The Vanishing of White Working-Class Democrats

construction-worker-at-construction-site-with-hard-hat_123251In 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?

There’s one thing Democrats should remember about the heartlanders living between New York and LA. Although they’re some of the nicest people in the world, they have a strong sense of injustice and do not respond well to unfairness. If Emperor Obama and the Democratic elite want to avoid another electoral defeat, they should take Cook’s advice and revisit the Party’s traditional focus on helping, not hindering, its traditional base.

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  • Bamaguje

    After years of fueling racial discord to win minority vote, Democrats are now reaping a White backlash.
    Now we understand why Democrats desperately need amnesty for illegals to make up for the lost White vote.

    • Michael Garfinkel

      As the party of the aspiring elites and the dependent, “protected” minorities, the Democrats are now constitutionally unable to appeal to the white working class.

      A sign of things to come: Mary Landreu received only 20% of the white vote in Louisiana and is now retired from politics.

      • DowntotheBone

        Good riddance to bad rubbish.
        DLTDHYITAOTWO, Mary.

    • Patriot077

      Once scorned, the hardworking class have long memories.
      I hope they never forget the parasites who have been eating our substance for generations.

  • Sheik Yerbouti

    White Americans have been the butt of lefty jokes and policies. The most hated people in the nation are white men, especially if they work for a living. I predicted the fall of white democrats as I saw them building their non-white base with every effort while sending even the white democrat politicians to the street.

    Personally, I’m happy to see it happen. Not because of the democrats misfortune, they caused that with their hatred and stupidity. But more because it means that the people who contribute the most in this nation are finally waking up to the mess we have all allowed.

    Democrats have been sneaky for decades, now they seem to think the time for the gloves to come off has arrived. And they are hemorrhaging white voters because they don’t see them as important. After all, whites are too simple to interpret the complex happenings in non-white minds or democrats. At least that’s how they seem to be thinking.

    Good to see them stepping on their own crank.

  • Trappedincalifornia

    Promoting Amnesty for millions of illegals so they can take jobs from US citizens is the death knell for the Dems. Some, like Senator Feinstein, have it figured it out & are going to create death and destruction on their way out of power. Dem controlled cities will burn!

    • Robert_Fl

      Amnesty is only the first step.Phase two is to give then voting rights.

  • DowntotheBone

    “…they should take Cook’s advice and revisit the [Socialist] Party’s traditional focus on helping, not hindering, its traditional base.”

    But, if they did that, the socialist party arguably would cease to exist.

  • http://www.stubbornthings.org NAHALKIDES

    All of this is very true, and would spell deep trouble for the Democrats except for one thing: the white working class was never receptive to socialism, and while it would vote Democratic, it would only do so if the Dems toned down their innate radicalism. Therefore, back in 1965 Democratic radicals led by Teddy Kennedy plotted to replace the white working class with a third-world underclass more amenable to socialism through mass immigration. It’s working, and we’ve reached the point where the Democratic Party may be able to win the Presidency in 2016 while losing the white working class vote.

    Note that the big loss last month occurred only partly because the white working class voted Republican – the Democratic base of moochers and government workers did not turn out in the numbers it could have. Immigration is still the key to the Democrats’ goal of one-party rule in this country.

  • Joatmoaf

    To all disillusioned Dems,
    Come to the Dark Side (GOP), We have cookies.

  • Zombee

    After forty years of relentless downward pressure on wages under administrations of both parties, with welfare an increasingly attractive alternative to employment weighed down with swelling taxes and health-care bills. Could it be that the white working class has sunk into irredeemable apathy? The fate of the current Open-Borders efforts by Congress and the President will be a test of this apathy. If there is a successful push back against “ Immigration reform,” then there may be life in the American white working class yet.