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The Lessons From Clinton and Obama that Democrats Forgot
It’s the economy, stupid
We have endured a month of election autopsies, post-mortems, soul searching, Monday morning quarterbacking, pick your metaphor. Everyone agrees that the Democratic party has lost the working class, its defining constituency for decades. They have become the party of college educated voters, a much smaller group. To boot, Democrats branded themselves as the defenders of institutions, i.e., the status quo.
With the benefit of hindsight, the reason Democrats lost the working class seems so blindingly obvious. How could party leaders not see it? How did Democrats screw up this badly?
Compare the campaigns of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama with those of Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris. Democrats somehow forgot the lessons of Bill and Barack.
Bill Clinton’s campaign focused on the economy and how his administration would improve people’s lives. Here were his slogans:
- “For America, for the people.”
- “It’s time to fix America.”
- “Putting people first.”
The U.S. economy was sluggish throughout George H.W. Bush’s presidency, culminating in an 8-month recession with 7.2% unemployment. Clinton’s message of economic change for the…