Democrats need more working-class pols

by | Jun 20, 2017 | Politics | 9 comments

The American Prospect has two must-read articles for Democrats. Written, respectively, by Stan Greenberg and Ruy Teixeira, they lay out the party’s deep challenges with working class working class voters. Crucially, it is not just the white working class. Middle-down voters of all hues have lost faith in their party.

One glaring problem is a lack of working-class candidates. Too often, Democrats nominate affluent urban professionals to run populist campaigns. The vast majority of these candidates mean well, but they struggle to gain credibility in working-class districts. It is hard to take someone’s solutions seriously when you don’t believe they understand your problems. Fairly or not, working-class voters seem skeptical.

Candidates like Larry Kissel are more effective. Kissel, who won and held the eighth district for four years, was a social studies teacher. He had likely taught the children of laid-off manufacturing voters. Voters knew that he understood their problems because he was present on the ground in their communities. Or, as Bill Clinton said in 1992, “when people lose their jobs, there’s a good chance I know them by their names.” That’s a powerful pitch.

Republicans understand this. They do not hesitate to run farmers, small business owners, or even bail bondsmen. The GOP has had great success with this strategy. Unfortunately, Democrats have steadily moved away from it. As consultant John Davis pointed out, the percentage of business owners in the Democratic caucus fell off a cliff in the late 2000’s. The business Democrats were largely replaced by attorneys, who had less of a cultural connection to voters.

There is a place for professionals in any well-functioning political party. But there is also a place for working people–and they have largely lost it. Going forward, Democrats should emphasize recruiting black and white working-class candidates to run in districts where their occupational pool predominates.

9 Comments

  1. Scott

    Tom Mills told me that if I were not rich and didn’t have a thick rolodex I couldn’t run.
    I told my wife that if the party didn’t support me, and my union didn’t support me, I couldn’t run.
    My old Union, the man who shaped me up didn’t even call me back. The Party didn’t want me. They sneered at me. “You’re suited for bigger things.”
    I did a show from the announcement day of my intention to run every day on my tv channel on youtube. I found out I wasn’t famous.
    You can watch it for a laugh. Transcendian on youtube. I am the Intendor and the show is The Intendor Tm Radio Show. I can’t count how many shows I did. Was an exercise.
    Ideally an experienced man could go to the Party and give them their vision and get support to run. There is the contractor running as a challenge to Paul Ryan. It may well work out for him.
    Here where I am in North Carolina it didn’t for me. My message is that Finance Banking is your enemy. Bank creation of money as a debt trap revolving around real estate means there will be so much debt the economy will stop. We nee to regulate greed and regulate the banks as a Utility. North Carolina needs to tax the rentier classes instead of issuing bonds. We need a bank like The Bank of North Dakota.
    Read Killing the Host & J is for Junk by Michael Hudson.

  2. MaryAnn Nutter

    I want to know the answers to the questions J.L. brought up. Why do the poor, the less educated, the farmer
    work against themselves? They certainly voted for tax cuts ( which will hurt them), and against health care for themselves and their children, also against safe working conditions Are they crazy or what?

  3. Christopher Lizak

    This article is a little confusing. Business owners are not “working class”.

    Owners and workers face very, very different problems – even if the owner has a very small business.

    John Davis has spent his life advocating for business owners to control politics – and that is the very heart of the problem. Our Democracy has become impervious to the will of ordinary working people because it is aligned entirely with the interests of business owners and THIER owners (the banks). He who has the gold, rules. Ordinary workers are not even allowed much of a voice. Corporations are citizens, but non-owner people are just Labor, which is, of course, the same thing as organized crime. And what is the nature of our corporate citizens? They are dictatorships focused on making money. Not making life better for people. Not preserving the planet for future generations. Not freedom, or safety, or happiness, or any of the things that we find valuable and would like to increase. Our Brave New World exists for the benefit of the shareholders and the elements of management that “demonstrate their worth”, and our politics reflect that.

    If you want this to change, there has to be a major cultural shift. The idea that electability is determined by the ability to raise money to feed the political professionals has to be discredited and rejected. The DNC has, for my entire life, given its support to those who can already raise large amounts of money – denying it to anyone without access to major family or institutional network support (like the lawyers). This even applied to Elaine Marshall running for Senate, who I would place substantially above “working class”.

    Until we see the dominance of money in our society change, if it ever does, ‘Murka and the Democratic Party will continue to be ruled by Mammon and his Almighty Dollar. Anything else would be considered a waste of resources.

    • Yvonne

      As a small business owner I cannot agree with you entirely. We don’t look for “how can the party help me in my business” as my business is customer based. Our motto is “We aim to please” and consequently we get referrals and our business continues to grow because we are customer focused.

      Our taxes are low and we would be willing to pay more if it went toward our infrastructure, etc.. When someone is running for office I don’t hear the message what the candidate will do for his/her constituents. We are not interested in what is going on in other parts of the country, what are you going to do that will make life better in our part of the world? Paying attention to what is going on in your constituency is more helpful. Once that is achieved we can begin to reach out to others.

      Oh, and by the way. Small business owners are working class as as we are still working on our days off.

  4. Jay Ligon

    What, then, is the message to blue collar workers being offered by Republicans, if the lack of blue in the collars of the Democratic candidates is the problem? Campaigns are about issues, aren’t they? Republicans run again and again on tax cuts and program cuts. Democrats offer programs which build the middle class. What message should the Democrats offer to blue collar workers?

    If is confounding that poor and middle class workers are voting time and again for tax cuts they will not experience and for relaxing regulatory schemes designed to protect them from the excesses of big business, such as protection from coal ash pollution or from advisors and banks dipping into their retirement savings.

    In my view, the Republicans have treated the blue collar worker with contempt and have ignored their interests, taking campaign money from the largest corporations and providing benefits exclusively to the rich. Don’t blue collar workers want a minimum wage, a safe work environment, medical care for their children? If not, what exactly do they want?

    • Smartysmom

      Perhaps you’re both right. I have a third theory. It’s that extreme liberal policies are anathema to an extremely large part of our population. While Trump is only removing the safety net for a small minority of the population, Bernie Bros wanted to take from everyone to give to that same small percentage. Whoa Nellie! I work hard for my money and you want to give it to those freeloaders who are too lazy to work???? Nononono! So while I’ll answer all the polling questions in the socially acceptable way, behind the voting booth curtain I’ll vote what I see as my own advantage.

      Yes I know that there are no longer jobs for the unskilled and never will be again, I know that population pressures are going to require a major shift, etc etc etc, But the voting piblic doesn’t know that yet and I have to wonder if they’ll ever be ready. Meanwhile watching the Trumpian Follies in the near east Korea and China, we may not be around long enough to worry about it.

      • Jay Ligon

        Could you elaborate on the “extreme liberal policies … anathema to an extremely large part of our population.”?

        Do you believe that most people do not want a living wage? Are they opposed to environmental regulations? Should millions of people be uninsured and unable to get medical care? Are they OK with the U.S. being under the control of a Russian dictator? Are they upset that women can make their own health decisions? Are people seeking laws from the state to require prayer in public schools? Do they want the government to decide their religious choices? When health inspectors grade restaurants for cleanliness, do you think that is too much of an intrusion into business? Do people really wish the government would leave Duke Power alone and allow them to fill the Neuse River with toxic waste?

        Just curious about which policies you think a large part of our population are important. Which Democratic policies are offensive and which Republican policies are attractive?

    • John Rawlings

      What else am I voting for if I vote time and again against my economic interests? Nixon first targeted the South for known issues and prejudices (expanded to any “immigrants”). Pretty soon the Religious Right piled on with its own issues, prejudices, narrow concerns. How about single issue voting on issues like gun rights, or abortion, or other purely cultural issues. The first commentaries after the Nov 2016 election said Democrats had forgotten such people. I really do not care about appealing to what most of them respond to.

      • TY Thompson

        “I really do not care about appealing to what most of them respond to.”

        Very good. And you won’t mind if they keep voting against what you respond to. Everyone can hold their head high.

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