In early February, a group of Democrats came together under the aegis of the centrist think tank Third Way to debrief the party’s catastrophic loss in November and chart out a path forward. The gathering correctly identified some of the most important problems that are keeping Democrats from reaching working-class voters. But its conclusions fell woefully short on solutions that would help working-class communities recover from decades of relentless corporate attacks.
Third Way acolytes have helpfully cast a spotlight on a problem that was all too obvious throughout the presidential campaign: working-class voters feel the Democrats are increasingly out of step with ordinary Americans.
A postelection survey by YouGov and the centrist Progressive Policy Institute, for instance, showed that working-class Americans overwhelmingly viewed the Democratic Party as out of touch and not “on my side,” and trusted Donald Trump over Kamala Harris on immigration and the economy (“Renewing the Democratic Party”).
Perhaps even worse, working-class voters also reported trusting Trump as much as Harris on issues that should have been slam dunks for the Democrats: Social Security, health care, and threats to democracy.
Similarly, a Third Way postelection poll showed that a much larger percentage of working-class voters viewed Democrats as too liberal compared to those who viewed Republicans as too conservative, and many more viewed Harris as too liberal than those who viewed Trump as too conservative. These are real problems for Democratic candidates whose success depends on reaching more working-class voters — and in turn, for the party’s ability to win control of the presidency or US Senate.
To counteract the Democrats’ flagging support among the working class, Third Way’s February gathering put forward a series of policy and messaging prescriptions for the party that they claim can help Democrats turn things around. Some of these…
Auteur: Jared Abbott
