2016 Postmortem

Sherrod Brown campaigned on "job killing trade deals". He wrote a book about it. He opposed Bill Clinton on NAFTA. Marcy Kaptur has campaigned against them. Brown is THE ONLY statewide Dem we have left! When Trump started his rhetoric against NAFTA I was worried for Ohio in a Trump vs Clinton match up. I almost switched parties to vote for Kasich because I thought it might lead to a brokered convention. I ultimately voted for Bernie in the primary. I didn't want to switch my party and thought he would run better against Trump because of trade deals and economy. Then, the conventions happened, the debates happened, the general campaign went on and p-gate happened. I had hope Ohio would go for Clinton, but the trade deals killed us. The giant sucking sound didn't only happen in the urban areas. It happened all over Ohio. Lots of empty factories or factories that have been turned into warehouses or assembly shops. Union jobs have been decimated as have working wages, employer provided health care, pensions, etc.

We can dismiss those voters, tell them we don't care, don't need them and call them names but that isn't going to help us win. Admittedly - I am still pissed at a lot of the Trump voters in my rural, Ohio area. But I want to flip enough of them for the next election rather than telling them to F*&k off.