The left in America still doesn’t seem to understand what happened in 2016. A sure thing election didn’t come to fruition at least in part because a lot of average working-class Americans heard no concern for them and their problems from the Democratic campaign.

I’m seeing some of the same behavior in the 2020 Dem hopefuls now. The Rust Belt is and has been suffering because of decades of the free-trade policies that were a big part of the neoliberal economic religion of the last 40 years.

Big ideas are needed to transform communities there and in rural areas throughout the nation. Pipe dreams about some massive resurgence of basic manufacturing, steel production and mining fly in the face of contemporary economic reality. Eventually our leaders have to figure out how to transition our economy and workforce for a different system than we’ve had in the past.

Mr. Haque makes a very strong point about the bonfire of the vanities and the modern left or at least its predominant public profile in our digital age. There are so many people I’ve known who express dismay when they hear a liberal politician get bogged in stuff like gender pronouns and controversies involving unimportant stuff like films and television programs. One man was a lifelong Democrat and he just couldn’t vote at all last time. He wouldn’t ever vote Republican but said he couldn’t vote for Mrs. Clinton because he now viewed the left as being concerned about those who belong to minority groups, the undocumented, the non-Christian, those belonging to the LGBT community and that they simply didn’t care about poor people anymore. In his view neither party was looking out for the working-class. Yes I know that sounds like some angry and disgruntled white guy behind the times but he is simply one among many feel that way and who vote or not vote accordingly. While he never believed any Republican would ever work to help poor people others I know did and voted for the current occupant of the White House.

When a leftist party doesn’t offer anything approaching real ideas about the economic insecurities and worries of the working and middle classes then those voters are likely to look at another party promising easy fixes and hitting hard on patriotic themes. What Democrats in America need to do is define themselves in broader terms to the general public and leave the noisy nonsense online to the fringe elements and make it clear to the mainstream news media that their priorities are on the so-called kitchen table issues that most concern Americans. Of course the left should be tolerant and promote greater rights and protections for minorities but advocating for the economic well-being of all groups is more likely to build a coalition of voters to win office with. Lead with the general ideas that have the most cachet with the most voters. Elections are about numbers and getting the most votes. When a party narrowly focuses, or appears to, its appeals to voters it is unlikely to win.