Democrats have spent over a decade asking how to win back working-class voters.
More economic populism? Different candidates? A tougher message on corporate power?
Political scientist Nick Jacobs looks at why the party has been asking the wrong question (thread) ⬇️
The data suggests that working-class voters are not simply waiting for the right Democratic candidate to activate them.
They have a distinct worldview shaped by ideas about fairness, responsibility, family, religion and trust in institutions.
On issue after issues, the gap between Democrats and working-class voters has widened over the past several decades.
Not necessarily because workers moved to the right, but because Democrats moved left.
Working-class voters are far more skeptical of government and institutions than Democrats.
Many see a system that failed them through deindustrialization, trade deals, the financial crisis and the opioid epidemic.
It’s not all ‘class war’:
“Economic grievance politics is a... small slice of what working-class voters are telling us.”
"Reducing all workers’ grievances into a class war “jams working-class voters into a prefabricated progressive agenda rather than taking seriously what they are actually saying.”
https://theconversation.com/democrats-dont-get-why-theyve-lost-most-working-class-voters-282847
The Conversation U.S.