Would That Indiana Democrats Pay Attention to This

 I think Indiana Democrats needs to get on the road into the deepest, darkest Republican counties and make their case that we represent them better than their own party. I feel so strongly on this that I even emailed the chairman of the Indiana Democratic Party.

Of course, I can be dismissed as a crank, as a backseat driver.

Except what do I find in E. J. Dionne's Josh Shapiro is showing how to break the politics of resentment?

For Shapiro, the I-95 moment is part of a larger task: to prove to voters that government can be effective and also operate in the interest of those who feel left out, left behind and disrespected.

“You’ve got to show up everywhere, and you’ve got to speak to everyone, and you've got to speak in plain language and in practical terms,” he told me in an interview last week in the final days of settling a tough state budget fight. He noted that in his 2022 campaign, “I went to counties the Democrats had written off a long time ago and spoke about workforce development and spoke about how we're going to bring back the economy and talked about it in very tangible, practical ways.”

And:

As governor, Shapiro said he’s determined to signal to economically struggling voters that they’re being “seen and heard.” One of his first acts was to sign an executive order doing away with the college degree requirement for 92 percent of state government jobs.

His emphasis on opportunities for those without college degrees might be seen as a bow to the White working class, which he, like Biden, is certainly interested in winning back to the Democratic coalition. But the actual (as opposed to the pundit’s) working class is heavily Black and Latino. So Shapiro’s focus on expanding funding for apprenticeships, vocational education and job training for those who aren’t college-bound is aimed at a broad swath of Pennsylvanians.

 And:

What’s interesting about Shapiro is that he made “real freedom” a signature theme around not only LGBTQ+ and abortion rights but also the aspiration to good jobs and incomes — “the freedom to chart your own course” and enjoy “the opportunity to succeed,” he said. He’s connecting social rights of particular concern to his suburban constituents with the economic rights sought in blue-collar towns and lower-income big-city neighborhoods.

He’s certainly not alone in this. His party now has a regiment of governors — Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan, Wes Moore in Maryland, Gavin Newsom in California, Maura Healey in Massachusetts and Andy Beshear in Kentucky, to name a few — pushing back against right-wing culture warfare with an emphasis on inclusion and practical achievement.

Hoosiers like to call ourselves conservative, in the sense of being prudent, when actually all is meant is avoiding action of any sort, of just muddling through. Indiana can no longer afford this kind of thinking.

sch 8/9