Hillary Rodham Clinton

In this Sept. 30, 1992 file photo, Hillary Clinton, wife of Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton, speaks to the crowd during a rally at the Statehouse in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

"We're Democrats – they're for the working people."

That was the simple, straightforward response that a young Bruce Springsteen received when he asked his mother about the family's political affiliation.

Those were different times, though. Today, things are not so clearcut. If more people today felt as did Springsteen's mother, Democrat Hillary Clinton, and not Republican Donald Trump, would be president-elect. She'd have won Pennsylvania and Michigan and Wisconsin and perhaps even Ohio, states with great numbers of working-class voters who once stood solidly with Democratic candidates.

But in this year's election, a good number of those voters abandoned Clinton. Many simply failed to turn out. Some chose a third party candidate. Others went to the polls and cast a ballot, but left the presidential race blank. Many, though, did what was once unthinkable: They voted for the Republican candidate, billionaire businessman Donald Trump.

There is no way to know, of course, whether this change was a one-time thing, a singular expression of frustration at the end of a particularly enervating campaign, or if there are many working people who are simply fed up with today's Democratic Party.

If it's the latter, than Democrats have their work cut out for them. They've got to find a way to talk to working people – whatever their race, whatever their gender, whatever their views on various social issues – in ways that make sense. Anyone who doesn't agree need look no further than to the party's lack of success across a wide swath of the nation that's seen jobs go missing over recent years and decades.

From an economic perspective, Trump's promises were as empty as an abandoned steel mill in Youngstown, Ohio. Starting a trade war isn't going to bring jobs back to the decaying communities where they once were so prevalent. And it isn't going to make America great again.

But throughout the just-concluded presidential campaign, one candidate was talking about jobs, about economic issues, while the other was talking about anything but.

Back in 1992, when then-candidate Bill Clinton pulled the Democrats back toward the political center, he did so by focusing on the economy. He spoke to working people.

He knew that these people were the party's bread and butter. Democrats need to relearn that lesson.