How to Appeal to the White Working Class

The spectacularly dreadful debut of Obamacare represents the greatest political opportunity for conservatism and the Republican Party in two generations. Big government stands rebuked. It has overreached, overpromised, and, embarrassingly, failed to deliver. Even if the website's gremlins are banished, and even if Obamacare purrs along like a BMW from now on, voters will be disillusioned.

They will be disappointed because the president and his party promised that the program would provide coverage to the uninsured, expand the services provided at no charge to customers, cover those with pre-existing conditions, oblige insurers to keep adult children on their parents' policies, remove lifetime caps, and offer free preventive care. At the same time, (set ital) no one would pay a penny more (end ital) (In fact, everyone's premiums would decline by $2,500.), and no one would lose access to the plan they were happy with or be obliged to switch doctors. Oh, and not a dime would be added to the deficit.

It's been said that the Democrats are the Santa Claus party. For generations, they've succeeded politically by delivering benefits and sending the bill to future generations. That is how we've accumulated a national debt that is, according to the commission appointed by President Obama, north of $86 trillion. (Republicans have contributed as well.)

If Democrats had structured Obamacare the same way -- benefits now, costs put off into the indefinite future -- they would not be in immediate trouble. But Republicans had succeeded in influencing the political culture enough that Democrats feared they could not pass another new entitlement (even one relying solely on Democratic votes) that did not at least pay lip service to deficit neutrality. That's how they came up with the convoluted tangle of exchanges, subsidies, mandates, taxes, regulations, and Medicaid expansion that is currently nose-diving.

Because Democrats attempted to keep Obamacare deficit-neutral, someone had to pay. Voters might have thought that privilege would go only to the rich. But substantial numbers of middle-income Americans are finding that the new law, rather than delivering a benefit, is taking something away from them. Some are losing money, as their premiums rise; others are losing coverage, as their plans are cancelled.

Voters may accordingly be newly receptive to the Republican message of skepticism about big government. But an opportunity is not a silver platter.

Writing in The American, Henry Olsen scans Andrew Levison's new book "The White Working Class" for clues about how Republicans can appeal to this group. Levison, a liberal, hopes to help Democrats craft their messages, but his research is consistent with that of Sean Trende of RealClearPolitics and others suggesting that white voters without college degrees are more hostile to free enterprise and small government than many Republicans would like to believe.

Members of the white working class, Olsen notes, are "suspicious of the idea that business leaders and financial experts have their interests at heart. ... Well over half believe that business makes too much profit and that Wall Street does more to hurt than to help the economy. Three-quarters believe that a few large companies hold too much power. These voters do see government as a problem, but they also believe that big government is not the only obstacle in their paths."

Working class whites strongly oppose free trade, immigration, and even (by 50-39) attempts by government to encourage "traditional morality." Sean Trende calls them Perot voters. They don't support the idea of big government, but they believe government should do more to help the needy, even if it means increasing deficits. Half agree that the poor's lives are hard because government benefits don't go far enough.

These voters don't identify with the Republican message of entrepreneurship and "You built it." They are not especially ambitious but instead want a secure job and reliable government services. They're offended when slackers, illegal immigrants and other non-deserving groups get government support (and that includes bankers and big business).

This is not to suggest that Republicans simply parrot what voters tell pollsters. There is always room for leadership, persuasion and principle. But Republicans cannot begin to take advantage of the political opening created by the disappointment of Obamacare and craft an effective message of Republican reform until they've shed some outdated assumptions about the electorate.

She is presuming that there will still be enough of a white working class around in a few years to matter.

I have to wonder about that every time I see more twenty-something white trash tattooed doofus Hipsters walking down the street. Especially as they continue to swell their ranks by impregnating welfare moms.

I know we hate amnesty...but in all honesty, whenever I do see someone out there engaged in actual honest, hard labor anymore, generally it’s a Mexican. And I really have a hard time pointing fingers at the black community after observing these growing numbers of young white-trash bozos.

Being demoralized - and feeling that your future is out of your hands and that no matter what you do things are somewhat hopeless has a huge effect on people’s lives. Underachievement is a hallmark of demoralization. For a variety of reasons, including the politicians who used them, many blacks have been demoralized and feel powerless to be successful without government help. Demoralization was clearly a factor in the alcoholism and despair among American Indians and those in the USSR, and I believe that after hearing constantly that they are ‘screwed’ as a generation because of American debt and economic decline, a lot of American youth are somewhat demoralized. I’m not making excuses, but I do believe this is a factor.

Self-hating white man. The rapidly changing demographics of this country fueled by immigration, legal and illegal, and declining birth rates have had a major impact, electorally and economically, By 2019 half of the children 18 and under will be minorities. And by 2042 half of the country will be minorities as classified by the USG.

In 1970 one in 21 was foreign born in this country. Today it is one in 8, the highest it has been in 90 years, and within a decade it will be one in 7, the highest in our history. We have almost 45 million foreign born, which is bigger than all but 32 foreign countries. Immigrants and minorities vote Democrat by more than two to one margins.

The influx of foreign workers, legal and illegal, has depressed wages and increased unemployment among the native born. FYI: Native born Americans still do most of the hard, honest labor. Mexican immigrants have over 50% out of wedlock birthrates and use welfare disproportionately to the native born population.

Democrats profit from big government. Government is run by politicians. Democrats must do everything possible to win elections so they can make money. They don’t even try to run great candidates. They just work really hard to get poor Republican candidates nominated. In effect, the Democrats are selecting both candidates for many elections. This is the first thing to be stopped.

Newflash to the idiot Republicans

You can start by being moral people, keeping your anatomy in your pants

You can follow that up by being honest

You can continue by no compromise of your integrity or your principles even under threat of blackmail from the evil Democrats

it’s not that hard

OK, I neglected to say ‘and those people who lived under Soviet rule’, or something like that. Actually, I hate it when I make bad grammatical mistakes, so thanks for pointing it out. On the other hand, if I were in the current administration I’d be tempted to not admit a mistake, and instead insist that there were a lot of American Indians living in the former USSR, because they wanted to get away from the Tea Party.

I work in a very heavy manufacturing business. Welding, steel, cranes and trains are involved.

95%+ employed here are White Male Rednecks.

Tatoos are common, as are pickup trucks.

Many hunt.

Natural gas fracking is also big in this area.

95%+ employed there are White Male Rednecks.

While I see more than I want of the type that you're talking about I see many more of the ones that I'm talking about.

Might be where you live.

I’m no expert, but I live in California, where supposedly everything happens first. I will say that almost everyone I encounter has a foreign accent now. In every business I go to, the workers are all foreigners. And most of the beggars I see on the streets are white people with American accents. Jobs, opportunities, and government help are being lavished on immigrants. The white middle and working class? They can go to hell, as far as our leaders are concerned.

beggars I see on the streets are white people with American accents

Not sure about Cali, but here in Indiana the folks you describe are almost exclusively entrepreneurs, typically making well above min wage as panhandlers, and paying no taxes.

“growing numbers of young white-trash bozos.”
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Actually you may never have seen real white trash. It is an insult to real white trash to call those bozos white trash. I am very familiar with traditional white trash types, the ditches on our little farm used to be cleared out once a year by chain gang laborers who fit the definition of real white trash. They were a much finer class of people than the bozos you refer to, none of those chain gang laborers in the fifties would ever have worn tattoos on their necks or faces and if they had one on an arm it was likely something like “MOM” or a simple anchor or something equally unspectacular. Most of them had never stolen anything in their lives which makes them vastly superior to almost anyone in our current government. Most worked very hard when they were not on the gang. How did they wind up on the chain gang? Mostly from things like fighting in public, public drunkenness etc. Beating the crap out of someone, that sort of thing. If you have ever watched “Cool Hand Luke” you may have an inkling of the type I refer to. I object strenously to your referring to white IDIOTS by the name white trash, they simply do not measure up to that name.

I’m not surprised that Charen would just gloss over immigration, and not mention racial preferences at all.

The GOP should not just be fighting against amnesty and insane, massive increases in legal immigration that Schumer-Rubio style ‘comprehensive’ immigration reform would unleash. They should be fighting to end existing mass immigration. They should be fighting to abolish the absurd Diversity Lottery, end chain migration, and severely restrict refugee/asylum visas. This would appeal to the white working class.

The GOP should also fight the explicity anti-white policy of racial preferences in college admissions and public hiring/contracting. This would appeal to the white working class.

If the GOP really wanted to get creative they could point out the insane collision between racial preferences and the mass immigration of those eligible for them.

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