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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I know quite a few white working class people.  They do see how the policies behind some of the Democratic agenda is designed to help.  They just feel, from a practical perspective that they are getting screwed and that that particular demographic is being left out.

I'll just give one example and respond to what's written here by some of the posters.

I know a guy, mid-50s I don't know if he graduated high school or has a GED.  No college.  Born and bred in Northern Virginia.  Started out as a kid making minimum wage scrambling around construction and the like.  Became a heavy equipment operator and eventually owned his own small business.  No help.  Just hard work and opportunity.  Through his own fault, he lost the business, divorced, etc.  No problem.  start again.

He started as an hourly employee at a grocery store.  Through the store he got health insurance.  (He had always known the value of insurance and had always had it and provided it to all his employees).  Cost 12 bucks a week, pre-ACA.  This came through for him with 2 major medical issues.  Fine.  He's grateful.

He got promoted.  That promotion got him a 4 dollar an hour raise.  And his insurance (employer/union) went from 48 to 75 dollars a month.  Pre-ACA.  OK.  The policy was a bit better and he fully agreed that the higher paid union workers should help out the lower paid.

After the ACA, he is paying 400 a month for the same insurance.  This is hard to stomach.  Lower income, hourly worker and your monthly insurance premium gores up more than 4 times?  As a result of a law that was intended to help him?  Can you see why this might not be seen as a great victory?

Someone mentioned "racial resentment".  I think that is shorthand for postulating that white working class are all racists. Sure its an issue.  But it is throughout the entire white demographic pyramid.  Is he?

He grew up working class.  In a mixed race neighborhood.  His son-in-law is a working class black man and his grandchildren are mixed race.  I don't think it would be ok to call him racists.

He doesn't hate Muslims or immigrants or gays or transexuals  He does not like terrorists.  And while he has a great deal of compassion for the US born children of illegal immigrants, he doesn't get why the parents get a break.  Surprise, a lot of white working class people have been "judicially involved" (that's currently the "proper" term, isn't it?).  And what they see is the fact that they didn't get a break from the justice system, why should they.

Oh.  And they see the potential for abuse too.  They ask, what is to prevent people from coming specifically to give birth?  And then trying to stay?

Its a good question.  And while it has been discounted as a problem by those in favor of amnesty.  It just doesn't happen that often.  I am not sure that's accurate.  The New York Times had a long article a couple years ago documenting this a a trend in China.  My own personal experience living overseas?  I saw dozens of younger people.  Lawyers, bankers, doctors and other professionals who were British, Australian, from every European country who would time their pregnancies and annual leave in order to give birth while vacationing at Disney World.  Of course, the idea for them wasn't necessarily to remain immediately.  But it gave their children a future choice.  And it opened options for them to move to the US, as I understand that employers have an easier time sponsoring a foreign professional if a family member is a US citizen.  Like it or not, and as disliked as we may be, US citizenship is still coveted.

What about the rest?  Why so angry about "civil rights"?  It really isn't racism or homophobia as far as I can tell.  It's more a feeling of being completely left out.  They are hourly workers.  They make 15, 20 , 25 dollars an hour.  They see affirmative action and diversity initiatives.  And no one focuses on them.  Instead, they are called stupid.  Redneck.  Racist. The beneficiaries of white privilege (try explaining that to a white working class family).

All in all, they really don't want much more than to be able to work.

I don't know anyone in the white working class who is against birth control.  Or having it provided for free.  Most have single other relatives and see what a strain it can be.  Oddly, working white people like to have sex for fun too.  They do understand.

I don't know more than a handful of working white who are anti-abortion.  For the same reasons they are not against birth control.

They are for states rights.  But this is less a result of some "redneck" notion than it is experience.  They come from neighborhoods where there is a lot of "under the table" community support.  People help each other fix houses, cars, plumbing, childcare, etc.  It is a true barter economy.  It is unspoken that when I look after your kid today, your husband the plumber will stop by this weekend and help us install the hot water heater.  Nothing is asked, no money exchanges.  It just happens.

As a result, a lot of working class people don't trust a bunch of policy wonks in Washington preening themselves with their HYP degrees that they earned after attending Cranbrook or Exeter or Sidwell pronouncing what is good for the white working class.  They hate the condescension "We know what's good for you; you are a stupid rube!  My Masters in Public Policy from YALE let's me tell you that.  Now sit down and do as you're told.

To me, it really isn't that the white working class are against what the Democratic social platform is.  What they hate is feeling left out and and being condescended to . . .as do you and I.  So at the end of the day, it is a total marketing failure by the Democrats.  Stop telling them what to do.  Stop talking down to them.  Put as much focus on how they are being screwed as is put on the poor children of illegal immigrants.  Put the focus on them.  After all, there a ton more white working class voters than there are transgender voters, AA voters or immigrants.  And that doesn't mean skew the program, it means change the tone of delivery.  Know your audience and speak to them  Stop speaking AT them.[/quote
How do you have enough time to type such a long post? [/quote]

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