{"id":25384,"date":"2024-11-25T12:27:21","date_gmt":"2024-11-25T17:27:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=25384"},"modified":"2024-11-25T12:29:36","modified_gmt":"2024-11-25T17:29:36","slug":"this-fiery-evangelical-pastor-offers-a-blueprint-for-democrats-revival-in-trumps-second-term","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/11\/this-fiery-evangelical-pastor-offers-a-blueprint-for-democrats-revival-in-trumps-second-term","title":{"rendered":"This fiery evangelical pastor offers a blueprint for Democrats\u2019 revival in Trump\u2019s second term"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Phil Pasquini \/ Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The high price of bread and eggs\u00a0doomed<\/a>\u00a0her. Nope, it was raw\u00a0racism and sexism<\/a>. Well, maybe she\u00a0should have gone<\/a>\u00a0on Joe Rogan\u2019s show.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re looking for a reason why Vice President Kamala Harris lost to Donald Trump, there are plenty to choose from. Many of Harris\u2019 reeling supporters are still trying to understand the forces behind Trump\u2019s win. Trump won\u00a0less than half<\/a>of the popular vote, where his margin of victory was smaller than President Biden\u2019s in 2020. Still, he\u00a0swept<\/a>\u00a0all seven swing states and he has forced Democrats to ask what they must do to reach more working-class and Latino voters.<\/p>\n

One prominent evangelical pastor offers some insight. The Rev. William J. Barber II has long been one of America\u2019s most persistent and eloquent spokespersons for poor and working-class Americans. Barber, who has been called\u00a0\u201cthe closest person we have to MLK\u201d<\/a>\u00a0in contemporary America, has organized coalitions of the poor, working-class Whites and people of color around such causes as\u00a0raising the minimum wage<\/a>,\u00a0expanding<\/a>\u00a0health care and strengthening unions. Barber is the recipient of a\u00a0MacArthur \u201cgenius grant<\/a>\u201d and helps lead the\u00a0Poor People\u2019s Campaign<\/a>, which seeks national solutions to ongoing poverty.<\/p>\n

Barber also done something else: He\u2019s shown Democrats how they can win political victories in red states. Barber is currently the founding director of the\u00a0Center for Public Theology and Public Policy<\/a>\u00a0at Yale Divinity School and\u00a0Repairers of the Breach<\/a>, a group that trains social justice leaders.<\/p>\n

But he made his mark from his home state of North Carolina. As one of the architects of the\u00a0\u201cMoral Mondays\u201d<\/a>\u00a0movement, he helped lead a racially diverse coalition that is\u00a0credited<\/a>\u00a0with toppling a Republican governor and turning North Carolina into a swing state. Though Harris lost North Carolina, Democrats in 2024\u00a0won races<\/a>\u00a0for governor and attorney general, and the GOP appears likely to\u00a0lose its veto-proof majority<\/a>\u00a0in the state legislature.<\/p>\n

For Democrats debating how best to reach new voters, Barber\u2019s perspective could be valuable. He has written a blueprint for expanding the Democratic base in North Carolina and elsewhere through what he calls \u201cfusion politics<\/a>,\u201d a multiracial and multiclass coalition that transcends the conservative-vs.-progressive binary. Racism is often depicted as a Black problem, but Barber insists it\u2019s also been used throughout US history to hurt the economic interests of everyday White people. He\u00a0once said<\/a>, \u201cRacism may target Black people, but it damns a democracy, and it damns humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

CNN spoke with Barber about the country\u2019s future in Trump\u2019s impending second term. In his rumbling preacher\u2019s baritone, Barber explained why he thinks both political parties fail the working class, how the Democratic Party can move forward and why he still believes America can become a genuine multiracial democracy.<\/p>\n

His answers were edited for clarity and brevity.<\/p>\n

Were you shocked by the election results?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know if shocked is the word. I\u2019m deeply concerned for this country. I\u2019m deeply disappointed that you could have someone who\u00a0spews<\/a>\u00a0as much violence and viciousness, a sexual abuser (a federal jury\u00a0found<\/a>\u00a0last year in a civil case that Trump sexually abused a woman in 1996 in New York City) who clearly\u00a0doesn\u2019t believe<\/a>\u00a0in the rule of law. He lies, curses and creates an\u00a0enemy list<\/a>. If Vice President Harris had done a half of one of those things, her poll numbers would have dropped and she would have not even been able to stay in the race. Trump is able to do it, and somehow so many Americans look the other way.<\/p>\n

For people to say they still support him, there\u2019s something deeply wrong with a large section of the country. And then what\u2019s really shocking to me is the number of people who still\u00a0choose not to<\/a>\u00a0vote. What is it about our society that we can see someone who leans into fascism, and there is not an all-out effort to get to the polls and say no?<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your answer to that question? What is it about people that saw all this and still didn\u2019t vote?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think people get turned off because they feel as though politics is just a game of the rich and things are not going to really change. From\u00a0one study,<\/a>\u00a0we found out that 30 million poor and low-wage people did not vote because they said nobody talked to them. Nobody talked to their issues. If you look at the two (2024 presidential and vice-presidential) debates, not one candidate was asked how would their policies affect the issues of people dying every day from poverty and low wages. Not one candidate was asked would they raise the minimum wage,\u00a0which we\u2019ve not raised for 15 years<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The debates write a lot of people off. They (low-income viewers) don\u2019t hear their names, they don\u2019t hear their conditions. So our discourse, or lack thereof, is causing more and more people to just remove themselves (from the political process). We have a lot of questions to ask about our soul and mindset in this culture.<\/p>\n

Critics say Democrats are\u00a0<\/strong>elitist<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and look down on working-class people. What do you say to that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Neither party has done enough, and all of them dismiss poor and low-wage service people in different ways. The Republicans tend to say poverty and low wage is your own fault. And then they try to racialize poverty and make it like it\u2019s a Black issue. When they talk about poverty, the first thing they do is show a\u00a0Black woman<\/a>\u00a0with food stamps.<\/p>\n

On the other side, Democrats think that they can just talk \u201cmiddle class.\u201d They\u00a0don\u2019t have to say<\/a>\u00a0\u201cpoverty.\u201d They don\u2019t have to say \u201clow wages.\u201d They fall in the trap of allowing poverty to be marginalized.<\/p>\n

Democrats \u2014 I don\u2019t know if I would use the word elitism \u2014 they just haven\u2019t done what could have been done when they had the opportunity. I go back to the fact that the $15 (minimum wage) was a part of the Covid relief package. It was taken out of the package and it was allowed to be voted on individually but some so-called\u00a0moderate Democrats said no<\/a>\u00a0to itat that time.<\/p>\n

We have a deep moral problem in this country. We\u2019re just writing off a whole swath of people. We begged and pushed and marched and demanded that there\u2019d be a roundtable in the White House, bringing in poor, low-wage people from Appalachia and Alabama to face this issue. We said the Senate should have a vote on a living wage before the election and make people like (Vice President-elect)\u00a0JD Vance<\/a>\u00a0vote and say where they stand right before the election so the American people could know. There\u2019s not a battleground state where\u00a0poor and low-wage people<\/a>\u00a0don\u2019t make up more than 40% of the electorate. There\u2019s not a battleground state where if just 10% of poor, low-wage people were to vote around an agenda that they wouldn\u2019t fundamentally shift the outcome of the election.<\/p>\n

There are people who say it\u2019s a mistake to reduce Trump\u2019s victory to racism or sexism because\u00a0<\/strong>large numbers<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0of Latino\u00a0<\/strong>men<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0voted for Trump. What role do you think racism and sexism played in the election result?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Racism certainly is a part of it. But you got to go beyond just race because\u00a066 million<\/a>\u00a0poor, low-wage folks are White, and they vote for policies that hurt them as well. You have to look at the level of chauvinism in the election. We\u2019ve had two highly qualified women (Hillary Clinton in 2016; Harris in 2024), both better people (than Trump) in terms of character and policy, lose to Trump and the MAGA movement.<\/p>\n

In North Carolina, you had a Democrat \u2014 the governor, the lieutenant governor, the superintendent of schools, the attorney general \u2014 win (in 2024). And yet the vice president loses in North Carolina. That is not an easy thing to solve. The votes\u00a0went down<\/a>, rather than up, for both candidates (Harris and Trump). We know that extremists love election numbers to be down. That\u2019s where they flourish.<\/p>\n

I talked to a Black woman who said after the election that she is done with America. She doesn\u2019t want to live in this country anymore. What would you say to people who are in despair and just want to check out?<\/strong><\/p>\n

They should have a level of grief, hurt and anger to see someone who can be as\u00a0fascist-leaning<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0mean-spirited,<\/a>\u00a0both in words and in public policy, as Trump beat someone who is upstanding and cares about the whole of all people.<\/p>\n

But what you saw election night is not the whole of America. It\u2019s a part of America in a particular moment around the election. You have to stop and say, wait a minute, this is the same America that I went to sleep in the night before. It\u2019s not some strange America. This is part of America. America has always had multiple stories running at the same time.<\/p>\n

A democracy is a hard struggle. Sixty years after the end of the Civil War and the beginning of the first\u00a0Reconstruction<\/a>, you had something similar. An\u00a0extremist got elected<\/a>\u00a0named\u00a0Woodrow Wilson<\/a>. He played \u201cBirth of a Nation\u201d<\/a>\u00a0(the 1915 silent film that featured racist depictions of Black people while glorifying the Ku Klux Klan, which Wilson\u00a0screened<\/a>\u00a0at the White House). But the point I\u2019m making is people were hurt. He lied to the Black community. He got elected, he started wanting to turn back all kinds of (civil rights) laws. The Supreme Court voted to begin separate but equal (the notorious \u201cPlessy v. Ferguson\u201d decision that legitimated Jim Crow laws). But what did people do? They hurt, they grieved and then they got up and fought.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re in the birth pangs of what I call a\u00a0Third Reconstruction<\/a>. We have to grab on to our foreparents. They didn\u2019t have the luxury to go anywhere. It is not a moment to walk away. It is not a moment to say this is all of America. All of America\u2019s voice wasn\u2019t even heard (in this election). We can\u2019t blame it all on Trump. If less people voted, we got to own that. A democracy demands engagement. It\u2019s built on \u201cwe the people.\u201d Checking out is how extremists get elected.<\/p>\n

Do you still believe we could have a genuine multiracial democracy in America?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh, yes. I believe it. I think it\u2019s hard work. We\u2019ve had two attempts at reconstructing the country (Reconstruction in the 18th\u00a0century and the civil rights movement of the 1950s and \u201860s). And remember: the reconstructionists didn\u2019t just quit or lose. People were beaten down, cheated and\u00a0assassinated.<\/a>\u00a0But I believe in the possibility of a Third Reconstruction. Out all of this grief and struggle we\u2019ve seen, it\u2019s going to cause a massive pushback. I know the history of folk who tend to wield injustice. They always go too far. And they end up producing their own resistance.<\/p>\n

My word to progressives and Democrats is to not try to have a left or a right agenda. Have a moral agenda. Look at what issues are a violation of our deepest moral values. Lift from the bottom. Own the fact that the things we talk about \u2014 a living wage, health care \u2014 are highly popular in the public square.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on CNN<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The high price of bread and eggs\u00a0doomed\u00a0her. Nope, it was raw\u00a0racism and sexism. Well, maybe she\u00a0should have gone\u00a0on Joe Rogan\u2019s show. If you\u2019re looking for a reason why Vice President Kamala Harris lost to Donald Trump, there are plenty to choose from. Many of Harris\u2019 reeling supporters are still trying to understand the forces behind…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":627,"featured_media":25378,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2444,2114,534,55,516,54,5,573],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-america","category-democrat","category-end-of-the-world","category-islam","category-israel","category-muslim","category-politics","category-poverty"],"yoast_head":"\nThis fiery evangelical pastor offers a blueprint for Democrats\u2019 revival in Trump\u2019s second term<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/11\/this-fiery-evangelical-pastor-offers-a-blueprint-for-democrats-revival-in-trumps-second-term\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"This fiery evangelical pastor offers a blueprint for Democrats\u2019 revival in Trump\u2019s second term\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The high price of bread and eggs\u00a0doomed\u00a0her. Nope, it was raw\u00a0racism and sexism. Well, maybe she\u00a0should have gone\u00a0on Joe Rogan\u2019s show. If you\u2019re looking for a reason why Vice President Kamala Harris lost to Donald Trump, there are plenty to choose from. 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Nope, it was raw\u00a0racism and sexism. Well, maybe she\u00a0should have gone\u00a0on Joe Rogan\u2019s show. If you\u2019re looking for a reason why Vice President Kamala Harris lost to Donald Trump, there are plenty to choose from. Many of Harris\u2019 reeling supporters are still trying to understand the forces behind…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/11\/this-fiery-evangelical-pastor-offers-a-blueprint-for-democrats-revival-in-trumps-second-term","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2024-11-25T17:27:21+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-11-25T17:29:36+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/11\/william-barber_credit-Phil-Pasquini-Shutterstock.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"John 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