After the 2016 election, many progressives were furious to learn that 22 percent of the working-class whites who once supported President Barack Obama voted for Donald Trump. How could the same people back two political figures with such diametrically opposed approaches, particularly on the defining issue of race?
As we move to the 2018 midterms and beyond, progressives are asking whether they can win back Obama-Trump voters. Should they even bother to try? …
To reach these swing voters, progressive populists like Bernie Sanders say they will fight for working-class interests against a rigged system, while right-wing populists like Donald Trump say, among other things, that they respect the values of working-class people in a way that liberals don’t.
But a half-century ago, a champion of civil rights offered a third approach: a liberalism without elitism and a populism without racism. In a remarkable 82-day campaign, Senator Robert F. Kennedy ran in several Democratic presidential primaries and was able to forge a powerful coalition of working-class whites and blacks, even as race riots were raging across the country, and at a time when whites were far more bigoted than they are today. CONT.
Richard D. Kahlenberg (Century Foundation), New York Times