White people need to up their game.

[Sympthsical]

113. Except much of it is true

There was a class of people who were white, working class - and union. My father was a Teamster who was filled with loathing at the prospect of any Republican who ran, and all the people around him and in the family felt similar for similar reasons. Unions were everything.

Over time, unions have been gradually whittled away, and our party hasn't done nearly as much as it could or should to combat that significantly. In many ways, particularly in places like the Rust Belt, America feels like a post-union economy.

People like to say, "There is no economic anxiety! It's all racism!" Which is the dumb read on the situation. But because we're highly nuanced and intelligent people who are capable of understanding complex topics and would never resort to dumb, simplistic explanations of people, I'll allow a different explanation.

As this working class eroded and saw their lifestyles diminish over time (no longer one bread winner, not being able to afford housing in the same way, industries leaving the country, etc. etc. etc.) political forces were able to exploit what was happening and pivot to culture and race as a scapegoat. NAFTA was basically, "Immigrants are coming for your jobs!" as manufacturing and auto industries were slowly deflating.

Republicans took advantage of economic conditions to plant their little culture war seeds, and our party has never really gotten back to where it once was or pushed back against it while it was happening. I don't hear the same veneration and certitude of "I will never vote for Republicans!" in the white working classes that I heard growing up in the 80s and 90s.

It's a problem. It's been a problem for as long as I've been alive.

But doesn't just dismissing it all as racism feel so much smugly better? We get to feel superior while simultaneously not doing anything and not self-examining.

It's win all around for everyone. Republicans can keep exploiting it, and we can feel like we're awesome and eschew any obligation or responsibility for what happened.