During CNN’s coverage of Tuesday’s election, CNN Senior Political Commentator and former Obama adviser David Axelrod stated that while the Democratic Party still attempts to fight for the working class and still feels loyalty towards the working class, “Democrats say, we want to help you become more like us. And the implication is that, somehow, if you work with your hands or work with your back, that you’re less than. And these are the people who make our country go, and they deserve respect and dignity.” Although, he doesn’t think Vice President Kamala Harris did this during her campaign.
Axelrod said, “I appreciate the Democratic Party, because it’s — I think it believes in the use of institutions to help lift people up and that we’re a better country when you do. But the Democratic Party has become more of a suburban, college-educated, professional party, and it still feels allegiance to working people and it still tries to fight for working people. But it approaches working people like missionaries or like Margaret Mead would approach the natives. And they come and say — and Democrats say, we want to help you become more like us. And the implication is that, somehow, if you work with your hands or work with your back, that you’re less than. And these are the people who make our country go, and they deserve respect and dignity. Everybody deserves that. I think Kamala Harris tried to express that in this campaign.”
He continued, “I don’t even understand how people can question that we need to do something about climate change, given the catastrophes that are besetting us. Now, that said, if you make your living extracting fossil fuels and old energy from the ground and you make a good middle-class living that way, … and people come to you and say, for the good of humanity, you’re going to have to give up your good middle-class job, that obviously doesn’t sit well.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
