Liberals Need to Stop Writing Off Non–College Educated Workers — Before the White Working Class Writ

[applegrove]

Liberals Need to Stop Writing Off Non–College Educated Workers — Before the White Working Class Writes Off Liberals

By Eric Levitz at the NY Magazine

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/06/dems-need-better-answers-for-the-working-class.html#

SNIP..............


“I’ve heard it in the frustrations of Americans who’ve seen their paychecks dwindle or their jobs disappear — proud men and women who feel like the rules have been changed in the middle of the game. They’re right. The rules have changed,” Barack Obama said in his 2011 State of the Union Address. “Today, just about any company can set up shop, hire workers, and sell their products wherever there’s an internet connection […] The competition for jobs is real.”

But these “rules” did not change themselves; they were revised by policymakers. Or, as Donald Trump put it Tuesday, “This is not some natural disaster. It is politician-made disaster.”

Both Republican and Democratic administrations entered trade agreements designed to put downward pressure on the wages of domestic manufacturing workers. This was a deliberate choice and not a foregone conclusion — these same governments did not subject professional workers to similar international competition. As economist Dean Baker notes, our trade deals could have established clear standards that would allow “students in Mexico, India, and China to train to U.S. levels and then practice as professionals in the United States,” thus providing enormous savings to consumers in the form of cheaper health care and legal fees. But policymakers decided that maintaining the living standards of our professional workers was more important than consumer savings. They reached the opposite conclusion about the living standards of our blue-collar labor force.

At the same time, these governments did little to compensate the “losers” of globalization; made it more difficult for workers to unionize; and further decreased their leverage over employers by cutting the social safety net. This policy framework has left non–college educated workers — a group that makes up 65 percent of our labor force — with a median wage $1.30 lower than it was in 1980.


..............SNIP

[brentspeak]

3. Non-white working class Americans are suffering from lobbyist-written "trade" deals

just as much as white working class Americans.

Your bigotry and assumptions concerning working class white Americans is noted, however.

[brentspeak]

19. Your education might've been lacking

Because you appear to have a marked reading comprehension problem:

rjsquirrel:

"Also when was the last time the white working class voted for a liberal?"

From the article you supposedly read before commenting:

"This is no small threat to Team Blue: White voters without college degrees made up a full 34 percent of the Obama coalition in 2012.

[John Poet]

29. I do it every chance I get!

There are plenty of white working-class Democrats--
the rest are just misguided.

[Lord Magus]

2. No, the Democratic Party doesn't need to pander to racists. -nt-

[Hoyt]

11. Exactly. The Archie Bunkers, and worse, need to adjust their attitude.

[FixTheProblem]

41. White people without a college education are automatically racist?

No wonder they vote republican...

[Lord Magus]

48. The ones who are already voting Republican?

Yeah, they're pretty much all racists. The difference is that unlike the proudly racist KKK types, they get outraged if you call them racist. They want to hate black people without anybody acknowledging that they hate black people.

[Adrahil]

61. The ones who aren't are voting Democratic already..... NT

[treestar]

4. Maybe they should start thinking of their own interests

and pushing for them rather than sitting around. Maybe they should value their economic interests over their whiteness.

[FixTheProblem]

42. You'd still call them racist if they did

You can't constantly demonize an entire group, THEN expect them to vote for you.

[treestar]

44. they need to look at it from their economic interests

rather than worrying about being called racists. The reason they are being called that is they vote against their own economic interests because they prefer having less to losing that feeling of superiority. There's no explanation for a working person not educated to vote for Trump and other Republicans. Trump and other Republicans don't appeal to them on any grounds regarding their own economic interests. They appeal to them on grounds like welfare queens, etc.

[EffieBlack]

58. ^^^^^This, exactly!

[Jitter65]

6. I don't think anyone is "writing them off" you just can't explain shit to them. nt

[bravenak]

7. The white working class already votes Republican

It is the minority working class that are Democrats, and we would have to completely ignore the needs of our entire base to bring in those racist ass working class republicans, those folks are Trump voters through and through.

The thing is, only white males have seen that wage stagnation, they lump us in with the white working class when it suits their needs, but when it comes down to it, our wages were kept low artificially to allow goodwages for white males, we are not going back to sitting on the back of the bus or accepting only a small portion of what they make in order tomake them feel better about themselves. This article is just- crap, quite frankly.

[applegrove]

8. The liberal elite went a little neoliberal back 25 years ago. I think the call

to promote unions and such could be done better. The liberal elite seem to be moving back to the left as we speak.

[bravenak]

12. Even when things were wonderful for the white working class

They still practised segregation. This talk of neoliberals and crap is becoming just words. The white working class has to decide for themselves that conservative policies are not working for them. To bring them into our party as they are? That harms the minorities who are already lifetime Democrats. Why do people seem to want to pretend that the white working class is ultimately more important than us minorities who have voted Democrat consistantly? Why? Do they even realize how that sounds to us who do work for the party and give the party over 90 percent of our votes? That we are just nothing at all, the real goal is to win white working class voters who go to Trump rallies and call for more discrimination of people who look like me?

I say that if the party tries to put too much focus on winning back the white working class, they will have to ignore the needs of us colored folks to do it and lose the minority vote in the process. Each candidate in the last two primaries who have put the focus on winning the white working class vote has lost that primary. Hillary did it in 08 and lost big time. They are not RELIABLE dems. She learned her lesson and her opponent tried to win those same voters that she lost with. We win with diversity and lose by pandering to the past.

[applegrove]

15. I do not think the point is to pander to racists. It is to offer hope to those who could vote for a

brexit like thing where economic anger turns into scapegoating.

[Lord Magus]

46. That's just it, Brexit was far more racial anger than economic anger.

What turned the tide in favor of Brexit was brown-skinned refugees and the fearmongering that the far right spread about them.

[applegrove]

47. The over 50s voted to Brexit. A generation ago they voted to join the EU. The difference is

financial crisis and 10 years of austerity. Backs end up against a wall. People look for the other to scapegoat. They did not state neoliberalism was the cause of their vote but if they had had a mild recession, like when countries economic issues together, and a recovery in two years, and were back to work with wages rising, doubt the Brexit would have won. Canada didn't have a subprime meltdown. And when faced with a recession because the rest of the world was in one, the government did keynesian spending. Last fall Canadians rejected the politics of scapegoating the immigrant and voted the Liberals in. We are indeed celebrating multiculturalism like never before. The reason? We did not deregulate our banking system like the rest of the west did. We ignored the right's attempts to learn to fear and hate immigrants.

[EffieBlack]

60. I love you, Bravenak! You said exactly what I was trying to say, but so much more eloquently!

You're a treasure!

[bravenak]

67. Love you too

I wonder how many cycles we are going to have to sit here and watch folks erase us in favor of voters who hate us and expect that we will just kick it here while our rights get stolen. This nostalgia is SAD.

[doc03]

52. I am a retired union steelworker with no college education, I am white, I know many of my former

co-workers that are also white and we vote Democrat. So get off that bullshit about everyone is a racist because they vote for Republicans. These people feel they have been attacked by the Democratic party for the last 30 years, NAFTA, GATT, WTO, EPA and now TPP. Now we have the oil and gas people providing some well paid jobs and the Democrats are against fracking, they have a valid point I think.

[bravenak]

56. The majority vote REPUBLICAN. Period.

[doc03]

57. The majority of white union workers don't at least we didn't before

the Democratic party wrote unions off. You are determined to make anyone that doesn't vote Democrat as a racist perhaps you should check a mirror. If you want the white working class to vote for Democrats maybe you should give them a reason in stead of calling them stupid or racist.

[bravenak]

66. Bullshit. They started voting R after we got civil rights.

And unions were not very receptive to being fair to blacks. Maybe some history lessons are in order.

[doc03]

68. Gee I am white worked in CWA for almost 2 years and the USWA for nearly 40 years and

don't vote for Republicans. I also know the majority people I worked with voted for Democrats. I worked along side blacks
all my life and never had any more problems with them than anyone else. Both races have a few assholes. Just had lunch with
5 other white Union retirees today the one that supports Trump has always been a Republican. Hey buddy I lived 68 years of history
I don't need any history lessons from you.

[Go Vols]

69. +1

[bravenak]

72. Why would you think this was about you in particular?

[doc03]

73. Because you pretty much said all white union members are all racist and all Republicans.

You might find this hard to believe but I know a couple black guys I worked with that voted Republican.

[bravenak]

74. Where exactly did I say 'All white union members were all racist and Republicans'?

Because I have no idea where you read me saying that.

[EffieBlack]

59. White working class = working class. Black working class = black people

[bravenak]

65. Pretty much

Funny how they don't seem to care that we are left out

[hobbit709]

77. Most of the people I know are working class.

And every one of them hates Republicans, so take your bullshit elsewhere.

[bravenak]

78. I will say what I want to say right here

The majority of the white working class votes republican. The stats bear this out, regardless of your anecdotal evidence.

[hobbit709]

79. I will say what I want too.

[bravenak]

80. Good for you. Nobody told YOU you couldn't say anything here you want to say.

[okieinpain]

81. +1 n/t

[Hortensis]

9. White working class has liberals, too, who

helped themselves by voting in Obama and trying to get more iiberals in Congress and state government.

But I like to think that, not only did at least some of them realize they should have retrained when it became clear that their jobs were becoming obsolete, but that many of them did.

Yes, government should have done more to help those who couldn't or didn't help themselves, and we have to increase wages for those who simply don't have what it takes to do the more complex tasks people learn at the college level, but tell that to the "we have to get rid of big government" voters, all 60 million of them.

[JI7]

10. how come people of color are never considered working class

?

[applegrove]

13. They are saying the white working class may give up on liberals. Not african americans who

are also in the working class. Different issues affect them differently. The second are more than less than likely to vote for Donald Trump.

[bravenak]

14. We are not important

[DonCoquixote]

17. As much as I want to laud Unions

I remember when they demonized Hispanics and AAs and other non whites, many of whom would have happily been allies. It is not that no one gives a damn about the white working class, it is that many are tired of having the Joe Bagants and others explain to us why we just gotta take the insults they hurl and they fact that even when we win something (like social security and Obamacare) we have to still eat the scraps and be careful their Bubba friends will convince them that they have to take it form us before we get any.

Now, as the OP writer can tell you, I myself have little trust for the technocrats either. Yes Hillary, AA and other minorities, (like myself) will lean towards you on the promise you BUILD upon the successes OBAMA made. Yes, he did succeed in improving healthcare where you did not. I remember the one thing that this op writer told me that actually stopped me from voting for Sanders in Florida "at least Hillary realizes she can make mistakes and can learn from them." So for, the rhetoric bears Bravenak out, however, I have NO illusions that there will be many who want to erase that memory. Simply put, if the Ivy League technocrats forget who got them into power, they can be put on the scrap heap with the Archie Bunkers. I do not know if I can say that for Bravenak, but I can say it for myself and many others.

[bravenak]

22. I agree with you

I have no faith that there will be any major changes, but Ido believe that we will make small steps rather than going backwards, like the gop wants to. Hillary knows that what we giveth, we can take away and if she wants to continue to win, she has to do what will keep us on her side. Otherwise we can always find antother Democrats to step up to the plate.
I undrrstand that many have memories of the past being rosy and unions being for 'the people'. But that is not how things were for people who look like me, and the erasure of our reality from this rosy history just give me a headache.

[DonCoquixote]

24. It is moments like this

That I think that there is still intelligent life in the universe. As far as unions, I would love something that works like they were supposed to, but I got really tired of the way some Union people would threaten Minorities. You even hear some of it here when people talk about Immigration, the old "they took our jobs" crap was loud and clear here before Brexit.

[doc03]

53. I wonder about that too, I worked in a steel mill for 40 years along side of

people of color and we got along fine with each other. But they call us racists because some of us vote for Republicans? Many of the middle class don't think they deserted the Democratic party they feel the Democratic party deserted them.

[pampango]

16. Our problems are not caused by trade. Canada trades twice as much, Sweden and Germany 3 times

as much as we do. If trade killed unions and the middle class, FDR would not have worked to expand trade and Canada, Sweden and Germany would have dead unions and middle class. They do not.

OTOH, FDR raised taxes on the rich, regulated businesses, strengthened the safety net and supported strong unions. Modern Canada, Sweden and Germany do the same things.

Or we can demagogue Mexico and China, blame them for our problems. Maybe that will win us more votes but it will not solve our problems.

[brentspeak]

21. That is because FDR died decades before his trade policies were co-opted by lobbyists

We do not "trade" with other nations; today, we merely ship whole industries offshore and import cheap products which would otherwise be made in the USA. Today's "free trade" deals were specifically designed to destroy unions, not to strengthen them.

European trade unions are rebelling against today's Davos-contributed "trade" deals.

Here's some useful background info.

[pampango]

40. Again we don't import nearly as much as progressive countries do, and their unions and workers

are much better off than ours. If progressive countries protected their unions and workers by restricting trade, then we should look at doing the same thing. That is not what they do. They protect their workers and unions the same way FDR did while benefitting from increased trade - just as FDR envisioned.

European trade unions are rebelling against today's Davos-contributed "trade" deals.

Your link did not mention European unions but you are right that there is more opposition to the TTIP being negotiated in Germany than in most other European countries. The last poll of European attitudes about TTIP was taken about 6 months before the article you linked.



The result was 58% in favor and 25% opposed in the EU as a whole. Opposition to it was strongest in Germany and Austria.

A Eurobarometer survey from fall 2014, conducted by TNS at the request of the European Commission, found that a majority (58%) of Europeans back a free trade and investment agreement between the EU and the U.S. A quarter are opposed to such a deal. Support for such an agreement is shared by half or more of people in 25 EU Member States. The three countries with particularly low support are Austria (39% favor vs. 53% oppose), Germany (39% vs. 41%) and Luxembourg (40% vs. 43%).

There are eight countries with very strong support, where more than seven-in-ten people back a transatlantic free trade agreement, including the Netherlands (74%), Poland (73%), Denmark (71%) and Ireland (71%). Moreover, there is majority support in countries that together account for 69% of the EU population, 61% of the EU Gross Domestic Product and 59% of EU merchandise exports to the U.S.

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/01/29/is-europe-on-board-for-a-new-trade-deal-with-the-u-s/

With the refugee crisis, Brexit and the rise of the far-right across Europe I would guess that the support for a trade agreement between the EU and the US has gone down, not up since late 2014 but I have not seen any updated polling.

Very sly.

[Yavin4]

37. ^^This^^

The solution is not bringing back low wage factory jobs. The solution is bigger govt investments domestically. Higher taxes on the wealthy, and stronger health care and educational programs.

[uponit7771]

39. +1

[KingFlorez]

18. That group of voters is long gone

And besides, white working class voters decline in voter turnout each cycle. By 2024 the demographic will likely be a surpassed by the minority vote.

With that said, much of white working class vote stopped voting Democratic because they believe that Democrats abandoned them for blacks. White working class voters do not like to compete with minorities for jobs and seriously believe that minorities have kept them down. There is nothing that Democrats can do to reverse that thinking. There are still plenty of unionized white voters in the Midwest that still vote Democratic, the ones who can actually see that Republicans are anti-union and against raising wages.

Democrats are going to win elections with minorities and college educated whites from now on.

[applegrove]

20. The rust belt. Do we want to lose the rust belt because the people have their backs

against the wall so bad that they start to scapegoat when they previously did not

[Lord Magus]

49. That's where I think you're wrong.

The racists were always scapegoating black and brown people. This "backs against the wall" bullshit pretends that something has actually changed to drive them to racism.

[applegrove]

50. I talking about people who vote democratic or at least have in the near past.

Not the republican base.

[quickesst]

23. I am a white working-class individual...

... at least I was before I retired. Worked my ass off in construction to make some kind of a decent living for my family. I suppose I should feel terrible about that. On top of that I was born in Arkansas, love the south, and wouldn't live anywhere else. I am the classic example of what liberals love to hate. The only flaw I can think of is that I have been a Democrat and voted that way my entire adult life, but hey, white working-class, and Southern born. Two out of three ain't bad, so don't let that third little thing spoil anyone's fun.

This is just a general statement and not directed at anyone specific. Certainly not the OP. If it was specific, I would be here all night.

[ContinentalOp]

25. Globalization and the erosion of unions affects all workers.

But the complaints of the "white working class" are somewhat different.

In 1950, men were 70% of the workforce, and women were 29%. By 2000, that had changed to 53% men, 43% women.

Statistics for race and ethnicity don't seem to go back before 1980, but in that year the workforce was 87% white, 10% black, 5% hispanic, and 2% asian and other. In the year 2000 the workforce was 81% white, 12% black, 13% hispanic, and 6% asian and other. The differences would presumably be even more stark going back before 1980.

So yes, white working class men faced less competition for jobs when women and people of color were not given equal opportunities. This is the subtext behind "white working class" resentment and things like "make america great again." We see it on the left too. When people pine for "a better time" for middle class workers in the '50s, they're talking about a time when job opportunities were not available to a huge part of the workforce and the wages of white men were artificially protected by discrimination.

http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2002/05/art2full.pdf

[Recursion]

26. Republican voters are more likely to have college degrees than Democrats

And the white working class wrote us off 50 years ago, and isn't coming back, and it's time to move on.

[stopbush]

27. 70% of Americans don't have a college degree.

It's a shame that so many high-paying jobs require a degree, like it's a sign that you'll finish things. You have a better chance getting a good job if you have a degree, even if your degree has nothing at all to do with the job you're seeking, than does a person with vast experience in the field without a degree.

[John Poet]

28. Appealing to the working class doesn't need to be

race dependent, does it ?

[forjusticethunders]

30. The white working class already wrote the Left off.

[runaway hero]

63. Because people like you don't try.

[brush]

31. Many of them, not all, have already written off the Dem party . . .

and to appeal to them we have to use the dog whistle tactics of the repugs and abandon much of our base.

No thank you. We don't need to pander to racists.

[applegrove]

32. What about those in the rust belt

[brush]

33. I did say "many, not all" have written off the Dem party

The non-racist working class whites are with us as they have enough sense to know what's go for their own economic interests.

Many in the rust belt are racist too.

[Yavin4]

35. Yep. See Scott Walker and Rick Snyder as examples. n/t

[applegrove]

36. Or some are just tone deaf on race as they have lived with white privilege

How do we appeal to them before they go for Trump and his simple answers to economic woe?

[Yavin4]

34. There have been several actual policies by Dems on a federal and state level that would improve the

lives for all working Americans. Yet, it's the White working class that keeps voting Republican which limit or kill these policies altogether.

It's the Non-College educated White voters that is destroying the American middle class.

[FixTheProblem]

43. I'm a "white non-college educated voter" who voted for Gore, Kerry, and Obama twice

Every election I've been eligible to vote in, I've voted straight D every time.
But I'm destroying the middle class because I'm poor.
I learn something new every day.

[Yavin4]

45. Not you in particular, but the majority in your demo

Your vote is atypical.

[whistler162]

55. Not you that other guy - hint hint nudge nudge

I am sure the OP has friends who are White Non-College Educated Males!

[doc03]

51. The Democratic party made the decision to write off non-college educated workers

and union workers of all races back around 1992, that's why many of them have written off Democrats.

[Go Vols]

70. But Obama said

"Understand this: If American workers are being denied their right to organize and collectively bargain, when I'm in the White House, I'll put on a comfortable pair of shoes myself. I'll walk on that picket line with you, as president of the United States of America. Because workers deserve to know that someone's standing in their corner," he said at a rally in Spartansburg, S.C., in November of 2007.

ff a few years, members of the Dem Senate had to flee Wi trying to keep Scott Walker from killing Unions, and not a peep from the corner.

[EffieBlack]

54. As a loyal black female Democrat, I'm sick and tired of hearing about how Dems need to chase after

pissed off white people (mostly men) who are always threatening to (and often do) vote for candidates intent on throwing my people and other underserved folks under the bus. They don't seem to understand - or maybe they understand and don't care - that the only way to get those angry white folks to vote Democrat is to convince them that they are going to do their bidding and kick us to the curb.

Here's a clue - there's a good reason most of those people don't vote for Democrats - US!

I'm not interested in being climbed over and ignored and told to "just try to understand, we need their votes." There are plenty of votes right here in our communities, communities that have been consistently loyal to the Democratic party, if people just bother to look around and reach out to us.

So, enough with the "What ELSE do we need to promise angry white people to get them to support us?" It's insulting and annoying.

[runaway hero]

62. Well I'm also black, and

I think this is the perfect example of the third way, never talk about economics, fanclub style of left wing politics that has brought the party to this point. Last time I check, the working class included black people as well. It's not all about the internet activist and bourgeois classes every single time.

[stevenleser]

64. Exactly. Look, I am fine with some acknowledgement of certain concerns.

Beyond that? Work hard to get those people whose main belief seems to be we want things back to the way they were in the 1950s i.e. where we controlled everything due to bias and discrimination?

Yeah, no.

[TheKentuckian]

71. All working class people have been written off regardless of race, gender, or creed

The whites are just "acceptable" cover for screwing everyone that is working class over and even education doesn't matter all that much unless you are professional class and/or in the top 10 percent or so.

If you work, you'd best have the word doctor or doctorate on your sheepskin or move money around in schemes to funnel wealth to the top or you better just kick rocks while you hunt for some bootstraps.

[CobaltBlue]

75. TheKentuckian—If the Ds don’t change economic policies…yes.

[get the red out]

76. Absolutely

There used to be respect for working people, now people who didn't get the opportunity to go to college are really looked at as undeserving. The economic damage done to people in this country reaches across racial lines.

Racism? OMG yes! But also people making the harmful voting decisions because they feel forgotten by the Democratic Party. The Republicans capitalize on this and tell people they should blame immigrants and non-white people for their problems. There is little chance for white people to face their racism once the Reps get hold of them.

[forjusticethunders]

82. No, they're making those decisions because they're *racist*.

They started voting Repub because the Dems started supporting black people. The "it's about economics" is at BEST an excuse and at worst a LIE to remove white culpability for racism.

[get the red out]

83. Not so simple

Racism, YES! But I live in a state, Kentucky, that was strongly Democratic LONG after civil rights legislation. Even after Reagan. I remember cheering like mad when KY was the first state to declare and went for Clinton on election night in 1992.

I don't believe just a single problem, racism, completely explains so many people voting against their interests, very little is that simplistic. The Republican control of major Christian denominations in the South has a huge role, the massive media blast off right wing propaganda plays a role, job decline due to free trade is big and they are told to blame immigrants, regulations, the safety net, anything but the corporate money guys funding the right.