By Will Raven
To much of the rest of the world it appears that America faces a watershed moment with the return of Donald Trump to the oval office. Many wait apprehensively for the return of an “unhinged” President whose first term was marked by chaos and division. For many others Trump’s return is the salvation and last hope for America, however, these opinions are not necessarily split directly along party lines. For many Democrats this loss, while unfortunate, represents a crucial opportunity to redefine their offering and halt the slow bleed of traditional blue collar Democrats, who since 2016 have been moving in significant numbers to the Republican party.
I had the opportunity to meet and work with J.A. Moore in 2023 and have stayed in contact with him ever since. He is a young charismatic state representative from North Charleston, South Carolina who wrestled control of District 15 from the Republicans in 2018 and has held his position ever since, recently being promoted to statewide treasurer for the albeit rather small Democrat caucus. His personal involvement in politics began in 2015 following the murder of his sister in a white supremacist mass shooting and he is an advocate for increased background checks, a woman’s right to choose, more affordable housing and social mobility, however I suspect in his own words he is simply a patriot seeking to defend the American dream. Below follows our conversation.
WR: In the US you are approaching a time of dramatic political hand over, how do you and your community feel about that?
JA: I think it's a mixed bag. It depends on who you ask in this community that I represent. I'll tell you from the conversations that I'm having that a lot of people are surprised that Donald Trump is back in office after losing 4 years ago but people are not necessarily shocked. It's not the same unknown. So I have people, who are patriots, that no matter who the president is, whether they voted for Trump or not, want him to do well because if he does well then America does well.
WR: Would you say that sentiment is different from 2016?
JA: I would say that in 2016 it was such an anomaly and such an unknown, that we had no reference point for a politician that conducted himself in the way that Trump did but now we have that reference point. This time we’re fully aware of what he is capable of doing and the potential of what he's not and I think that makes a big difference. Well we have a large number of people not just in my district but around the country that I have had the privilege of meeting, wonderful americans all over the country but their sentiment is now to keep pleading for, fighting for and being vigilant about freedom, liberty and justice and maintaining our democratic processes and norms as well as looking to the future. We were busy in 2016 trying to find the wrongs in the people who voted for Trump and Trump himself and that wasn’t really doing us any good, it wasn't what we needed to do ourselves.
WR: You mentioned meeting people across the country. Do you believe that this view is shared across the country? That’s not just unique to you, your community and where you are in the country?
JA: It's just that this isn't a new occurrence and we had 2 years of campaigning in 2016 and 2015 then Trump for 4 years, and 4 years of post presidency, that's 10 years of understanding of what he's capable of. There's a straightening of one's back and an understanding of this is the fight for liberty, justice, freedom and authority. For example just based on how the vice president handled things I think there's this renewed sense of patriotism that the other side did not portray when they lost. When in 2021 we saw an anti democracy, anti patriotism movement on the other side on Jan 6th.
"That's what gives me so much renewed hope in America."
WR: Therefore, given the defeat, do you think that requires a recalibration by the Democratic party, a move back towards its core values, a realignment?
JA: I think that the positive part of when you don't win elections. It's hard to be self-reflective when you are winning because democrats have been winning up and down ballots for the most part since 2015. So we're talking about multiple election cycles where democrats performed very well and so there's an understanding that sometimes winning is not the best recipe for self reflection. The fact that we did not win presents a fantastic opportunity to do some much needed self reflection. Maybe that's why I am as optimistic as I am. I recognise we've been winning a lot and it's hard to do the necessary reflections when you keep winning.
WR: One of the issues that we see is that Democrats may have been winning but there remain underlying causes for concern such as the loss of “middle class” (equivalent to British “working class”) or minority voters and there remains a question as to how the democrats remarket themselves effectively to win back that proportion of the electorate.
JA: Well, I think you're right about most of what you're saying as far as those demographics, however I don't think the democratic party left those voters per se. Until this point we've had such a robust coalition of Americans and we’re always trying to expand our base and this presents a challenge starting two election cycles ago as we weren't talking to the working male voter and while it is good to expand your base don’t forget where your people are.
WR: Do you think people feel that the party has become too bogged down in issues of identity politics?
JA: I think one could make a point that this may be the case but I think a bigger conversation is that we get caught up in the moment especially in the world in which we live in now in which the loudest voice gets the most attention and I think sometimes the loudest voices in these moments may not feel at these times like mainstream Americans. There's a lot of different interests and I think that rightfully Democrats pay these groups a lot of attention but we cannot do that at the expense of our core voting bloc. No one likes to lose, don’t think I'm celebrating losing but in the long term it is important for everyone to experience loss and I think it will give a chance for self evaluation in a different way since and a way we have not been able to do since Donald Trump came down those gold escalators in 2015.
With thanks to Representative Moore.
Image: J.A. Moore
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