Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is trying to break though with Trump voters in her state by warning them that the Republicans have an agenda that will hurt them. On top of that, she’s trying to get Democrats to join her revolutionary pitch: passing single-payer health care (via WSJ) [emphasis mine]:
Ms. Warren’s message: Things are unfair; Washington is to blame; and without major changes the country will be irreparably harmed.
“We talk about how the middle class has just taken one punch after another for nearly 40 years now,” she told the Lowell crowd. “Understand that Donald Trump and these Republican majorities are poised to deliver the knockout blow.”
[…]
While Democrats across the country wrestle with the question of how to win back voters who rallied to Mr. Trump, Ms. Warren’s aides say her outreach to parts of the state that favored the president is strictly to hear from Massachusetts voters. She isn’t likely to face a serious challenge next year, when she is up for a second term in the Senate.
[…]
Ms. Warren says her immediate focus is on fighting the Republican health-care legislation and mounting her 2018 re-election campaign. But she hasn’t been shy about seeking to pull fellow Democrats and those running in next year’s midterm elections to the left.
Blocking the GOP rollback of provisions in the Affordable Care Act, Ms. Warren said, is not enough. She said Democrats on the ballot in the next two federal elections should back a national single-payer health-care plan.
Well, I guess I can respect that Warren is actually meeting voters who probably disagree with her on almost everything, but it’s outside the liberal northeast that Democrats need to focus their white working class voter outreach. Massachusetts is going to be a stronghold for Democrats in national elections. The real areas of concern rest in the Ohio River Valley, Michigan, and Wisconsin. The whole Rust Belt flipped in 2016. Second, single-payer health care advocacy is one way to a) unite the GOP base; b) provide perfect cannon fodder for Republicans since single-payer has led to people dying. Veterans Affairs has a system that’s closest to single-payer, which has embroiled the department in scandal. Secret wait lists and veterans dying while waiting for their appointments have dotted this inexcusable and atrocious scandal. To nationalize it would actually led to deaths, unlike the dubious claims Democrats are lobbing at Republicans over their health care legislation. Single-payer, as seen in other European countries, have led to reduced access to care and treatments to keep costs under control. That’s something that Americans aren’t willing to sacrifice in exchange for higher taxes to fund a system where everyone gets government-run health care. Oh, and did I mention it’s incredibly expensive? Even The Washington Post’s editorial board noted the crushing costs, while California’s deeply Democratic state legislature hit the brakes on their single-payer proposal. A rational choice since there was no mechanism to pay for the $400 billion program. Is single-payer health care pro-middle class? I would say the answer would be a resounding no. And then there’s the minimum wage fight, which also shows how the Left is just illiterate on basic economics. In Seattle, the city’s $15/hour law has screwed over workers by reducing their hours and wages.
That’s two huge pieces of the Democratic agenda that have proven to be detrimental to workers and bone-crushingly expensive. So, if this is how the Democratic Party really wants to save the middle class, reclaim Trump voters, and start winning elections again—please do. And be sure to make Nancy Pelosi the point of the lance in this push. She’s been a real asset for your party brand.
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