West County Democrats

Terry Gates is passing the reins of his leadership in programs for West County Democrats but today he gave his insights and analysis of the surrounding states, correlating ‘get-out-the vote’ results with candidate wins.  Good information for future elections.  

Glenn Koenen provided a legislative update for all of us with a special focus on what is likely to happen during the lame duck congressional session in Washington, and projected actions by the Missouri legislature in 2019 in light of the revenue shortfalls and passed ballot initiatives.

Our featured guest was the well known local journalist Charles Jaco who now writes a column for the St. Louis American. Mr. Jaco provided his insights into the results of the midterm elections in Missouri and the general state of politics in our state. The outlook for the near future looks a little grim.

“Democrats can field white candidates in rural areas who are pro-gun and anti-abortion. Or they can stick with the party’s principles and resign themselves to not winning much of anything outside of St. Louis, Kansas City, and Columbia, home to the University of Missouri. Or they can hold fast to principle, try to slowly chip away at GOP support, and get the economic policies they want by simply putting them on the ballot.” – Charles Jaco

Mr. Jaco remarked about the Missouri mystery; three very progressive ballot initiatives passed with state-wide support, while great well-qualified candidates are rejected by the voters for no other reason except they are Democrats. He pegged this to the only political drivers of white rural and x-urban voters; Racism, Abortion and Guns. It is as simple as that. Voters with that profile will continue to be manipulated by the rich, religious and the racists in our country– and there is nothing near term we can do about it.

Short of lying to the electorate about specific candidates or losing our principles, Mr. Jaco’s recommendation is that the Democratic party and progressives in general continue to initiate ballot initiatives that are important to our state. We have demonstrated with issues like the “Right-to-Work” reversal Amendment, the Clean Amendment, the minimum wage increase and the Amendment to approve Marijuana for medical use, that even rural white voters will approve if these issues are not tagged specifically to the Democratic party.

It is a sad commentary that the diverse populations of our metropolitan areas that drive economic activity both in our state and in our country, are hamstrung by a sparse white rural population that feels ‘disrespected.’ There are some meta trends that will change all of this over time, like the greater inclusion of women to displace entrenched male leadership in politics–but that kind of change comes slowly, especially in Missouri.