The Republicans Are Already Selling Out Trump's Voters-- But Can The Democrats Capitalize On That?

Sunday we talked about how Trump allowed congressional Republicans to walk all over working class voters, inserting their ideological extremism-- that he doesn't share-- into legislation hurting retired coal miners' health insurance programs. Earlier this morning we talked about the need for Trump to stand up to Ryan (and Pence and Price) as they begin dismantling the social safety net in regard to health care for people insured through Obamacare and Medicare.

Working class voters who decided they wanted change enough to take a chance with Trump are getting the shitty end of the stick from extremist Republicans he seems unable or unwilling to stand up to. Aside from Ryan and the congressional Republicans, we're seeing ideological overreach on the state level as well. Take Ohio. Trump won the state's 18 electoral votes by a big margin-- 2,771,984 (52.1%) to 2,317,001 (43.5%). He won 81 of Ohio's 88 counties, including 9 won by Obama in 2012. Unless these 5 turnarounds were the result of Russian hacking, they are absolutely stunning:

• Ashtabula: Obama- 55%, Trump- 57%
• Trumbull: Obama- 60%, Trump- 51%
• Sandusky: Obama- 50%, Trump- 58%
• Erie: Obama- 55%, Trump- 53%
• Ottawa: Obama - 51%, Trump- 57%

Those are blue collar, pre-identity politics Democratic heartland counties. And at the same time the Democratic Party conservative Senate candidate-- forced on Democratic voters by Schumer and utterly clueless party elders-- Ted Strickland was just pulverized in a state where he not too long ago served as governor, losing to Rob Portman 3,048,467 (58.3%) to 1,929,873 (36.9%). He only won 4 counties-- and none very convincingly.

Of the 16 state Senate seats up, Democrats won 2 and the GOP won 14. The entire state House was contested and the Republicans won 66 seats, exactly double the Democrats 33, a 6 seat gain for the Republicans at the Democrats' expense. Trump didn't lead the party. Portman had 276,483 more votes than Trump and there were no Trump coattails anywhere. But Ohio Republicans feel empowered by the GOP sweep. They immediately passed an extremist and clearly unconstitutional anti-Choice bill. And, as Kris Maher reported for Wall Street Journal readers last week, the GOP legislators went wild, passing a bill to block local governments from passing ordinances raising the minimum wage in their jurisdictions.

The Ohio Republicans claims minimum wage workers should be happy with the five cent an hour raise they're already getting January 1 when the state's minimum goes from $8.10/hour to $8.15/hour. That's right in line with the attitude of the virulently anti-minimum wage/anti-union/anti-worker slob that Trump picked yo be Secretary of Labor, Andy Puzder (an Ohio anti-Choice fanatic) who contributed $332,000 to Trump's election campaign.

An Ohio limit could have an immediate effect on Cleveland, where residents are set to vote in May on whether to increase the local minimum wage to $12 an hour in 2018, and to $15 an hour within three years after that.

Brad Miller, an Ohio House Republican spokesman, said lawmakers are confident that the governor will sign the measure. He said some lawmakers were concerned about the effects on businesses if Cleveland and other municipalities were to raise their minimum wages.

“The concern is that if you increase costs on employers it makes it more difficult for them to create jobs and to help people in the long run,” Mr. Miller said.

About 22 states have adopted wage pre-emption laws in recent years, according to the National Employment Law Project, which backs higher minimum wages. That has sparked legal challenges in Alabama and Missouri to block the limits on cities and local governments and ballot initiatives to raise the minimum wage.

In November, voters in Arizona, Colorado and Maine approved minimum wage increases up to $12 an hour by 2020, and voters in Washington state approved a minimum-wage increase up to $13.50 an hour by 2020.

“Ballot initiatives that raised the minimum wage received more votes than either of the presidential candidates, and many conservative-leaning counties voted for President-elect Trump but also to raise the minimum wage,” said Paul Sonn, general counsel at the National Employment Law Project.

He said he believes that if the Ohio measure becomes law, advocates for a minimum-wage increase will try to put a statewide raise on the ballot in 2018.

Trump may not give a damn about the anti-choice legislation but bill aimed directly at making life harder for working families is something he may have to pay a little attention to. 2018 isn't that far away and even in one of the 3 or 4 most grotesquely gerrymandered states, there are half a dozen congressional seats that could swing back to the Democrats if voters start feeling betrayed by Trump. Forgetting for a moment that the DCCC will probably recruit useless conservative candidates with no message for working class voters, it would be possible for competitively-financed progressive Democrats to beat Steve Chabot, David Joyce, Jim Renacci, Pat Tiberi, Mike Turner and Bob Gibbs in a wave election year. But are the Democrats open to learning from their mistakes? That's a very open question.

House Dems voted to hold on to Pelosi and even though they technically forced her to give up the right to choose the DCCC chair, they voted for her incompetent loser choice anyway, Ben Ray Lujan who was carefully trained-- even programmed-- by Steve Israel to do everything required to lose, lose and lose some more. Keith Ellison, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus is running for the DNC chair on this platform: "Democrats win when we harness the power of everyday people and fight for the issues they care about. It is not enough for Democrats to ask for voters' support every two years. We must be with them through every lost paycheck, every tuition hike, and every time they are the victim of a hate crime. When voters know what Democrats stand for, we can improve the lives of all Americans."