Comment on Rich's "No Sympathy for the Hillbilly"

Given an earlier posting, this week entitled Desperate Times for Desperate Gambles, this article from Frank Rich in New York Magazine titled No Sympathy for the Hillbilly, was very illuminating.

There should be agreement with Mr. Rich that this subpopulation of America has no one else to blame but themselves if President Trump does not do a good job (a sure presumption with each passing day and we still have three years and five days to go). Furthermore, they will have no one else to blame if they become the victims of the programs he pursues (which hurts them more than the bulk of the  people who voted for Hillary Clinton).

However, an issue should be taken with his assertion that Democrats should give up reaching out to these communities. This recommendation, while probably justifiable in most cases (at least at present), is still foolhardy. As in the posting Desperate Times for Desperate Gambles, Democrats and Progressives need to try and reach out to these groups and try to convince them to get over the addiction that causes them to continually vote against their self-interests. This has been mentioned in various works like Thomas Franks What is Wrong with Kansas. Now, are there some people in this group that will never be convinced? Absolutely. That does not mean you do not try? No. There will be some successes. Maybe not a lot and maybe not right away but building strong coalitions takes time. The first Progressive Coalition took time to gain power from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. The Reagan coalition took sixteen years to rise from the ashes of the failed Goldwater Revolution. Democrats and Progressives can build on what Obama and Biden have accomplished and forge a new dynamic that people already (according to polls) support. It will take a strong recruitment and ground game from the bottom up. We will get there.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/03/frank-rich-no-sympathy-for-the-hillbilly.html