Ruben Gallego for President!

I used to post articles like this, with my comments, on Facebook, but for some reason, I'm just not into doing that anymore. In fact, the last post below this, I put on FB and a few days later deleted it I guess because I don't want and care for, approval from the masses and I don't feel like pushing my political views on anyone anymore. Or at least not to the extent I had been. I still post (political) things there from time, but not generally and definitely not to the extent I had been leading up to the election.

And why I even post them here I'm not entirely sure. My blog data says that anywhere from 5-20 people look at my posts and honestly, as far as I can tell, really only 1 or 2 do: my dear niece Becca, bless her heart, actually truly does read them, though I think my sister Laurie checks in from time to time. So who I'm writing for, I'm not really sure, especially the political stuff. But I enjoy it. Maybe it's for venting. I really don't know.

Anyway, here are the two excerpts from this interview with Ruben Gallego that I like best, with my favorite parts in red:

"You won Latino men by 30 points in an election in which Trump dominated that group. I know men are a very broad group, but what do you think Democrats have misunderstood about them? 

That we could be working to make the status of men better without diminishing the status of women. 

A lot of times we forget that we still need men to vote for us. That’s how we still win elections. But we don’t really talk about making the lives of men better, working to make sure that they have wages so they can support their families. I also think some of this is purely psychological — like we just can’t put our finger on it. During my campaign, I noticed when I was talking to men, especially Latino men, about the feeling of pride, bringing money home, being able to support your family, the feeling of bringing security — they wanted to hear that someone understood that need. And a lot of times we are so afraid of communicating that to men, because we think somehow we’re going to also diminish the status of women. That’s going to end up being a problem. The fact that we don’t talk this way to them makes them think we don’t really care about them, when in fact the Democrats on par are actually very good about the status of working-class men. It was a joke, but I said a lot when I was talking to Latino men: “I’m going to make sure you get out of your mom’s house, get your troquita.” For English speakers, that means your truck. Every Latino man wants a big-ass truck, which, nothing wrong with that. “And you’re gonna go start your own job, and you’re gonna become rich, right?” These are the conversations that we should be having. We’re afraid of saying, like, “Hey, let’s help you get a job so you can become rich.” We use terms like “bring more economic stability.” These guys don’t want that. They don’t want “economic stability.” They want to really live the American dream."

And:

"How do Democrats stand for what they believe in without being seen by voters as outside the mainstream? 

"It’s easier for us to be hit as being extremists if we’re not also known for something, if we’re not fighting to make someone’s life better, to bring down the cost of living, raise wages. 

If we’re not actively fighting for that, it’s going to be easier for people to take the most extreme positions and say, “Well, that’s actually what the Democrats are.” I think most Americans are very much pro-L.G.B.T. I think they are pro-women’s rights. I think they’re more aligned with Democrats than with where Republicans are. But when we aren’t identified as doing something for the grander America, they’re just going to be able to say, “They’re just so focused on these small little niche groups instead of you.” And that resonated.

I know someone’s going to say: “Well, the G.D.P. under Biden was the highest. And we had the lowest unemployment ever. Ruben Gallego is wrong.” Yes, that was all true. But people were not feeling it. People were just not feeling it. If we want to lie to ourselves and say, “Well, things were really good, the economy was really good” when people were telling us it was not, we’re going to continue having this problem. It’s going to be easier for people to take away some of these basic rights if we allow the middle of America to continue to suffer economically."