Stop talking about "working class" and POC like those are 2 distinct groups.

[Garrett78]

Do people really not understand that the vast majority of people in the US, including the vast majority of POC, are working class?

Are there really still people who think (white) economic anxiety was/is a driver of Trump support in spite of numerous studies to the contrary?

I guess so, as I keep reading posts to that effect.

[Docreed2003]

1. I really like Sen Sherrod Brown

But at least twice recently I've heard him make the point that we don't have to choose reaching "our base" or "the working class", as if those are separate things.

[Garrett78]

2. I had just read a post to that effect. It's both infuriating and embarrassing.

This shit's been going on for 2+ years. Enough already.

This is precisely the mentality that has people convinced we must nominate a white male in 2020. The lesson of 2018 be damned.

[UniteFightBack]

3. Just keep reinforcing that it is one in the same and it may catch on. nt

[jrthin]

4. Very, very true. You nailed it!

[pnwmom]

5. Yes, that drives me crazy. And the implication that somehow

only white working class people count.

[Garrett78]

6. And that only white people work or experience economic anxiety. It's more than just absurd.

I've been railing against this nonsense for 2+ years and I'm not gonna stop.

Tim Ryan, Bernie Sanders, members of the media and anyone else peddling this shit can kiss my ass.

[jcgoldie]

7. They are distinct groups

People of color can be and a great many of them are working class. They share a lot of economic interests with that group based on class. But they also experience racism and white privilege and that makes their experience unique and therefore they are a distinct group.

It wasn't "economic anxiety" that caused working class whites to vote for Trump. In my opinion that is just code for racism.

[Garrett78]

11. They aren't 2 distinct groups. That doesn't mean, though, that working class POC...

...have the same experience as working class white people. Because they most certainly do not.

But when people list working class and POC as 2 distinct constituencies, the implication is that "working class" is synonymous with white. This is the inherently racist mentality that says we must nominate a white male in 2020. The mentality that doesn't see the contradiction in bashing identity politics right before talking about white working class people as if white isn't an identity.

[Hortensis]

8. We should be talking about working classES, anyway, people

who must work if they are to maintain what they feel is an appropriate way of life. That includes physicians pulling in a few hundred thousand a year until their investments finally make them truly independent of what their business's success or what their employer, group, corporation, government, whatever, is requiring of them. It also includes independent business owners who must work. All people of all colors need rights, power, enough control to avoid being exploited by wealthier interests. POC, btw, are of course among all working class levels.

As for the Democratic "base," that's also independent of color and of socioeconomic levels. Our base is those who believe in our party's principles, have been reliably voting Democratic for years, and would be very, very difficult to run off. In fact, that'd require a takeover by the far left or right that they of course fought but were unable to stop. THOSE are our base. Even when members of strongly cohesive factions, they never want to threaten to abandon the rest if they don't get what they want and are always among the strongest voices for remaining and working from within the Democratic Party.

The based is called the base, and not "the unstable foundation," "revolutionary splinter, or "shifting sands," for a reason.

[Afromania]

9. I whole heartedly agree.

Frankly the base of both parties are working people, most of the country is working people. Somehow working class has only come to refer to white people that vote republican. It doesn't apply to us(black folk) or any other person of color as well as Democratic voting white people.

Whenever any of these politicians put that out there it's because they are voting that fickle ass white vote that hates me more than they enjoy their rights and freedoms. I'd pay good money for just one pol on our side to call this out.

[Awsi Dooger]

10. Whites without a college degree shifted more toward Trump

I have studied political math since 1992 and could not care less what terminology is used or whether the OP is ranting for 2+ years. The shift is very real and anyone who denies that is an outright fool. Working class is simply a shorter and kinder term than "without college degree," but that is the standard application.

Here, it was spelled out fully in a recent article from The Hill. Maybe the lingo is satisfying but most headline writers don't have room for that type of thing, which is the reason white working class term is used...and properly used.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/425584-trump-loses-support-from-key-constituency-of-white-people-without-a

As indicated in the article, that block recently soured on Trump due to the government shutdown. But no doubt it is short lived.

Here is a PEW analysis of the 2016 vote. The highest percentage for Trump was 64-28 among whites without a college degree. That is 44% of the electorate, which makes it such a pivotal block.

http://www.people-press.org/2018/08/09/an-examination-of-the-2016-electorate-based-on-validated-voters/

[Garrett78]

12. See post #11.

The backlash to 8 years of there being a black man in the White House had more to do with Trump support than being "working class," which some like to imply is synonymous with white.

There is always a strong backlash to racial progress. And Obama's election and re-election was no exception, as tame as he was on issues of race.

Here's a piece worth reading: https://www.google.com/amp/s/slate.com/news-and-politics/2016/11/why-did-some-white-obama-voters-for-trump.amp

Being overtly racist is what enabled Trump to develop a following. Without Birtherism, there's no Trump presidency.

[ismnotwasm]

13. Not the point

Racism was a bigger factor than economics in Trumps election. He deliberately and consistently manipulated this.

Whites do not own the term “working class”

[pintobean]

14. working class - 1. those persons working for wages, especially in manual labor.

2. the social or economic class composed of these workers.

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/working-class

It doesn't, and shouldn't, mention color. It includes people of all colors.

[Garrett78]

15. Yes. And when people talk like working class and POC are 2 distinct constituencies...

...the ridiculous and racist implications should be obvious. Frankly, this cuts to the core of the real divide between Democrats. It's not about "far left" vs. "centrist."

It's about support for or opposition to the "white working class economic anxiety/down with identity politics" narrative that was pushed by right wingers, the media and some on the left side of the political spectrum (from Tim Ryan to Bernie Sanders) ever since 2016. It's also what drives this notion that we must nominate a white male in 2020, totally disregarding our increasingly diverse electorate and the lessons of 2018.