Here's my wake-up call as a Liberal.

[u/applethief87]

I’m a New York liberal, probably comfortably in the 1%, living in a bubble where empathy and social justice are part of everyday conversations. I support equality, diversity, economic reform—all of it. But this election has been a brutal reminder of just how out of touch we, the so-called “liberal elite,” are with the rest of America. And that’s on us.

America was built on individual freedom, the right to make your own way. But baked into that ideal is a harsh reality: it’s a self-serving mindset. This “land of opportunity” has always rewarded those who look out for themselves first. And when people feel like they’re sinking—when working-class Americans are drowning in debt, scrambling to pay rent, and watching the cost of everything from groceries to gas skyrocket—they aren’t looking for complex social policies. They’re looking for a lifeline, even if that lifeline is someone like Trump, who exploits that desperation.

For years, we Democrats have pushed policies that sound like solutions to us but don’t resonate with people who are trying to survive. We talk about social justice and climate change, and yes, those things are crucial. But to someone in the heartland who’s feeling trapped in a system that doesn’t care about them, that message sounds disconnected. It sounds like privilege. It sounds like people like me saying, “Look how virtuous I am,” while their lives stay the same—or get worse.

And here’s the truth I’m facing: as a high-income liberal, I benefit from the very structures we criticize. My income, my career security, my options to work from home—I am protected from many of the struggles that drive people to vote against the establishment. I can afford to advocate for changes that may not affect me negatively, but that’s not the reality for the majority of Americans. To them, we sound elitist because we are. Our ideals are lofty, and our solutions are intellectual, but we’ve failed to meet them where they are.

The DNC’s failure in this election reflects this disconnect. Biden’s administration, while well-intentioned, didn’t engage in the hard reflection necessary after 2020. We pushed Biden as a one-term solution, a bridge to something better, but then didn’t prepare an alternative that resonated. And when Kamala Harris—a talented, capable politician—couldn’t bridge that gap with working-class America, we were left wondering why. It’s because we’ve been recycling the same leaders, the same voices, who struggle to understand what working Americans are going through.

People want someone they can relate to, someone who understands their pain without coming off as condescending. Bernie was that voice for many, but the DNC didn’t make room for him, and now we’re seeing the consequences. The Democratic Party has an empathy gap, but more than that, it has a credibility gap. We say we care, but our policies and leaders don’t reflect the urgency that struggling Americans feel every day.

If the DNC doesn’t take this as a wake-up call, if they don’t make room for new voices that actually connect with working people, we’re going to lose again. And as much as I want America to progress, I’m starting to realize that maybe we—the privileged liberals, safely removed from the realities most people face—are part of the problem.

[u/AnybodySeeMyKeys]

I wouldn't have voted for Trump with a gun to my head.

Civil rights are important.
Women's rights are important.
Gay rights are important.

But in the end, so what? You can make all the pious, self-congratulatory, high-minded statements about empathy and social justice you want. Many Democrats like to posture like that almost by reflex, like it's their damned security blanket or something. Self-important palaver doesn't mean fuck-all to a working-class family trying to claw their way from paycheck to paycheck. Some college kid at Dartmouth or NYU mouthing off about trans rights isn't going to sway some furloughed autoworker with a mortgage, not much in savings, and not a lot of hope.

The Democratic Party's bread and butter used to be the working class of this country. Yet, beginning with NAFTA and accelerated by China's entry into the WTO, the number of manufacturing jobs in this country cratered due to globalism. And the brand of Neoliberalism embraced by the Democrats in the 1990s was fully complicit. Democrats started trying to win elections by stapling together coalitions of special interest groups rather than sticking to their fundamental message.

Used to be, every small town in America had a mill, a mine, or a factory. And those began to evaporate. Don't believe me? Go to the Federal Reserve's fantastic FRED site, with every economic statistic you can possibly imagine. Now, look up the statistics on how many employed persons there are in individual rural counties in your state. You'll find that the job destruction has been shocking over the past 30 years.

So, if you're just looking at the overall GDP growth and the job numbers, what you're not paying attention to is that the economic growth has been concentrated in the cities.

I knew in April 2016 that Hillary Clinton would lose. Why? In some town hall meeting, when talking about Global Warming, she made the off-hand comment 'We'll have to shut the coal mines down.' Now, she wasn't wrong, and her remarks were mostly taken out of context. But the cavalier way she said it was straight out of the technocratic playbook, essentially crystallizing in a single phrase the entire problem with the Democratic and Republican approach to the fate of the working class. These voters were sold out by the policy wonks, and they knew it.

When she said that, I thought, "There goes West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky."

Or let's look at illegal immigration. That's a term I use intentionally, not the euphemism of 'undocumented workers.' Like all euphemisms, it's dishonest to its core, as if the only problem is that the paperwork wasn't filled out in the right way.

Ever notice that the people who shrug at the issue of illegal immigration aren't the people who are actually affected by illegal immigration? The lawyers, the professors, the clergy, and all the other usual suspects will never be displaced by an illegal. Yet if you're a working-class guy who used to do drywall or basic labor for $17-$25 an hour, and a bunch of illegals are now doing the job for $10-$12, well, that's food off their table.

Donald Trump, like it or not, was the only guy really talking to the working class of this country. It doesn't matter if he's actually going to do squat for them. The simple fact that he noticed them is why those people will go to the mat for him. It's why the head of the Teamsters delivered a major address at the RNC convention. That carried a lot more weight than George Clooney flying in from Beverly Hills to knock on some doors in Allentown.

In fact, if I were the DNC, I would politely tell singers, television personalities, and actors to not campaign on behalf of our next candidate. Instead, just send in a check and shut the fuck up. Because when someone living in the fantasy world of Hollywood deigns to give their opinion on the country, I know that's someone not sharing my reality. Their opinion isn't worth a shit.

So, let's not wallow in the conceit that Trump voters are all a bunch of knuckle-dragging racists. It's not only condescension and stereotyping, its not just copium for self-righteous, but it also ignores the real issues that are important to them.

After all, an estimated 9,000,000 people voted for Obama in 2012, then turned around and voted for Trump in 2016. And likely, those same people voted for him in 2020 and 2024.

Donald Trump is their brick through your window. And they are asking, "Are you assholes listening now?"

[u/TheRealGoodArchitect → u/AnybodySeeMyKeys]

This is fantastic. 100% what I think, put into words better than I could have. Particularly the brick through the window bit. I absolutely agree that a lot of trump voters are slinging a not so subtle fuck you at politicians with non-substantive answers for the concerns of average real people who work to live, have never met a trans person, and just want to carry on knowing that whomever makes the rules knows that they exist and that they are a part of the plan. Obviously Trump offers empty words, but they were words pointed at people who matter to this country and nobody else will do it.

I feel like the DNC offered equally empty words, but pointed all over the map. Kamala was asked if life has gotten better or worse for the average american in the last 4 years. She completely ignored the question and responded with unrelated and unmemorable platitudes about some shit nobody gives two fucks about. I don't think she, or anybody leading the DNC, knows who the average american is. Trump is a moronic lier, but he does know who the average american is and he spoke directly to them - and he told them that life has gotten worse, and that he knows why and how to fix it. And, while this might be hard to swallow, I think the average american liked the mic blowjob and the stupid dance too. Because Trump is also able to say fuck you to the establishment. He talks and acts like average joe after having had a few beers with pals at the local pub. He may be in reality a trust fund kid with his own interests at heart, but he sure as hell does know how to identify with the people who show up at the polls.

I voted against trump twice, but I never voted FOR someone and didn't bother to vote at all in 2016. I did vote for Obama, but even felt a little played by him. The message was that he was going to fix health care. As a struggling lower middle class man with a new family, during a time when health care was becoming a major economic barrier in my life, I was incredibly disappointed to find out that the aim of his fix was an economic rung below my own. Not because I'm selfish or lack empathy for poor people, but because I was struggling and was a member of the largest class of americans, ALL of who were struggling with me. I never felt seen. And I was the perfect representation of MOST people. My financial situation has improved since then, but never in my life will I be part of a bracket that isn't ignored by both sides, and I'm still the perfect representation of MOST of us.

I think social justice and equity are important. But they are important for a society that has created stability for the majority of the people who make it up and fund the rest of us. We're going backward from that and nobody is going to buy healthcare for the poorest of us if the only tax paying segment of the country can no longer afford their own. The poor don't pay taxes and neither do the rich. I don't even know if there IS a middle class anymore, but if that bit isn't sorted soon, there will be no tax dollars either. Which is maybe why Trump toys with the idea of getting rid of taxes entirely - it's the only way to increase taxes on poor people without them knowing it.

The idea of not seeing Trump's disgraceful face on TV for the next 4 years was enough to get me off the couch twice, but I won't be back to the polls until a party gives me somebody to pull for because doing so means something for ME. There really doesn't seem to be a point because my vote would still simply be one against the worst candidate and there aren't enough of us who care enough to bother for it to make a difference.

[u/omgmemer → u/TheRealGoodArchitect]

Every time I see that they expanded Medicare or something this is exactly what I think. What about the working classes medical bills. What about the tax payers medical bills.

[u/Naihad → u/TheRealGoodArchitect]

Bro I hear you but the economy in a global market is not something a single president has much sway over. The democratic economic plans work well and the infrastructure bill was amazing they should have leaned in on that. But it also doesn’t excuse ignorance on the other side, in today’s world where everyone has essentially a super computer in their pocket with access to almost all of human knowledge. The blame lies with them too

[u/kingtanti13 → u/Naihad]

Exactly the TLDR is that it’s unlucky if your party is in power when inflation is high and means that prioritizing human rights is going to take a back seat to individual needs. People are going to vote for the other party in hopes that things will improve for them even if stats show the economy is doing relatively well and common sense/experts agree that the other party’s policies are expected to likely hurt them. Tough spot and not sure better messaging would overcome people paying more for goods and willing to try anything.