… Trump’s populism surely played a role in the surge of white working-class voters to the GOP ticket in 2016. But Trump’s brand of populism—and more importantly, that of working-class whites—differs in important ways from the populism of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. I don’t mean only that Trump’s populism […] Read more »
Absent a More Progressive Economics, the Democrats Will Lose
The challenge Democrats face today—uniting a broad coalition of working class Americans that spans racial, regional, gender, and generational lines—is far from new, but it has not always been this daunting. … Where working people of all races once helped deliver Democratic victories under Presidents Roosevelt and Truman, winning a […] Read more »
The Democrats’ ‘Working-Class Problem’
The road to a sustainable Democratic majority—nationally, locally, and in the states—must include much higher Democratic performance with white working-class voters (those without a four-year degree). Nearly every group in the progressive infrastructure is busy figuring out how Democrats can get back to the level of support they reached with […] Read more »
Has the Democratic Party Gotten Too Rich for Its Own Good?
During his primary campaign against Hillary Clinton, Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-proclaimed socialist, lived up to the grand Democratic tradition of favoring the underdog at the expense of the rich. … But Sanders spoke to the Democratic Party of 2016, not the Democratic Party of the Great Depression. … In […] Read more »
Are Demographics Really Destiny for the GOP?
Despite President Trump’s magnetic appeal for working-class whites, those fiercely contested voters continued their long-term decline as a share of the national electorate in 2016, a new analysis of recent Census Bureau data shows. That continued erosion underscores the gamble Trump is taking by aligning the GOP ever more closely […] Read more »
Trump’s Cuts to SNAP and Social Security Would Hit the Rust Belt Hard
In the key Rustbelt states that tipped the 2016 election to President Trump, blue-collar white voters at the core of his constituency represent a majority of those receiving benefits from the federal income-support programs he has targeted for large cutbacks in his budget, according a new analysis conducted for The […] Read more »