How Liberals Left the White Working Class Behind

[Anonymous]

Many polls are pointing to the growing divide between upper middle class votes and middle class voters in the democratic party.

which candidate has the best chance of bridging this chasm?

Liberal professionals look upon nationalism with unmitigated horror, because all they see is the racist aspect. What they’re missing is how nationalism is a reaction to the detrimental impacts of globalization. Two-thirds of working-class Whites and three- quarters of Trump primary voters see trade deals as harmful to American workers, and there’s plenty of evidence that they’re right (and that foreign laborers are being exploited in the bargain as well). When Trump tells them he will bring back their jobs by shredding unpopular trade and climate deals, that sounds pretty damn good.

After NAFTA passed, the president of the electrical workers’ union vowed revenge: “Clinton screwed us and we won’t forget it.” Twenty-four years and a few dozen Trump anti-NAFTA jeremiads later, rank-and-file electrical union members welcomed Trump to their Philadelphia job site. Minnesota iron and steel workers, too, say they’ve never forgiven President Clinton for NAFTA and that Trump won them over with his outspoken commitment to killing the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Trade deals, they say, are their No. 1 issue and the reason the once-solidly blue North Star state is turning red.

How Liberals Left the White Working Class Behind

https://www.yesmagazine.org/democracy/2019/12/16/book-politics-divide/

[Anonymous]

How are those trade wars working out?

[Anonymous]

Spot on. This is why everyone on here is focusing on every identity politics issue but class. The establishment on both sides fears nothing more than the black, white and Latino working class coming together and mobilizing against the 1% and corporations who have rigged the system for their benefit. This is why a lot of the same people who call Trump a “racist, fascist dictator” would still vote for him if Bernie Sanders is the nominee. Sanders is focusing on class identity and class politics first and foremost. That’s dangerous to the establishment on both sides that have tried to evade these issues and instead divide the working class through wedge issues, whether it’s transgender bathrooms or racial issues. What they don’t want is poor blacks, poor whites and poor Latinos to realize they have a common cause and common foe. Getting people to realize that is what got Fred Hampton and Martin Luther King killed.

[Anonymous]

Wait which is it -- are cons FOR the white (but not black/Hispanic/Asian?) working class? Or do they sneer at them for not partaking in this glorious economy, as many here gloating about their portfolios do?

Can't claim to be sympathetic to the plight of the working class (no matter which color they are) while saying that if anyone is still struggling now it's their own damn fault. Because the stock market!!

So pick one side. Which one do you choose?

[Anonymous]

I’ll also add that “working class” is not synonymous with “white working class.” White, college educated, establishment liberals treat working class blacks and Latinos with paternalistic disdain and could care less about their concerns. You can see this tension play out in their apathy about gentrification and who it displaces. Note the passion with which elite, white liberals talk about climate change and LBGTQ rights versus issues like gentrification and prison reform, for example. It’s glaring.

[Anonymous]

Honestly they just buy into the FoxNews propaganda that socialized medicine is bad and everything else the Dems try to enact. It’s on them. If they buy the lies that the party of the wealthy old white guys (one of who has a gold toilet!), not sure what more Dems can do. The tax cut didn’t help them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ll also add that “working class” is not synonymous with “white working class.” White, college educated, establishment liberals treat working class blacks and Latinos with paternalistic disdain and could care less about their concerns. You can see this tension play out in their apathy about gentrification and who it displaces. Note the passion with which elite, white liberals talk about climate change and LBGTQ rights versus issues like gentrification and prison reform, for example. It’s glaring.

Can you give examples of elite white conservatives talking about gentrification? Looking forward to getting some examples. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Working class Americans are pro-Trump because Steve Bannon researched what they wanted to hear and taught Trump to say it. No other reason.

Trump has nothing in common with working class Americans. Why a man who was born rich and has never suffered the consequences of his financial mistakes should be their spokesperson is absurd.

This too shall pass.

[Anonymous]

How many jobs has automated technology taken away from the working class?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Working class Americans are pro-Trump because Steve Bannon researched what they wanted to hear and taught Trump to say it. No other reason.

Trump has nothing in common with working class Americans. Why a man who was born rich and has never suffered the consequences of his financial mistakes should be their spokesperson is absurd.

This too shall pass.

So true. These white working class people continue to vote against their interests. Trump said he loved the uneducated because he knows he can influence them with talking points and scare tactics.

[Anonymous]

We don’t need the white working class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ll also add that “working class” is not synonymous with “white working class.” White, college educated, establishment liberals treat working class blacks and Latinos with paternalistic disdain and could care less about their concerns. You can see this tension play out in their apathy about gentrification and who it displaces. Note the passion with which elite, white liberals talk about climate change and LBGTQ rights versus issues like gentrification and prison reform, for example. It’s glaring.

Nope. That is how you and the right want to cast it, to divide the country, but it isn't the truth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ll also add that “working class” is not synonymous with “white working class.” White, college educated, establishment liberals treat working class blacks and Latinos with paternalistic disdain and could care less about their concerns. You can see this tension play out in their apathy about gentrification and who it displaces. Note the passion with which elite, white liberals talk about climate change and LBGTQ rights versus issues like gentrification and prison reform, for example. It’s glaring.

Nope. That is how you and the right want to cast it, to divide the country, but it isn't the truth.

And it's laughable to suggest that white, college educated, establishment conservatives care about working class blacks and Latinos. I mean, come on. Where's the evidence for that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly they just buy into the FoxNews propaganda that socialized medicine is bad and everything else the Dems try to enact. It’s on them. If they buy the lies that the party of the wealthy old white guys (one of who has a gold toilet!), not sure what more Dems can do. The tax cut didn’t help them.

Doesn't a staunch Democrat PR firm, who also has government contracts that were investigated, have the contract with multiple organizations to save the ACA? The same PR firm was advertising internships at the DNC but not at the RNC. Weird. I thought government contracting firms needed to pretend to be nonpartisan?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly they just buy into the FoxNews propaganda that socialized medicine is bad and everything else the Dems try to enact. It’s on them. If they buy the lies that the party of the wealthy old white guys (one of who has a gold toilet!), not sure what more Dems can do. The tax cut didn’t help them.

Doesn't a staunch Democrat PR firm, who also has government contracts that were investigated, have the contract with multiple organizations to save the ACA? The same PR firm was advertising internships at the DNC but not at the RNC. Weird. I thought government contracting firms needed to pretend to be nonpartisan?

I just was looking at an audit from one state the firm representatives. Interesting.