However, it is true that President Obama offered the Republicans a “grand bargain” in 2012 that included cuts and/or age increases to Social Security, and also true that many people believe the “cuts” to Medicare that were part of the ACA negotiations were made to fund Obamacare for the mostly younger and, many believe, mostly minority and immigrant citizens who are favorites of the Democratic Party. Secretary Clinton finally came out against cuts to Social Security, but it was never a strong emphasis for her, unlike what it was for Bernie (“cuts to SS over my dead body”).
The Democrats, believe it or not, have a real problem with many older Floridians and residents of many of the Rust Belt states who also tend to be older, who believe Democrats have cut or taxed or threatened their Social Security and Medicare. It also happens to be the case that the white population of FL (and the Rust Belt states) are older than the immigrant and minority population. There is, of course, some overlap of age and racism but the pattern of voting in 2008 versus that of 2016 in FL indicates that while racism played a part in the loss of this state and others, other things were going on as well. And Democrats notoriously lost the older vote in 2010 after the Medicare changes passed with Democratic votes only and Republicans ran on a platform of “protect Medicare” from Obamacare. Sec Clinton improved the support among older voters despite this record and Republican lies, but not enough.
Chuck Shumer has it right about making Medicare and Social Security the Democrats main line of offense against the Republicans. Charging Republicans and Trump as racist, while true, was not enough to discourage voters, both white and minority, from supporting Trump, who promised
repeatedly that SS and Medicare would be safe with him.
Chris Reeves also has a series that is really a must read for any serious analysis of what went wrong in this election, not just for Sec Clinton but for most Democratic candidates up and down the ticket. And while there are many comments on many Kos diaries that policy was nearly ignored in this election, that was the case also on the front page of this website, where it was all Trump, all Republicans are racists, all the time and there was precious little discussion of policy and what Trump was actually promising versus what Sec Clinton was promising.
There is a lot of lying about how Obamacare was implemented at the expense of Medicare and is a threat to Social Security. “I’m with her” and “Stronger together” just don’t work when rural voters are in a near depression level economic state and elderly are terrified of cuts to Medicare and Social Security. “Over my dead body” should have been the Democrat’s common stance to cuts or changes to Social Security and Medicare.
We must not overstate the role racism played, despite our deep feelings against it. My own brother has a son with an African-American wife, and grandchildren, but he supported Trump mainly because he’s turning 60 shortly and fears cuts to SS and Medicare. His daughter shifted from strong Bernie supporter to Trump for many of the same reasons. We lost this race because we didn’t make the case on issues that mattered to critical groups in key states, and we lost it by a hair despite making this election all about him and her instead of being about us and the issues most important to us.