What Centering The White Working Class Would Mean For Democrats

[Recursion]

https://extranewsfeed.com/what-centering-the-white-working-class-would-mean-for-democrats-6c4975925e4b#.qkgpu4mo0

There's no future there for us

Since Donald Trump’s Presidential win, there has been the development of a narrative that the Democrats had forgotten the white working class. The narrative goes something like this: at some point over the last several decades, Democrats stopped caring about labor, and started caring only about corporations, and the white working class noticed this and stopped voting Democratic. The solution, as the narrative goes, is for Democrats to support labor and European style socialism. The narrative proponents claim that Democratic support for universal healthcare, attacking Wall Street, and free college will instantly bring the white working class back into the Democratic fold.

The narrative has been spread far and wide by many well-known and reputable figures in politics, business, and media. I’m here to say that the narrative is complete bullshit. These white working class voters left the Democratic Party after the party passed Civil Rights in the mid-1960s. The white working class has had no problem voting for big business Republicans that oppose free college, support Wall-Street, and oppose universal healthcare. Donald Trump is readying to appoint the richest cabinet in US history, and has already installed several Goldman Sachs executives in top posts. There has been no white working class outcry at Trump pushing “wealthy neoliberal coastal elites” in his inner circle. The white working class is not in an uprising and is not devastated by the bankers Trump installed in government. They largely don’t care. That’s why the narrative is bullshit. These white working class voters aren’t voting against elites or neoliberalism. They have been find voting for elites for decades, as long as those elites seem to oppose minority interests. According to the exits, in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin (the lionized rust belt), Clinton won voters whose number one issue was the economy. The rust belt voters focused on the economy voted Democratic. But for the rust belt voters whose number one issue was terrorism or immigration, Trump won decisively.

The Myth Of The White Working Class

Bernie Sanders has made the white working class a priority. He has continually lamented the Democrats “inability” to reach these voters, and he believes that his platform is something that would bring them back under the party’s umbrella. In Bernie’s mind, the white working class wants universal healthcare, free college, to fight big business, and to tax the wealthy. The myth is that if Democrats supported Bernie’s entire platform, the white working class would simply leave the Republican Party and vote Democratic. There is never much reasoning behind the claim, just the expectation that these are the things that white workers truly want, simply because Bernie or white leftist writers say that they do.

The White Working Class Reality

Everyone has heard about the Democrats’ “need” to center the white working class and put their issues first. The proponents of what I call “the narrative” believe that Democrats should drop “identity politics” and “cultural issues” for European style socialism. The problem is that the white working class doesn’t want the same thing that white leftist writers claim they want. This class consistently votes for big business, pro-Wall Street policies from Republicans, as long as the candidate opposes immigration, is strong on terror, and is pro-gun. Targeting the white working class isn’t a path towards democratic socialism. It is a path towards a more conservative Democratic Party. The white working class used to be Democrats, when the Democratic Party was the party of Jim Crow in the south. As the Democratic Party shifted to be inclusive and support of minority interests, the white working class gradually left for the GOP. The biggest issue for these voters isn’t Wall Street, it is immigration and terrorism, it is “maintaining America’s cultural values.” Two thirds of Trump voters believed that Trump was “America’s last chance.” What is implied here is that this was America’s last chance to maintain the racial hierarchy, the social status quo that keeps white interests at the top.

[CakeGrrl]

1. All this talk about "reaching out"

to the 'white working class' voter.

OK...where are the interviews? It shouldn't be hard to get some of them to tell us why they voted for Trump.

Why not cut to the chase and ask them flat-out: What would it take for you to vote Democratic?

Why rely on an assumption? Why not gather data?

No one seems to know - or WANT to know - what "reaching out" would entail.

I believe it comes down to exactly what the article describes.

[Pholus]

2. Yup. Pandering won't help. Given the amount of preprogramming it would take years anyway.

Back the right economic policies, be true to people, speak your mind. That's the winning formula.

Edit: And if it isn't, nothing else would have worked better.

[NRQ891]

5. besides, this party has never stooped to pandering, and should not start now nt

[TreasonousBastard]

3. Just what is "the white working class"? Is that based on income, education, job and skills...

or what.

And how is that different from black, Hispanic, or other working class?

And where does the middle class start?

Income?

Cops in my town make $120,000. Stop&Shop pays 9-10 bucks an hour. I don't know exactly what union electricians at the New Jersey Meadowlands made, but I knew few of them who comfortably supported two houses, various luxury cars, and a couple of ex-wives. One told me he was retiring at over 50 grand a year so he wouldn't get fired when they outsourced electrical work and brought the new guys in at half the union wage.

Dock workers? Doesn't sound like much when you look at the base wage, but most of them still working at Port Newark get a lot of triple time hours. Heard one story about a guy who put in so much time he never went home. Once he actually went home, and forgot where it was.

I guess we can safely call the shop clerks "working class" based on income, but what about the ones with college degrees waiting for something better to come up? Or working their way through school?

Maybe, "working class" is an primarily an attitude.

[Else You Are Mad]

4. The problem is not only did Democrats lose the white working class..

The remaining Democrats migrated to the coasts which cost us a lot of EC power. The Democratic party will not be able to survive on the backs of California and New York alone.

The sad solution is that the Democratic party may have to back off on the issues that it is currently defending and switch to the issues that the working class care about and want to defend.

[Squinch]

6. If the Democrats don't hold the line for liberal values, liberal values will be lost entirely.

If we begin to pander to the mythical voting bloc of "the white working class" we will lose everything, forever.

We are the only voice for what is fair and what is right.

This whole narrative of the white working class bloc is just the GOP, once again, controlling our narrative, and us falling for it.

Sincerely,
A voter from the working class who is white and who won't tolerate pandering to sexist racists

[Afromania]

7. WWC

When they talk about reaching the white working class they are only talking about the white working class that voted against Democrats against their own interests and the interests of the populace as a whole. To Woo these voters they would have to neglect the white working class that isn't so unabashedly fickle and the greater majority of the minority vote.

It's amazing that after spending nearly an entire generation voting themselves into the hole. The only way these people would vote Democrat is for the last person(Republican) to fly almost straight on into the side of a mountain. Bush and his puppeteer happily obliged and flew that sucker right into the side of a mountain. So the "fickle WWC" voted for Democrats and Obama. He only had to be the best of us, and when I say us I mean Black, White, Asian, Hispanic, Whatever. Once that was done they expected Obama to "magic negro" the whole thing and roll back what they spent a lifetime voting for.

Obama was supposed to do that through a Democratic party being half assed, a Republican party hell bent on doing absolutely zilch and states with most of their governments in Republican hands. Despite all of that things were actually getting better. Slow and steady wasn't good enough for them so like a petulant and impatient child they say fuck it let's vote for Cheeto McCheetoface, flunky Voltron and the Wish Wash Foundation.

In short, they have screwed us all by being "emotion voters" and voting for somebody that offers them nothing at all except hot air. They have given Republican ideas and ideals the better part of the later half of the 20th and 21st century. All the while getting their asses handed to them time after time. Wouldn't the appropriate response be something along the lines of "hey this way has crushed my chances at prosperity I'll try the other way". Nope, they decided that things should get better FASTER than it was destroyed. Don't they understand that it takes moments to destroy but multitudes of time to build?

After the country is run into the ground, AGAIN, they'll do what they usually do. Which means they'll vote for a Democratic president but they'll leave the bulk of the real power in the hands of the Republicans. Ensuring that we play this stupid fucking game of chicken over and over again until the ice caps melt, the ozone cooks off and we run out of everything.

Somebody mentioned to me that trying to get these people to vote for us is like asking an abused woman to stay with her abuser. Then telling her that the situation is her fault for not being more compliant and receptive to his needs in lieu of any of her own. At the end of the day no matter how compliant and receptive she may be the abuser is going to remain an abuser.

[Dems to Win]

8. Democrats must 'center' the 99%

If Democrats want to win, all voters except the 1% need to feel that they are important to the Democrats.

[Adrahil]

9. Yeah, that's nice.

What else do we need to do? We've talked about education, and transforming our economy and new, 21st century jobs. Guess what? That's not what the rubes want to hear. They want to hear that their fantasy of golden age in terms of both the economy and culture can come back. Trump sold them that lie. I'm not willing to try to lie to them harder. They are just going to have to see that it WAS a lie. The truth is on our side. Let's just hope that our democracy lasts long enough for that to become evident.