Thread by @mattsheffield

Thread: The Democratic establishment and blue-collar workers

This is a summary of my latest @TheoryChange discussion w/@fstockman. Read, watch, or listen at the link below or continue on the thread: flux.community/matthew-sheffi…

@TheoryChange @fstockman Our discussion is centered around Stockman's book "American Made: What Happens to People When Work Disappears."

I highly recommend it. You can purchase here: bookshop.org/books/american…

Farah's book is excellent because, instead of just parachuting into a Midwestern diner, she spent years following and staying in touch with three steelworkers whose Indiana factory closed and moved to Mexico.

It's a deep case study of opinions, circumstances, and politics.

The book is an excellent documentation of how callous economist thinking infected Democratic and progressive politics, leading people to think only in terms of averages rather than individuals.

One of Stockman's top takeaways was how utterly cynical and hopeless many Americans feel about politics. Millions of people and their ancestors, have settled on the attitude that nothing will ever change for the better and dropping out of participation is the answer.

It's a great example of how cynicism is one of the best tools of authoritarianism. Trump swooped into these vulnerable and depressed people's lives and promised them everything while Democrats gave them tough-love economist-speak.

It definitely worked for some of them.

One of the three workers profiled in "American Made" was a white union vice president who became disaffected from Democrats after NAFTA and China's WTO. He began drifting toward Republicans because of their cultural populist talk. Trump's rhetoric was basically his.

Another of the workers, a black man who was an efficiency expert, was able to see through Trump's fake populism.

But there are millions of uneducated white people who lack the racial lens to see through the lies, and also never encounter Democratic policies or messages for them.

Republican messaging is constantly looking to speak to uneducated Americans and offer them a variety of media outlets and messages: Christian nationalism, political fandom, or just nihilism.

By contrast, Democratic groups spend almost nothing on persistent voter contact.

Had Democrats been in touch with their base more, they would have noticed how vulnerable they were among white blue-collar workers, who formerly were the base of the party.

They would also have realized how to more effectively address racial injustices.

National Democratic organizing used to be an eclectic mix of income, education, and race. Now, however, it is dominated overwhelmingly by white educated people who are drastically different from Democratic voters.

The Pew Research "Political Typology" surveys are critical here

"Progressive left" people are uniquely favorable to self-identified socialists, are much more negative toward religion, and want more radical change on race than the more diverse "Democratic mainstay" and "establishment liberals" groups. pewresearch.org/politics/2021/…

I'll be returning to this topic in the future, but please do check out both "American Made" and the Pew report.

Progressives need to create an infrastructure for change, one that not only promotes views, but learns from the public, and helps form more responsive policies. /end