Democrats: The White Working Class Isn’t Voting for You, So Stop Pandering to Them

[Yavin4]

Here’s the thing about white working-class voters: they have been fearful and reactionary for a long time—since before Brexit, or the recession, or NAFTA—hell, since before the Lost Cause. And liberals have been coddling their tender sensitivities for just as long. Yet they always vote for the other guys. And they’ve never needed an economic crisis or a failure of institutions to feel that way! Weird, I know! Remember the 1950s? The greatest economic boom in history, the time when the white working class had it better than they ever had before? Strangely it did nothing to at all to slow the raging anti-Semitism, homophobia, and fear of “communists” exhibited by the white working class during the McCarthy Era. Just as the widespread, sustained prosperity of the 60s and 70s somehow didn’t keep them from voting for Richard Nixon and George Wallace in huge numbers, or from rioting against school integration in the North. Huh.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/06/30/democrats-the-white-working-class-isn-t-voting-for-you-so-stop-pandering-to-them.html

Another point that the article misses. African Americans and Latinos are also largely working class, but they don't get lumped into the same demo. The racial implication here is that they don't work like their White counterparts do. They don't face the same economic anxiety like their White counterparts do. They get government support whereas their White counterparts do not.

[Jester Messiah]

1. .

[Iliyah]

2. Oh geez whiz

[forjusticethunders]

3. Thomas Frank was wrong all along.

What's the matter with Kansas (and the rest of the red states)? THEY'RE FUCKING RACIST. THEY HATE PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT LIKE THEM. THAT IS THE BOTTOM LINE.

It wasn't economics that kept white farmers from engaging in class struggle with black sharecroppers, it was the psychological wage of racism which they preferred to real wages.

I really do have to think that white progressives have a racial interest in coddling their fellow whites.

[forjusticethunders]

7. Many of them don't "believe" it on a conscious level

They feel it in their bones. They're still trying to make themselves believe "taxes and globalization and immigration" isn't still "nigger nigger nigger".

Trump is both a good thing and a bad thing for democracy. A bad thing because he emboldens the racists which will be horrible for society in the short turn. But it's a good thing because he also forces the people who genuinely DO believe it's about economic stuff and aren't racist deep in their bones to take that fork in the road away from the darkness and splits the racists from the people who aren't bigoted but still have bad conservative ideas.

[zenabby]

32. It is true..

that racism and sexism and other kinds of prejudices are definitely a huge factor - anywhere in the world. That is also why I could not support Bernie because to him, all those don't exist. The only thing that exists is the economic inequality. While that is an important problem, that's the only problem for young, while males (and probably educated, well to do females). For others, there's more and most of the Bernie people just don't get it that priorities could be different.

[Ken Burch]

49. The problem is, you can't deal with race WITHOUT dealing with class.

The two intersect.

What happened in the Sixties proved that attempts to deal with racism without changing anything else in the social/economic structure are doomed to failure. Many of the leading figures in the freedom struggle recognized that at the time.

The main thing that has kept white working-class racism alive is the fear the political right has created in their minds that any gain for someone else is a loss for them.

And dealing with class never means not dealing with racism.

Despite what was interpreted, no one has been saying that we should put racism, sexism, or homo-or trans-phobia to the sidelines-just to get class and greed, which are also deeply damaging to people, including women, POC and LGBTQ people in disproportionate degree, addressed to.

I truly hope that nobody is arguing that we can't talk about class at all until all forms of insitutional bigotry have vanished. Because without dealing with the effects of market values, we can't kill hate, much as all of us want to put it in a grave.

Whether you work to fight racism by focusing on it in isolation, or by dealing with the social and economic conditions alive, you are equally committed to fighting racism and getting rid of it as soon as humanly possible.

[Ken Burch]

52. What exactly is meant here by "coddling"?

I don't know of anyone who is arguing that a white male industrial worker is MORE important than female or POC home health aid(how would the interests of those two groups of folks ever be in disagreement, btw?)

What some of us are saying is that, to get white working-class folks to move past racism, we need to get past the economic fears the right uses to keep them racist.

[Ken Burch]

54. The issues the Sanders campaign raised on economics affect ALL workers deeply.

As far as I know the campaign never intentionally privileged white workers, and was always willing to work to incorporate measures to address the additional problems caused by historic instutitional bigotry.

We repeatedly showed willingness to work with POC on the concerns raised, but got little but denunciations.

And neither Bernie nor anyone else ever pandered to white supremacist stereotypes.
,
We categorically reject the idea that POC are lazy and sponging, and especially that POC can never be considered working-class.

It's not as though workers of color aren't affected by outsourcing, globalization and the weakening of unions.

And Sanders supporters do not equate "working-class" with whites. What we have meant(and I'm sorry if we didn't make it clear)was that at some points we have to try to bring ALL working-class people, regardless of color. That's been our goal the whole time.

[forjusticethunders]

60. No what happens in the 60s was that working class union whites

saw the social changes of the 60s, blacks gaining more power and influence in American life, women being more liberated, and the like, and decided that the party that lifted them from poverty to prosperity could go to hell because they didn't sign up for sharing that prosperity with THOSE PEOPLE.

LBJ was the last Democratic nominee to win the white working class, not even Jimmy and Bill could pull it off. Before he signed the Civil Rights Act. Totally not a coincidence.

[Ken Burch]

62. Yes, there were some working-class whites who just didn't want POC to have anything good in life.

And I would never tell you to forgive people like that. Nor would, to my knowledge, anyone else in the economic justice movement.

But for most of them, the backlash was fueled by the canard that if POC gained any ground, it would have to mean working-class whites would lose ground. This is the fear the real estate industry used to manipulate housing prices all over the country in the Sixties.

That same fear has been used in the spheres of credit and employment.

The defeat of white backlash will require, among many other things, a major economic restructuring, so that everyone can have a decent share of the good things of life and the confidence that nothing will take that share away from anyone.

It does not mean pretending racism doesn't exist or that a "colorblind" approach is appropriate. It just means being open to alliances of people who have some(though clearly not all)interests in common with you, in the name of putting together a majority coalition for change(as Dr. King tried to do with the Poor People's March in 1968 and Jesse Jackson tried to do with the Rainbow Coalition two decades later). We didn't achieve that this year, but at some point we have to if we're to make the world we need.

What would you need to hear and see to at least consider trusting what I'm saying here?

[forjusticethunders]

65. The problem is that Democrats were ALREADY offering movement towards economic justice

The "neoliberal" turn of the Democratic wing is a product of the fact that their white working class base was torn asunder so they needed to do *something* to win elections and hold back the far-right tide, since there weren't enough POC workers to compensate at that time.

The process will reverse itself as the working class becomes less white, I believe. We're already starting to see it.

[Ken Burch]

66. I hope you are right.

n/t.

[forjusticethunders]

68. I don't know where I found the stat

But if you reran every post LBJ election with our current demos (or rather, 2012 demos, 2016 will likely be even more favorable, especially with POC chomping at the bit to vote against Trump), every Dem president wins except McGovern (barely loses) and Mondale (barely loses). Even Dukakis pulls off the win.

The Obama coalition is *that* strong. Right now, our current politicians are just starting to realize how powerful it is, and it will only get stronger. And it runs VERY left of the post Reagan consensus.

[treestar]

6. Which they preferred to real wages

Exactly.

[Recursion]

59. Yup

That book has had us chasing our tails for a decade. We need to let it go and run with the coalition we have.

[JaneyVee]

4. Many white working class voters vote Dem.

Not a majority, but many. Thats fine.

[Yavin4]

8. True, but the reason why we don't have better social spending on education, healthcare, higher min.

wages is due to the voting patterns of white working class men in particular. Working classes of other races vote to support these programs.

[Hortensis]

13. True, but fwiw, those white working class men who

left the Democratic Party in '68 and thereafter as part of the great left-right sorting out are shrinking as a percentage of the electorate, mostly because they've been dying off. Just another way the demographics are moving our way. And as JaneyVee says, we have a decent share of today's white working class, even if not a majority.

[Yavin4]

14. And that's how we got Obamacare, the first iteration of a national healthcare policy

As that demo either wises up or gets smaller, we will get more and better government social spending.

[Hortensis]

15. That must certainly have been a part of it.

It's going to be interesting to see what happens on the right. We now know that all people are born wired as various types of liberal or conservative, and perhaps as libertarian and other smaller basic types (research continues). So we will never be without new generations of conservatives, but the ones who have been dragging unfortunate old ways along into the new century like an anchor on humanity are going.

[Yavin4]

16. The key is white working class women

They're close to switching to Dems in states like KS.

[Hortensis]

18. What on earth has taken so long? :)

Seriously, I've read that the strongest correlation in spousal choice is not in education or economic background but in personality type. So a good majority of these women are going to be conservatives married to often somewhat more conservative men. Seems likely that those who are switching should be the ones who aren't, or finally discover they aren't, conservative plus some moderate conservatives.

[Exilednight]

38. Government saw its largest expansion of new Departments under

George W Bush. Sure, we got more, it it wasn't better

[Scootaloo]

55. Interestingly...

This article and the replies to it demonstrate why white men who vote Democratic are probably the people least interested in identity politics.

We have to be.

[HockeyMom]

9. The reason that my parents had it better in the 50's

was because my Dad was UNION and made a living wage because of that.

[Yavin4]

11. Or, maybe your Dad was shielded from competition by African Americans, women, and Latinos

My Dad was a WWII veteran. He was an engineer, but his opportunities were limited because he was an African American. Thus, my family's full economic opportunities were limited because of it.

[HockeyMom]

20. Dad was a Longshoreman

ILA. He never graduated HS. While there weren't any women dock workers in those days, there certainly were African Americans and Latinos.

[Hoyt]

27. I hear what you are saying, but unions back then often discriminated.

[HockeyMom]

35. Like everything else, it was who you knew

My Grandpa was also a Longshoreman. Son wants to work the docks and join the Union? When my BIL was out of work and wanted to work the docks, he asked my Dad if he could "recommend" him.

Isn't it like this with all occupations? Sometimes not what you know, but WHO? Probably why it is so difficult for the young to find work today.

[Hoyt]

36. Fact is, unions were flat out racist for a long time.

[anigbrowl]

47. The whole US did better because the rest of the industrial world had been largely bombed to pieces

Japan and most of Europe lay in ruins, with massive losses in productive and infrastructural capital. The US never suffered any bombing of industry or civilians in WW2 and so it was able to produce and export vast quantities of goods, at great profit.

[timmymoff]

10. I am a white working class voter

I supported a liberal running for the democratic nominee. A liberal didn't win, now confliction, as do I return to my once inactive ways that allowed such mediocrity, do I fight for mediocrity, Should I remain complacent about mediocrity. This is the current battle of the presidential race and will be a huge theme of the down ticket races. I think this has been mentioned before many times. The struggle is real, and so are the people struggling as I stated above.

[whistler162]

30. It is like Polls. They interview 5 people

and some how it extrapolates to every person of that same ethic and gender type in the United States.

[bravenak]

12. Exactly!!

All the attempts to bring back the white working ckass to the party requires that we ignore the needs of the minorities ALREADY in the Democratic party. Each time a candidate panders to that demo they lose, as did Hillary in 08 and Bernie 2016. It did not work for either candidate because we negroes are not one damn bit nostalgic for the MF Fifties when we were kept poor to benefit the white working class.

[Exilednight]

39. Then why vote for Hillary this time? Her mind changed on

Very few issues, none of which concern PoC. The one minority group she "evolved" on was the LGBT community.

[bravenak]

41. Hillary is the best candidate for the job

No way would I ever vote Republican. That's why. Most Democrats don't even need to think twice about supporting Hillary over Donald Trump, he is supported by the KKK. Anybody that cannot evolve themselves into supporting her are probably on the right.

[Kentonio]

63. Sorry but this is nonsense.

Helping one community does not in any way mean you have to ignore the needs of the other. A Democratic candidate should be running on a platform that helps all working people, not trying to divide them up by color.

[Warren DeMontague]

17. Hmm. I heard some self-appointed party strategy experts were gonna try to win over "megachurch moms"

"values voters" types whose primary concerns are apparently things like the legal marijuana menace and full frontal nudity on cable.



Here's a news flash, for whoever is listening: those people aren't voting for Democrats, either.

[UCmeNdc]

19. This article is full of BS

The Democratic Party needs the white working class to vote for them along with the black working class and the latino working class.

This article is written by the Republican Propaganda machine.

[Yavin4]

24. The article points out that the White working class see themselves as a racial group not an economic

group, and that's why they don't vote for candidates based on their economic policies.

[sufrommich]

21. Latino and African-American working class males don't get lumped in

because they don't vote the same way as the white working class males do,that's the whole point of the article.

[AgingAmerican]

37. 30% of the Democratic party are working class white males

Circular firing squad much?

[Bluenorthwest]

22. Some stats about groups that lean Republican and the percentages by which they favor GOP

White People: GOP advantage 9%
White Men, no degree: GOP + 21%
White Southerners: GOP +21%
White Evangelicals: GOP +46%
Mormon: GOP +48%



So Yavin4. Your OP title would be far more to the point if it said 'White Protestants' rather than 'Working Class'. But DU would wail if anyone suggested not reaching out to the religious folks. But the factors that most strongly indicate Republican status are Protestantism and Mormonism. These groups are 37 and 38% more likely to be Republican than are people who are simply 'white'. White Southerners of all sorts are just as likely to be Republican as white men with no degree are.

It seems to me that a Catholic white Northerner of the working class is more likely to be a Democrat than a white Southerner of any educational level or income and far more likely to be a Democrat than any Evangelical or Mormon white person, even those with advanced degrees and a million bucks.

So is it honest to present 'working class' as the deciding factor?

[Yavin4]

23. Do those categories overlap? n/t

[Bluenorthwest]

58. Can't muster an actual response I see.

Craven of you to 'answer' a set of questions with a dismissive question of your own. That demonstrates that you have no actual thinking here. You are just out to divide as is your habit year in and year out on DU. In 08 you smeared Hillary in 16 it was Bernie and now it's voters you smear.

But you have no support for your assertions, which makes them nothing but hot air escaping a tight place.

[AgingAmerican]

25. 60% of the Democratic party is white

Shooting yourself in the foot is pretty damn stupid at this point in the game. Shunning fellow Democrats because you don't like their skin color is political suicide. But don't let that stop you.

Hatred and anger poison everything they touch. Especially integrity.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/160373/democrats-racially-diverse-republicans-mostly-white.aspx

[Coyotl]

26. Someone know if there is an award for concern trolling?

[frazzled]

28. Both parties need to address all segments of American society

white and non-white; old and young; working class, the impoverished, and even the upper classes; gay and straight; able-bodied and disabled; in every geographical region.

Whether seeking to obtain majorities in Congress or running a presidential race, politicians must focus their outlooks and concerns on all citizens. The president, especially, is the president of EVERY American, whether they voted for him/her or not. You might not win their vote, but you at least need to win their acceptance and hopefully respect.

[blue neen]

29. The Daily Beast doesn't speak for me.

[Octafish]

31. Gee. The Party of the People sure has changed.

Working people are the backbone of democracy and the Democratic Party.

Never once did I think I'd have to write those words on DU.

[ms liberty]

34. No kidding, Octafish

I cannot believe some of the crap I read here these days.
I'm white, southern, working class, as is my husband, in laws, sister and niece, and so many of our friends - who are also reliable dem voters. Many of us are desperately poor as well. But it's okay to dump us and dump on us, because we're not part of the currently approved demographic. Shit like this is why I no longer spend much time at DU; and it's probably why a lot of long-time DU'ers are gone as well.

[Yavin4]

43. A majority of White working class voters don't vote for Dems because of race

A simple truth.

[ms liberty]

56. No it is actually a bit more complex.

I live in the rural south, in a very conservative area. I am acutely aware that some people do vote based on race, but far more vote republican based on their hijacking of religion than on race. Even the race issue is not just an issue of race, but is all mixed up with the GOP'S long running co-opting of the law and order issue, among many others. These things are not currently popular opinions here, but that does not negate their validity, it just means that those of us who understand these issues to be nuanced and complex are unpopular.
I could go on, but I have a life and am currently busy enjoying it with those I love.

[Teamster Jeff]

33. Asinine post and article

[Yavin4]

42. Sorry if the truth offends you.

I don't think that the Dems are well served chasing after Sean Hannity voters.

[Throd]

40. Another "Why won't those stupid, racist assholes vote for us?" thread. Yay!

[forjusticethunders]

44. The point of the article is that they're stupid racist assholes

and we should stop asking that question and win without trying to bring them bacl.

Why do white "progressives" on DU get so butthurt about the fact that many white people are racist and vote accordingly?

[Throd]

45. Some are, most are not.

A lot of DU assumes the white working class is this way and treats them accordingly.

[forjusticethunders]

48. The white working class abandoned the left

because they, as usual, preferred the psychological wage of racism to the real wages of solidarity. White workers have been leaving POC workers twisting in the wind since the Civil War.

[Joe the Revelator]

61. because posts like this paint the entire 'white working class' with the same broad brush

It wouldn't be acceptable to do that to any other group.

[Ken Burch]

64. It's not about being butthurt. It's about wanting to build a majority coalition for real change.

That coalition can't be built exclusively from the coalition that nominated HRC(successful as that was in the primaries).

There is still the need to get working-class white voters to put white identity politics behind them and work with people who are their natural class allies(if they can be shown how to see it) in such an alliance.

None of us have argued what you seem to think we have been arguing...that is, that the party shouldn't talk about racism.

None of us on the left of the party have argued that racism doesn't matter or matters less than other issues.

All we have said is that we need to address things like concentration of wealth in the hands of the few, austerity, economic insecurity and want and the fear of falling into want from those who have just barely worked their way out of want if we're to defeat backlash politics-which is something we must do if we are ever to move to a racism-free society.

What exactly do you need to hear to persuade you that people who say things like that aren't calling for POC to be kept out in the cold?

This isn't about the primaries...we're done with that...it's about where we all go from here.

(and you and I both have socialist imagery in our avatars, so I hope you can trust that we agree on more things than not).

[forjusticethunders]

67. I would love the white working class to set aside their racism.

Even peeling away 10-15% of the WWC that currently vote Republican would make the Presidency and control of Congress a formality.

However, it hasn't happened in 40 years. They vote for guys like Brownback and Walker because they associate left-wing politics with "handouts to THOSE people". No matter how you frame the message, their prejudices are stronger than their pocketbooks, at least for way too many of them. And we can't make them come back to us *until* they can overcome those prejudices.

[Bucky]

46. The best way to win over white working class voters is to put in policies that help them.

We are not doing a good job of helping out the working class, mostly because we're getting massive donations from those who want policies that grow capital at the expense of working class well-being.

Even if we put in policies that helped the working class, we'd still lose a lot of their votes to racial pandering --- but that doesn't matter. Making the working class a strong component of the middle class once again is good for the country. That's what we ought to do.

[Yavin4]

51. Gov. Jerry Brown is doing just that, but White working class voters don't support him.

Meanwhile, Gov. Brownback is destroying them, and he gets re-elected.

[Bluenorthwest]

57. Last election Jerry had 54% of the vote. The Republican got 19% of the vote.

What sources do you have to support your assertion here? I don't see a citation and the math as you state is does not jibe with the election results as they exist. So what's your line of 'reasoning'?