A Democratic colleague of Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) recently suggested a simple solution to the economic problems afflicting the industrial Midwest.
“Well, Congresswoman Kaptur, the answer is: Leave,” Kaptur says she was told by the Democratic member, whom she declined to name.
Kaptur, whose district includes her hometown of Toledo, where she grew up the daughter of a union organizer, was appalled.
“They just can’t understand,” she told The Hill. “They can’t understand a family that sticks together because that’s what they have. Their loved ones are what they have, their little town, their home, as humble as it is- that’s what they have. Respect it. It was so insensitive.”
The story is part of a bigger narrative for Kaptur, the longest-serving woman in Congress.
She fears that her party is increasingly dominated by members representing affluent districts- and that the social mores of rich coastal cities are sidelining kitchen-table economic concerns. Read more…