Former Senator Claire McCaskill Blasted for Warning Democrats to Not Promise Voters ‘Free Stuff’
Former Democratic senator Claire McCaskill is being roasted after insisting on MSNBC after Tuesday night’s debate that Democrats are blowing their chance at winning Midwestern states by promising all sorts of “free stuff.”
This seems like odd advice coming from a moderate who lost her last Senate election while running a very centrist campaign and telling voters she was not one of the “crazy” (by which she meant leftist) Democrats. And indeed, social media had a fine time dragging her over her latest comments:
Out of curiosity, why does Claire McCaskill have all this free time to be a paid cable news commentator again? https://t.co/8yGlDWsZDf
— Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) July 31, 2019
Claire McCaskill just got walloped in a Democratic year. She only won six years prior because she ran against an abject moron. That she gets paid to go on TV and lecture Democrats about how to win tells you everything you need to know about punditry. https://t.co/n2FUuNj00g
— Tom Kludt (@TomKludt) July 31, 2019
McCaskill’s “abject moron” opponent in 2012 was Todd Akin, who was running a close campaign against her until he suggested that women who are victims of “legitimate rape” almost never get pregnant, so the right to an abortion should not be an issue they care about.
I can’t get over how inane a statement this is from Claire McCaskill.
A) Free stuff from the government is not free. It’s paid for with taxes
B) Americans love “free stuff,” especially from the government
C) The Midwest is not some mythical bastion of rugged individualism https://t.co/pyYbuNMAzo— Michael Cohen (@speechboy71) July 31, 2019
Rural Iowans love their agricultural subsidies, too. Claire McCaskill being seen as the Midwest Whisperer is emblematic of how lazy most networks’ political analysis has become. https://t.co/A7CyGrVHq7
— Kevin Gannon (@TheTattooedProf) July 31, 2019
The second part of McCaskill’s comment actually contains a germ of an interesting and likely correct thought:
“Free stuff from the government does not play well in the Midwest. Because they’re just convinced that they’re never the ones getting the free stuff.“
She’s talking about voters with a lot of racial resentment, she just does not have the nerve to say it straight out:
“That was part of the thing that Trump did. He said basically, I’m going to tap into your anger and your angst. We’re going to blame the Mexicans and the Muslims for everything that’s wrong with the world…I think the reality is that if you start saying that we’re going to elect folks coming across the border have no criminal penalty, and we’re going to allow them to get access to free health care through Medicaid programs, then you are going to lose a whole slew of voters that aren’t crazy about Donald Trump but are not going to go there.”
Racism. She is talking about Trump’s coded racism appealing to people in the Midwest, as it appeals to a certain number of people everywhere. And she is telling Democrats to more or less embrace a similar mindset in order to avoid a racial backlash that will lead to Trump’s re-election.
The fact Claire McCaskill is sitting in a TV studio instead of the Senate might be the strongest proof that this is not a strategy worth embracing.
