There are very real impediments to reaching the white working class. [View all]

The Democrats already by far have the best economic policies for working people. The problem reaching the "white working class" is that many of them have other beliefs that are abhorrent to progressives.

They are socially conservative. Abortion, racial equality, LGBT, church/state, etc., a large part of the white working class is on the wrong side of all of them.

They are anti-environment. Many working class whites see environmental regulations as job-killing government intrusion which values frogs more than humans. We lost coal country as soon as we started paying attention to climate change.

They are anti-government. Reagan won them over with his "I'm from the government and I'm here to help" line. This is why, for example, Hillary's position on coal -- we can't keep burning it, but we want to retrain coal workers and give them jobs producing clean energy -- doesn't work. They don't want the government to help them.

They like war. And torture. Trump's "bomb the shit out of them" and "we should torture even if it doesn't work" and "we should have stolen Iraq's oil" are pretty much how a lot of white working class people think on foreign policy. I've heard people saying these things long before there was a Trump.

They don't like taxes, even on rich people. I've talked to minimum wage earners about the inheritance tax, where I tried to explain it only affects a few hundred families every year who inherit over $10M dollars. Doesn't matter. They are opposed to very concept of the government taking money from people, and the logic that if it doesn't come from trust fund babies then it has to come from working people goes nowhere.

They are anti-intellectual. "I love the poorly educated" can summarize the 2016 election as much as any other quote. A lot of working class whites don't trust "book learning", don't trust universities, don't trust science (half of the US are creationists of varying degrees).

The list goes on. And before anyone jumps down my throat, obviously not all working class white people share these views. Not all working class white people voted for Trump, in fact. But the contingent of working class whites that have been drifting to the GOP does believe these things. And they believe them "bigly".


Which means that it's not as simple as "stop talking about bathrooms and start talking about jobs." In fact, there's a big irony in the people who are chiding liberals for talking down to the white working class. These same people think that working class whites are so simplistic that if you just say "jobs" then they'll vote for you.

None of the things I've listed above are things that progressives are going to just give up on, nor should they. Which means we have a problem with white working class voters that's not just going to go away. And it's not just social issues or "identity politics".

Bernie Sanders, correctly IMO, identified climate change as the greatest threat facing this country (and also the world). Well, working class whites don't believe that. And using science to try to persuade them doesn't work because they don't believe in science and don't like intellectuals. And trying to woo them with green jobs doesn't work because they hate the government.

So anyone who thinks if we just abandon free trade agreements and take on a more economic populist tone is going to convert a lot of working class whites is kidding themselves.