Andrew Yang, one of the lesser-known presidential candidates, hit the nail right on the head. In criticizing the debates, he said that the other candidates should be talking about why the Democrats lost the election to Donald Trump. They ignored the plight of economically depressed workers, who then voted for Donald Trump.
In the early 20th century, the Democratic Party was the champion of labor. They were the party of labor, running against anti-union Republicans. But later they came to take labor for granted. They figured, we don’t have to worry about them, they are on our side.
Then Bill Clinton supported the so-called “welfare reform,” which mandated that a worker had to have a job in order to earn welfare.
Anyone see what’s wrong with that? If a person has a job, he shouldn’t need welfare. This is a program a right-wing extremist would be proud of.
During her campaign, Hillary Clinton said that she would close down all the coal mines. OK. Good for the environment. But she didn’t tell the coal miners where they would get their next job. She didn’t even recognize their problem. That’s why they voted for Trump.
Candidates need to talk about raising the minimum wage. Rick Hanauer, a successful entrepreneur, says that a $15-an-hour minimum wage would not only benefit the workers, it would also add $45 billion to the economy.
They need to talk about training workers for the thousands of high-tech jobs that are not being filled because no one is trained for them. If the Democrats don’t, a Republican should do it. In doing so, he/she would restore the party of Lincoln. Even a third party could win on this platform.
It doesn’t make a difference who does it, because any one of them would make a difference.
Leon Johnson, West Valley City