Thread by @DavidPepper

THREAD — Manchester, Ohio and why it matters

One of the cleanest points on the Ohio River is in Adams County, about 50 miles east of Cincinnati.

By a town called Manchester.

Beautiful, right?

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Manchester: a small river town, not too far from a major city. An old Main Street.

Nice, right?

Now look at the Main Street, where I stopped yesterday.

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Almost every building empty.

Broken glass.

Vacant storefronts.

Almost no one in sight.

A ghost town.

Preciously little hope.

Only a block from this.

It’s even more depressing in person.

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What the heck is happening here, and in towns like Manchester across Ohio and other states?

Not enough.

And the politicians Manchester elects?

All Republican.

Doing nothing to help.

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From Trump to Gov. DeWine to Rep. Wenstrup to state senate to state house, it’s GOP up and down the ballot.

What are they doing for Manchester?
- tax cuts for those at the top
- no infrastructure
- no broadband
- attacks on healthcare
- cuts to public schools

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Believe it or not, for a decade, the GOP (including those who represent this town at the statehouse) has cut local funds for towns like Manchester, and used the money to give away tax cuts for those at the top in Ohio.

Safe to say none of their policies are helping.

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They are so out of answers for places like Manchester, when asked by a citizen about what to do, a prior state senator’s response was:

“You need to move...‘Sometimes you have to do what’s best for your family.’”

Move!?! That’s all they got.

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google.com/amp/s/www.prop…

I wish Manchester were an isolated situation. But it’s not.

All over Ohio, and my guess is other states, we see small towns withering on the vine:
- few jobs
- poor health
- opioid crisis
- poverty
- young people leaving
- abandonment

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Manchester is actually unique in that it’s largest employer only shut down a few years ago.

Many of these towns lost their largest employer decades ago, never to be replaced.

Read Dreamland (about Portsmouth) or Glass House by @BrianRAlexander (Lancaster) for details.

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Many towns like these are falling apart, and haven’t been given any of the tools or assets needed to compete in this very competitive and cut-throat 21st century economy.

(Those w universities or some other unique asset are doing better)

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So what do these towns need?

Ironically, the same agenda as larger communities like Cincinnati. And policies that make up the heart of the Democratic agenda.

Things like:
✅ access to health care
✅ major infrastructure investment
✅ 21st century jobs (yes, green ones)

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✅ higher wages
✅ modern job training and good public education
✅ good government: leadership development and strategic thinking on how to compete in the 21st century
✅ and so on

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So the very priorities Democrats talk about needing to implement nationally happen to be the very things that these withering small towns need desperately.

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Why do I bring all this up?

Because as Democrats across the country take stock and discuss where we won and where we came up short last week, we often talk politics and too often need to talk policy.

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Folks are right. We need more ongoing engagement. More perman’t infrastructure in state parties & other organizations. Better digital capacity & tactics. We must support efforts like those of @staceyabrams everywhere—registering & engaging overlooked voters, particularly

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...black & brown voters that are the most important part of our party’s success.

And we must invest in black women and men leaders in Ohio and beyond who know best how to do that work.

We also now have the presidency. And the house.

So we need to think politics AND...

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Policy.

Think of it this way. Obama wasn’t simply re-elected in Ohio because of tactics and organizing and speeches and registration.

He was re-elected in Ohio because he SAVED THE AUTO INDUSTRY. And Ohioans knew it.

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So Biden policy decisions in the next several years are as important for Dems’ political fate as the politics

And I can’t wait to see him and his team implement major policy changes on health care, climate change, criminal justice reform, combating systemic racism..

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green jobs, housing, our big cities, infrastructure, education, voting rights, anti-corruption, strong unions, student debt, Gun safety, and others.

But amid this full agenda, I’d add one more.

Roll out a policy agenda for Manchester and all the towns like it

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And make it clear that when we add infrastructure, and job training, and health care, we’re going to bring them to small towns too, even when the very people they elect are doing all the opposite things.

In two years, let’s be able to point to an improved Main Street...

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in Manchester and be able to say, “Joe Biden & Kamala Harris and Democrats did that.

Want more?

Vote for more Democrats”

Sure, many won’t

But we and our candidates will have something to point to as opposed to simply playing defense against Trump and GOP misinformation

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Just like Obama SAVED THE AUTO INDUSTRY.

In the next several years, with Biden in the White House, we have a chance for policy to be our best message. And if we’re smart, that policy will be the single best way to compete in the very areas that just cost us so many states,

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House seats, and statehouse seats.

So job one is to show how it makes a difference when Democrats win.

To both our most loyal supporters.

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And also to the places in our country, like Manchester, that desperately need the Democratic agenda even if many there don’t know it yet.

Can’t wait to see Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and their excellent team get to work.

END