), income inequality (which is a product of weaker labor and lower taxes), and opportunities are too bogged down by the right who benefit from the status quo.
The ideas of the left are good and they will help people. If we don't believe they don't then why do we support them? What do we have to benefit from half measures? Half measures that are liable to help some but not all and will then be picked apart by its opponents. Obamacare is a great example. We know it has helped millions of Americans have better health security, but the lack of a public option or Medicare for all leaves it vulnerable to conservatives who will hate anything of the sort. So why are we letting them frame the rubric?
Aim for the stars and even if you miss you get to the moon.
3
Democrats have unfortunately lost the support of much of the working class. Donald trump has bad, uninformed, nonsensical solutions, but at least he was tapping into their frustrations about being left behind in the changing economy. I think Andrew Yang is the candidate to represent all Americans, not demonizing supporters of a rival candidate as racist deplorables. When people are now struggling to scrape by living in a mindset of scarcity, it is easy to sell them that immigrants are stealing their jobs. Yang is acknowledging their pain, pointing out how automation and corporate power has gutted the middle class, but also promoting plans to emancipate the people from poverty, without bloating the bureaucracy that many Americans disdain. His plan would be very progressive, without telling people can and can't do when they accept assistance.
8
I am tired of hearing about the ills of the midwestern states. You all have the same opportunity as an other state to create the environment you want to live in. Possibly if you had something more to say people would listen.
12
@Elizabeth Carlisle I am from the Midwest. Iowa. I like the Midwest just not the part the blames everyone else for their problems. And the fact that even the homeless prefer California is telling.
@Joseph , the ills are not limited to the midwest. Bucolic, blue New England states like Massachusetts are badly affected by the opioid crisis. I live in CA but it's a short drive inland to see large swaths of economic devastation. It's comical that you and many others seem to think that people who live in those places are offering themselves for your approval. Stick to that and we may be treated to another round of Trump in 2020.
People voted for the President and will reelect him no matter how sour your grapes.
7
@jcricket
The PEOPLE elected Clinton.
51
There are no sour grapes in this article, and trump lost the popular vote by millions.
49
@jcricket
Curious, if you read testimony that Obama withheld military assistance from an ally, and asked for dirt on a political opponent, would you consider it simply sour grapes?
“It is illegal for any person to solicit, accept, or receive anything of value from a foreign national in connection with a U.S. election.”
-Federal Election Commission
7
There is so much that is wonderful about the Midwest. Living in an idyllic coastal town now, I miss many Midwestern mannerisms and sensibilities (but not the humidity or long cold winters).
However, the choice now is very clear and I’m afraid few of us will get what we really want. What we deserve as equal beings under the law. What Dayton wants is what many of us want everywhere—jobs, affordable education and health care, affordable housing, clean air and water, opportunities. And to somehow feel heard and a little special. Will we get there through hate and fear and lies and moral turpitude? Or will we find a different, maybe longer, more respectful and gracious path?
I choose grace over hate.
9
We have two huge problems here in the States. First, no one really wants to hear the truth, especially if it is difficult. Second, our collective intelligence is dropping like a rock. Witness this author. She states that Obama was well received in Ohio because he gave a good speech and appeared to care. And that did exactly what for you may I ask? As some astute commentators here have noted, our current trend of massive income inequality and job loss to the global economy started way back in the 70s when the oligarchy, reeling from the civil rights advances made in the 60s, decided they had had enough. Since then they have taken firm control of both political parties. They feed us emotional "red meat" issues to keep us at each others throats while they clean our clocks. It is the stuff of French revolutions. Will we ever smarten up, organize ourselves and take back the power from the oligarchy? I doubt it, especially after reading this article (although the comments give me some hope). We have a militarized police state, an economy that crushes a large majority of the population who are just trying to survive on a daily basis, and a media more and more controlled by the wealthy. The prognosis is not good.
21
Mr. Tierney, your observations are spot on. For decades, we, the people, have been duped by both political parties while politicians have been doing the bidding of the American oligarchy. And I agree; the prognosis is not good.
2
I am not so sure I buy into the narrative that largesse is going to the coasts. That is a GOP canard implying victimhood in red and purple states. The truth is red states pay little comparatively and get subsidized by federal taxes from prosperous states, often on the coasts. We on the coasts make up the difference with state and local taxes, which is why the GOP cut the deduction given for these taxes.
The reality is that Democrats have given up on what was once their core constituency: workers and farmers. The greatest middle class built by the New Deal after WWII was undone by input from both parties. But the betrayal falls on the Democrats. Those displaced are now wearing red hats and believe a NYC sheister is their champion sent from God.
To be honest, little can be done about severe stupidity, but there are millions of the displaced who would swing over to the Democrats should they be championed again, who are not lost to genuine policy initiatives.
The roadblock is a party that ganged up on Sanders last time to promote Wall Street Hillary. Money weaponizes electoral victory and that money still comes from the 1% and dark sources. The soul that once defined what Democrats once stood for has left the body. Hunter Biden did nothing wrong legally. But the optics still elude the candidates but not the voters. We need to do better than saying my elites are better than yours. We need a party that promotes fairness and real and meaningful widespread opportunity.
12
It is possible to have a good life’s in Dayton or Des Moines or any other small midwestern town if you have a college degree and a technical skill.
What’s changed forever is that you used to be able to have a decent life without those things. A whole generation of families is still catching up.
14
The Electoral College will exist in 2020 and for quite a few presidential elections after that. Dems gotta figure out how to work w/us out here in Ohio, and in several other Mid Western states, to win the presidency. Guess what? We don’t all listen to Fox News wearing MAGA hats. Mayor Whaley is right. Ohio, and Michigan and Wisconsin, are all purple states. Get to work w/us Dems, figure it out like Obama did.
16
Madam Mayor, all due props to you. However, I do object to your cover of why people voted for Trump. Ohio votes Republican ALOT. Some of it is motivated by economics, some by race, some by religion, some by culture. Most of them would vote for Trump again. There are far too many people that can’t get past their tribal allegiance and see that the world has changed. It is just easier to blame “the others” and cross your fingers hoping all those manufacturing jobs will return.....
18
Empathetic leadership and they voted for Trump?
9
John Glenn would not be elected to the US Senate from today's Ohio...
11
@HapinOregon
Fat finger alert.
There was to be a second line:
Heck, neither would Robert Taft...
1
@HapinOregon
Utterly untrue. John and Annie were from Ohio, and he was a great hero to all. Like Ike, he was a great person, above politics. Our current Dem senator, Sherrod Brown, is far more liberal than Glenn.
That's every Democrat running. It's the Republicans who lie.
1
just heard that a VAT would solve all the problems NOT TRUE... VAT is a tax on everybody not just the rich... want to make a dent in the problem...IT'S NOT VAT... what is VAT .. Value Added Tax which applies to EVERYTHING...this idea of making the playing field equal is NUTS... UNREALISTIC AND PLAN FALSE...every item sold has a VAT in France...thinks it works???THINK AGAIN
2
A VAT would be the only way a rich person would pay more in tax than a lower income worker because the rich buy more stuff.
1
@Sheela Todd You don't understand how income tax works.
1
The only thought I have a reading a plea like this - well conceived, but made before - is that it assumes that local voters are basically idiots, incapable of looking past their own noses regarding the pressing issues of our time. I’m no saint and never transcended middle-class, but even during years lived well below that it was easy to vote for what I thought was right, was good for the country and the world - not just my own measly paycheck.
But here the candidates are supposed to coddle these apparently feeble-minded folks, people either incapable unwilling to distinguish between the right choice and the wrong - a choice never made clearer than today, in this disastrous age of Trump and his soulless partners in crime.
Rather than exhorting the candidates to dumb it down, maybe exhort the citizens of your town to look beyond needs that no president is likely to truly satisfy in any case, whatever gets promised for the votes. There’s more at stake here than our own skins.
15
I have trouble understanding why someone who feels disrespected and alienated and upset at the way the world seems to pass him by,would think that the solution is to vote for a con man, criminal, narcissistic liar and cheat, who really could not care less for the people who elect him. Surely the people of Ohio are smarter than that.
20
@jd
I think some people thrive on the chaos and love the fact that Trump ticks off liberal voters and politicians. They do not care about "policies" or his criminality. Just that he makes Nancy Pelosi mad.
12
So progressives, don't stay home this time. You see what happens when you are apathetic.
The voters who wear the silly red hats and chant lies are rallies cannot be reached. I will never understand the Obama voter who voted for someone who could not be more different.
11
I see that a lot of negative responses are trickling in from the coasts. Thank you, Connecticut and LA, for your thoughts. The fact of the matter is this: As a native of Toledo and a current resident of Cincinnati, as the daughter of German and Italian immigrants from rural Ohio and Youngstown steel country, as life-long, staunch Democrat and die-hard liberal, I know the truth that Nan Whaley presents here. There is entitlement on both sides, lip service on both sides, and frustration all around.
There is, however, still time to find middle ground, to work together, to listen to each other. I appreciate Whaley's piece, and I think she raises some worthwhile concerns. Let's not dismiss her perspective, or Ohioans, just because we don't like the message.
25
Don’t have an issue with the message just the incessant whining.
3
Recently I watched the movie "Picnic" with Kim Novak and William Holden. I watched it as a type of documentary. How do we get back to those times? Can we go to Kansas and look around and see how things are different from the 1950's? Dayton. OH and Topeka, KS are probably very similar.
I just got back from Cleveland and Ohio has a lot going for it. With global warming creating havoc on the east coast and gulf coasts Ohio might become a popular destination.
I wish them the best. I don't know what the answer is. These people are going to have to start thinking though.
7
@Steve
With climate change progressing in a couple of decades maybe Dayton will be on the coast.
5
"Working-class voters, tired of decades of broken promises, rolled the dice with Mr. Trump."
That would include the 8 Obama years.
"Democrats like Mr. Obama .... have been successful in Ohio not because voters agree with them on everything, but because they made voters feel that they were on their side."
And then these charismatic candidates, not leaders, break promises, but no problem, they established empathy with the voters (= duped them).
"The key to success in Ohio — and in communities across the Midwest that feel overlooked and left behind — is empathetic leadership that is honest about the struggles we face."
Now Mayor Whaley, the key to success is actually solving those problems. All you describe is campaign strategy. Getting elected is not leadership. Moreover, solving problems in Dayton is your responsibility.
11
Maybe working class voters should stop breaking their promises, then.
6
I would rephrase this, thus: The key to success in the state, and across the country, is THAT AMERICANS NEED TO BE WILLING TO RECOGNIZE AND ACCEPT empathetic leadership that is honest about the struggles we face.
The Republican Party offers no empathy, and certainly no empathic leadership.
25
Trump the con man. You have a lot of company, friends, business partners, casinos, contractors, black tenants, White House staff, generals, CIA, women,
Impeachment? Let's get er done!
8
Interesting piece, Mayor. Year after year, the Rs convince the people that their suffering is a result of the broken promises of the Ds; the Rs loudly extol the virtues of freedom while quietly shredding what remains of the social contract; the Ds struggle to find their voice; and more people accept the R principle that the people are better served by monied interests than govt.
As a result, with the emasculation of govt, and the disappearance of unions of labor and even consumers, we hurdle toward becoming a country of oligarchs and ultra wealthy, at one end of the economic spectrum, and white supremacists and ultra-nationalists, at the other end.
Freedom is an intoxicating invitation to magical thinking about halcyon eras and romantic notions of individual heroics. By contrast, the social contract is a boring summons to critical thinking about such pedestrian matters as how to provide fair compensation for work, affordable housing, and reasonably priced health care.
Showing respect to people lost in magical thinking is like reading a physics textbook to a drunk. But maybe the corrective process starts with another kind of respect--self-respect. It's high time that the people wake up to the massive diversion of wealth that has taken place in the US since the early 1970s, realize that they have been conned, and accept the ugly truth that, as in many cons, the perp has found weaknesses in the victim to exploit and, in the end, the victim is partly to blame.
75
@maqroll
YES!
2
@maqroll
“Showing respect to people lost in magical thinking is like reading a physics textbook to a drunk.”
I’m stealing this one, excellent comment!
10
@maqroll
Right now, Trump and the Republicans are doing to Joe Biden what the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth did to John Kerry. Smearing honorable people by using their strengths against them. This is historically what the Republicans have done in campaigns. Not a matter of issues or platforms, the conversations turn to protecting a candidate from the smear. And then pundits criticize the candidate for not responding to the accusations fast enough, strong enough, etc. even when the accusation has been thoroughly debunked
If the Republicans had worthwhile policies and ideas, they wouldn't have to stoop to this treachery. But, it works and that's the shame. Why do the voters keep falling for this?
21
Politicians are caught in an untenable position. They can garner votes and possibly win elections by offering the prospect of better economic times. But inevitable this fails, which leaves the population more cynical. On the other hand, they can be honest - like Mayor Whaley - and acknowledge that the answers, if any, and the corresponding transformation of an industrial base is a slow process which is in many cases is still many decades away. If the politician takes the latter course, he/ she will likely lose the election as most voters don't vote for more doom and gloom.
2
If you have your ear and mind open, you need nothing else to convince you to vote anyone other then GOP.
We will listen to you, but we ask you to listen to others(other then GOP and their Fake Fox news) as well.
9
I am offended by the fact that voters in some states like Ohio should matter so much, while voters in NY, California, and Texas matter so little. The electoral college has made a few voters very important while the rest of us have lost our vote completely.
130
@bullone , try living in Kansas. We only vote on principle not because it makes a dent.
11
FYI Ohio is the 7th most populous state in the US. We’re not exactly an empty state.
13
@Hope Well and used that electoral power to give us trump. Thank you?
1
The magic words which will win this debate hands down are these: “Let me tell you why I love America.” Unabated negativism is really bringing me down.
6
@michjas
Funny. Republicans complain about "safe spaces" but they are trying to create the ultimate safe space by recreating the oppressive 1950's.
It is possible for the world to be improving at the same time there are problems that need to be addressed. It's called reality.
This is merely the Democrats' version of The Apprentice, with the punditocracy, twitterati, and commentariat, getting to feel powerful, important, and relevant by saying. "You're fired!" or "You're hired!"
Meanwhile, the trolls and bots of the Republicans and various Democrats, as well as corporations and countries, who stand to gain from four more years of Trump (not to mention special-interest agenda organizations), will be busily denouncing and pumping up the "popularity" (recommends, likes, etc.) of whoever denounces the candidate most likely to beat Trump which, at the moment, is clearly Biden (perhaps with Klobuchar as Veep.)
This is a TV show, in no sense a debate, with "moderators" promoting anything but moderation. I doubt that anyone whose mind is actually not made up (as opposed to trolls who will write claiming they had an open mind before the show) is actually watching.
2
Punditocracy, twitterati and commentariat? You maybe should act less like a politician and listen more like your next 5 years of living depended on it. All that stuff you speak yet you’ve yet to even watch the “TV Show.”
3
What Mayor Whaley is talking about is not so much Democratic candidates' policy stances; it's about how they project themselves and show respect and understanding for the plight of diverse citizens of her and other Midwest cities. You can't tell someone -- even someone who is desperate for your help -- that they're "deplorable" and expect them to listen and trust you.
As illogical as it may seem to some, there needs to be recognition that people who have been reduced to living on the street or in a car, and whose job only pays minimum wage, still take pride in their home and their work. Address them with dignity, and chances are they'll have a positive response.
23
@E
They were never called deplorable.The far right groups like the KKK that backed trump were the ones Hillary was referring to.
8
@E Double-check that quote from Hilary about 'deplorables'. She touched on a wide range of voters in her comments. The statement was taken out of context, edited for max effect, and fed to gullible voters.
8
The climate crisis is the biggest struggle we all face, red or blue, Democrat or Republican, young, old, Christian or not, gay or straight. Whether or not all these people know it or not is another thing.
12
Can someone help me remember the author who wrote either an article or a book about how great economic upheavals in the past left an entire generation behind b/c they were never able to adapt and recover? The parallels to today with tech, AI, the need for higher education, etc. were also made explicit. I just can't remember the author or title.
I am not sure exactly what concrete steps Mayor Whaley is suggesting Democrats take. It’s not like Democrats in general don’t already embrace empathy. Democrats promote civil rights, health care for the poor and working class, women’s rights, and the list goes on. Hillary Clinton espoused all of these in 2016. Something else drove Ohio voters to Trump in 2016 and lack of empathy wasn’t it. Unfortunately, economic insecurity and income inequality generate lots of fear, which people like Trump feed on and take advantage of. I wish I knew a fast and easy way to overcome that. But I don’t. History shows that we usually have to learn (and re-learn) this lesson the hard way.
12
Being a voter means never having to say you are sorry.
Because people voted for Trump, they forced themselves to believe in him more and more, choking down lies as if it were cotton candy. They can't admit they were wrong because, hey, whoever does that? When politicians disappoint, we blame them, not ourselves.
I am sympathetic with the fact that most people who voted for Trump knew him mainly from his act pretending to be a great businessperson on TeeVee rather than a man who committed many different frauds over the course of his long, bankruptcy spotted career. They only knew the myth. When more facts emerged, people either ignored them or took them as nothing but typical political attacks. Their minds were made up previously.
The vote in 2016 was in part an angry vote over the opioid epidemic and the residual anger over the Great Recession. Those who run the federal govt. did not experience opioids in the same degree as Ohio and, generally, they missed out on the full impact of the recession.
7
Why don't we have an option on all ballots that say "None of the Above"? If we had that along with a requirement that any "winner" must get at least 50.5% of the total vote, people who have a better way of expressing their lack of a good choice and, furthermore, Trump would be causing trouble on 5th Avenue, New York, rather than across the nation and around the world.
3
I was born and raised in Portsmouth, Ohio. Portsmouth was a boom town until the 1960s when the big box stores invaded and triggered the demise of our vibrant downtown, and cheap steel from Asia triggered the demise of our steel plant and the downsizing of the three railroads that converged in our beautiful city on the Ohio River. After a fifty-year slump, Portsmouth has spent the last decade fighting back and succeeding in turning the city back toward the light. The citizens of Portsmouth, with the help of the state of Ohio, made this turn-around happen. It still breaks my heart that Ohio and Portsmouth voted for Trump.
16
I hope that Ohians understand that if Trump can betray our Kurdish allies against ISIS in Syria, he can and will betray them too. If Green Barets who fought with the Kurds, say they are ashamed of this president, believe them!
46
@Anna Trump already has betrayed Ohioans. Ohio farmers and Ohio auto workers - lost markets and lost jobs.
21
@Doug Lowenthal: You're absolutely right, and I hope that Ohians see that too.
2
Most people who work for a modest living feel like "the system" is rigged in favor of those with money and power. They are rightfully angry about the situation and will direct their anger at anyone who seems to be elitist and out of touch.
It seems more and more that people are voting with their guts and not their heads.
No matter what their policies are, any Democratic candidate who can't come across as empathetic toward the plight of the middle class is at risk for losing to the corrupt and incompetent charlatan currently occupying the White House.
21
No, it has not been a rough 30 years for Dayton, it has been a rough 60 years! In 1960, Dayton’s population was over 260,000 and today it is just 140,000. The heyday of Dayton’s industrial majesty began leaving town in the late 1950s, as it did for most of industrial America. So, what should Democratic candidates do?
A). Lie to the people about bringing back good paying manufacturing jobs.
B). Tell the people you “feel their pain”, and then move on and talk about free healthcare, free daycare, and free college.
C). Tell them the truth, those well paying manufacturing and service jobs are never coming back as we are in the midst of a knowledge based economic revolution where their only real hope is in getting a superior higher education, and relocating if necessary to pursue lifelong academic and vocational opportunities.
33
@Shend
I understand you think C is the right answer, but what middle class family in America today has the time and money to pursue lifelong learning on their own? Either the employers are part of the solution or it won't work. So far, American hyper-capitalism is letting employers off the hook.
5
In other words, Democrats, don’t forget your historically core constituency: the lower and middle classes, which are rapidly losing their voice as well as a place in this society.
Dayton — my home, which has gone from a manufacturing boomtown to a shell of its former self trying to find a new identity — is a microcosm of that truth. The Democratic Party cannot take for granted that blue collar loyalty as the gap between rich and poor widens.
95
@MDB
I am really struggling to see how Republicans could possibly be speaking to this constituency better than Democrats. At least in a way that doesn't just demonize immigrants and gay people.
24
@CB I have to say when Democrats are viewed as strong liberals. Sometimes it's assumed that they sneer at trade labor. It's assumed that liberals only believe the college-educated have the intelligence to decide what's best for the country. Which is all around, incorrect. However, by reading some of the comments on this post, I understand why those who work in industrial trades believe this now. Like those who are educated with textbooks, we need those who have learned a trade. A big portion of Ohio and in the midwest was built on trade jobs. Jobs that no longer exist, because they were moved to other countries for cheap labor.
4
First of all, Obama won Ohio by not being Hillary. Second if the working class voter does not know that his benefits, healthcare, safety net, worker compensation, women's rights, civil rights and human rights are not better off because of Democratic support for these ideals, I wonder how we can word it better than 70+ years of public advocacy. The fault may lie with the listener in this case. The only other alternative would to lie outright about what you're gonna do and then deal with the consequences later. Of course the problem with that strategy lies in the lying, people catch on. If Ohio voters haven't caught on yet, I can't imagine what else would be needed to make the point clearer.
57
@Rick Gage - The people of Ohio haven't caught on yet ... to lies, etc. Trump promised cheaper and better healthcare. You don't even see that in the news any longer. Trump is not being held responsible for that, and neither is the Republican Party.
Trump (like Bush) ran on tax cuts for the rich, and the really, really rich and the people of Ohio will probably vote Republican.
Nothing you can do.
7
@Rick Gage , thanks for explaining why the US should be a one-party state by brute force of logic. I'm sure that many like you have scratched your heads and not for lack of trying failed to come up with one reason why a reasonable persion might not see the 70+ years as a gilded success. That's about the length of time that Democrats have had one-party rule in Chicago, so let's start there. Put that front and forward as your model, or if you won't, kindly explain why not.
2
Agreed !!! Well said Madam Mayor
13
"The president’s tweets are no longer just a joke when white supremacists show up in your town. Climate change doesn’t seem like a distant threat when you walk past houses reduced to rubble by extreme weather. Random gun violence stops being an abstract discussion when you go to funerals for mass-shooting victims."
Then why do so many people still support Trump? What do they think he is dong about these things and others? It boggles my mind that they are choosing the stupidest person available to lead the nation through these problems.
156
Mayor Whaley observes that: “ Our economic and political system is no longer built for places like Dayton, even though most of the country is made up of cities like it. “ but then goes on to claim that Democrats “moving to the left” would be doing so simply to “energize the base.” She suggests instead that “voters need to be heard and respected.”
Yet when these same voters are asked their opinions about key issues absent any political affiliation, their answers are overwhelmingly in favor of progressive policies and solutions.
You can’t have it both ways, Mayor Whaley.
Most of us so-called “coastal elites” have exactly the same concerns as your constituents and we respect them enough to suggest that they need to consider Democratic policies without the tribal animus that Donald Trump, and other Republican politicians, have used to distract voters from real issues and real solutions.
87
@gsteve The “coastal elites” definitely have their own “tribal animus”. And just like Trump followers, the elite think they’re right.
5
Millions of Americans made a tragic mistake in 2016. We thought Hillary Clinton was the person to beat. Those millions stayed home that election day. Ohioans did, Georgians did, Californians did, all across the country, they didn't vote.
Ohio was left behind by Trump, and Trump alone, just like the other 49. Elect a Democrat and Ohio's chances improve dramatically, as does the other 49. And our children and grandchildren just might have a future.
96
@cherrylog754
Californians stayed home? California was 61% for Hillary with a 4.27 million voter margin of victory, otherwise known as a model of sanity.
14
@Zack
Not as clear as I could have been. I meant the registered voters that did not cast a ballot. CA has 20 million registered voters, 14.6 million voted. That's 5.5 million CA's did not vote in 2016.
10
@Matt
San Francisco (along with the rest of California and all of the blue states) certainly looks sane when you compare it to most cities in the US. Tax base: very strong. Employment: lots of jobs. And, the "nanny state" is not interfering with your personal decisions, and religion does not hold a stranglehold on society. No wonder people leave places like Dayton to move to San Francisco!
5
Ohio voted for Trump. Why should we "learn" from a failure? Why don't you study California, the world's fifth largest economy. The one thing we learned from Ohio, is to not go there.
84
Respectfully I think you could also argue it is also pointless for Democrats to spend a lot of time campaigning in California since they already have it rolled up and the popular vote doesn’t count.
32
@me
No, he DID get the point.
Empathy is a two-way street and yet red states insist we first listen to their demands that we re-litigate settled law and cultural issues that have literally nothing to do with the very economic issues this column describe.
California decided that personal sexual morality is not a civic or government issue yet red states demand we retreat into their moral caves before they will even discuss the actual economic and environmental issues that are the causes of their woes. Red states are incredibly obsessed with battles of the past while we’re well on our way to the future. We have nothing more to discuss until red states drop the culture wars and denial of science. That is the point, the truth, and the right response to the column.
58
I spent the first 22+ years of my life in Ohio, and from outside, I visit it with no sympathy for the failure that exists beyond Franklin county. The state had a "good Christian" governor in Kasich who worked to destroy the State retirement plan, and while it was a Civil War northern state, the racism still present is appalling. California is a future-state, Ohio lives for an imagined past as it's future. Ohio: doesn't want to look in the mirror to see where the failure is still coming from, and voting for.
1
What reason or experience did Nan Whaley have that she would think the democrats have forgotten about Ohio or any other state. Which party has offered policies to improve the life's of all Americans? Which party is concerned about fair elections and citizens voting rights? One party has forgotten about Ohio and every other state, and only looks enrich the wealthy; and it's not the democrats.
145
I'm hoping they will all ignore the impeachment. Heard way too much already and we're just in the foothills.
I want to hear about how my great nation is going to transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy in the next two decades.
What do you guys want to hear about?
14
Impeach!
15
As an old Ohioan, though presently not living there, I heartily agree, and congratulate you on a fine job in a really sad series of episodes. Carry on!
19
Trump was neither empathic nor honest yet he still won Ohio
208
@Neve But KellyAnne was super duper nice at those off-camera focus groups.
4
Dare I say, speaks volumes of the State.
18
@me
Believe what he says, not what he does.
1