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The Vanishing of White Working-Class Democrats
FrontPage Mag
Ian Smith
12/10/2014
Excerpt:
In the National Journal Daily this week, liberal elections analyst Charlie Cook of the Cook Report penned a rejoinder to his fellow Democrats accusing the party of having a race problem. In his piece, subtitled “Democrats have subordinated their traditional focus on helping the working class,” Cook notes it’s been “increasingly hard” for the party to attract white working class voters in particular. Because inside-the-Beltway types usually take years to notice things us regular outsiders have been seeing for decades, Cook’s commentary is refreshing stuff.
Noting the media’s mantra Republicans face about their poor polling returns among blacks, Hispanics and single women, Cook takes a swipe at his own, saying that a “parallel problem” exists among Dems, namely the whittling away of their white working class vote, once the core constituency of ‘the modern, post-New Deal Democratic Party.’
Turning to his always good demographic analysis, Cook notes that along with urban areas and college towns, Democratic strength is increasingly concentrated in “narrow bands along the West Coast (but only the first 50-100 miles from the beaches) and the East Coast (but only from New York City northward).” By contrast he notes, “few Democrats represent small-town and rural areas”, areas which are rapidly becoming “no-fly zones for Democrats.” Citing recent polls taken among white working voters, Cook says Obama’s job approval rating is a mere 27 percent, his lowest ever. Meanwhile, in these past midterms, Democratic House candidates lost this demographic by 30 points.
This isn’t exactly surprising, but it’s refreshing given the source. Cook is a regular at liberal speaking events around the Beltway area. In the rare time the white working class vote is discussed at such dos, whether at Brookings, the Center for American Progress or the Carnegie Endowment, the tone is usually derisive and frequently hateful.
Cook’s description of the isolated Democratic strongholds is very revealing and aligns well with Charles Murray’s 2012 ‘Coming Apart’ survey of White America. The gaping division Cook describes between the fenced-in white enclaves of the West and Northeast coasts and the great white expanse everywhere in-between should, he says, “underscore the magnitude of the Democratic Party’s problem” today.
The class division among whites is wider than ever due to our immigration policy, an area that’s been increasingly disastrous for the lower classes and which is finally making headlines in the mainstream media, not occasionally, but daily – Cook doesn’t mention immigration as a source of class tension; the topic is apparently still a verboten one for contemporary Dems, even the ones that profess to be sympathetic to the working class – The historic party of working people have become the chief importers of scab labor, all for the elite’s personal short-term gain. Being of the company exec/shareholding class, these elites siphon off the outsized corporate profits caused by suppressed labor costs and personally benefit from cheap maids, cooks and nannies all the while pushing the diffuse costs onto the general taxpaying public. While white working people in the hinterland are cleaning their own houses, the coastal Democrat elite are holding feel-good fundraisers and sipping champagne poured by the non-white help.
During a 2008 fundraiser in San Francisco, an area well within one of Cook’s “narrow bands,” Obama demeaned his party’s traditional white working class base when he said they “cling to guns or religion” out of a sense of bitterness. But when one’s livelihood is given away, what else are they expected to cling to?
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View the complete article at:
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ian...ass-democrats/
FrontPage Mag
Ian Smith
12/10/2014
Excerpt:
In the National Journal Daily this week, liberal elections analyst Charlie Cook of the Cook Report penned a rejoinder to his fellow Democrats accusing the party of having a race problem. In his piece, subtitled “Democrats have subordinated their traditional focus on helping the working class,” Cook notes it’s been “increasingly hard” for the party to attract white working class voters in particular. Because inside-the-Beltway types usually take years to notice things us regular outsiders have been seeing for decades, Cook’s commentary is refreshing stuff.
Noting the media’s mantra Republicans face about their poor polling returns among blacks, Hispanics and single women, Cook takes a swipe at his own, saying that a “parallel problem” exists among Dems, namely the whittling away of their white working class vote, once the core constituency of ‘the modern, post-New Deal Democratic Party.’
Turning to his always good demographic analysis, Cook notes that along with urban areas and college towns, Democratic strength is increasingly concentrated in “narrow bands along the West Coast (but only the first 50-100 miles from the beaches) and the East Coast (but only from New York City northward).” By contrast he notes, “few Democrats represent small-town and rural areas”, areas which are rapidly becoming “no-fly zones for Democrats.” Citing recent polls taken among white working voters, Cook says Obama’s job approval rating is a mere 27 percent, his lowest ever. Meanwhile, in these past midterms, Democratic House candidates lost this demographic by 30 points.
This isn’t exactly surprising, but it’s refreshing given the source. Cook is a regular at liberal speaking events around the Beltway area. In the rare time the white working class vote is discussed at such dos, whether at Brookings, the Center for American Progress or the Carnegie Endowment, the tone is usually derisive and frequently hateful.
Cook’s description of the isolated Democratic strongholds is very revealing and aligns well with Charles Murray’s 2012 ‘Coming Apart’ survey of White America. The gaping division Cook describes between the fenced-in white enclaves of the West and Northeast coasts and the great white expanse everywhere in-between should, he says, “underscore the magnitude of the Democratic Party’s problem” today.
The class division among whites is wider than ever due to our immigration policy, an area that’s been increasingly disastrous for the lower classes and which is finally making headlines in the mainstream media, not occasionally, but daily – Cook doesn’t mention immigration as a source of class tension; the topic is apparently still a verboten one for contemporary Dems, even the ones that profess to be sympathetic to the working class – The historic party of working people have become the chief importers of scab labor, all for the elite’s personal short-term gain. Being of the company exec/shareholding class, these elites siphon off the outsized corporate profits caused by suppressed labor costs and personally benefit from cheap maids, cooks and nannies all the while pushing the diffuse costs onto the general taxpaying public. While white working people in the hinterland are cleaning their own houses, the coastal Democrat elite are holding feel-good fundraisers and sipping champagne poured by the non-white help.
During a 2008 fundraiser in San Francisco, an area well within one of Cook’s “narrow bands,” Obama demeaned his party’s traditional white working class base when he said they “cling to guns or religion” out of a sense of bitterness. But when one’s livelihood is given away, what else are they expected to cling to?
...............................................
View the complete article at:
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ian...ass-democrats/