Posted on 07/29/2026 11:06:46 AM PDT by MinorityRepublican
There's an active debate in Democratic politics between progressives and moderates about how to build a winning coalition.
A new report from a pair of California researchers, shared exclusively with NPR, argues that debate misses the point. The answer isn't centrism, they write, it's respect for where working-class voters are coming from.
"It's about understanding that people need a sense of personal and economic security before they will support the changes progressives are calling for," the authors write.
The report's authors are, to put a label on it, college-educated coastal elites. Joan C. Williams is a law professor from San Francisco who is known for her work in diversity, equity and inclusion. Jared Abbott leads the Center for Working Class Politics and has a Ph.D. from Harvard. Their intended audience is people who share their progressive politics.
Their message is that the Democratic Party would be making a huge mistake if it keeps catering to social justice warriors and fails to understand, respect and appeal to working-class voters. "The path heavily favors the party that wins working-class voters," the report explains.
"I am tired of losing," Williams said in an interview. "I want to build a sustained progressive coalition capable of delivering on progressive goals. And that's not what we have now, and that's not what we've had for decades."
Titled "The Left's Coalition Crisis: Understanding the Massive Divide Between Working Class and College Educated Voters, and How to Bridge It," the report argues that Democrats have lost support from working-class voters of all races because the party's base is out of touch with the priorities and values of those Americans.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
Dear FRiends,
We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. No spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers.
If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today:
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you,
Jim
Tammy has her head up her ying yang.
“It’s about understanding that people need a sense of personal and economic security before they will support the changes progressives are calling for”
Gotta lull them in, you know.
Democrats aren’t interested in democracy anymore, because they can steal elections without a flinch.
CORRECTION:
“OUR” democracy... They constantly invoke that phrase................
They need to stop talking about loving illegal invaders, and mutilating children on the alter of their sexual-perversity ideology.
And they don’t think that it’s their previous and current policies that have put them in that mess?
Of course. God knows what the Bolsheviks told people until they obtained power and were able to just kill those who didn't go along.
“When they framed climate initiatives around creating jobs, addressing rising energy costs, reducing pollution and countering China, they got much more support from working-class voters than asking if they support “major investments in energy efficiency and cleaner power to reduce pollution and address the climate crisis even if this raises the cost of energy a little.””
Climate change initiatives suck the economy dry and kill jobs. So the article says they should fool working class people into believing climate change policies will help them. ha ha
This article pulls back the curtain on how some dem strategists think. Evil nasty stuff.
Because too many people KNOW American was founded on principles of a Constitutional Republic?
Or is it because what I - and undoubtedly many others - hear the left calling for isn’t “democracy” so much as what they seem to be demanding is just dumbass crazy.
Do working-class voters know the difference between a democracy and a republic (the U.S. is a Free Constitutional Republic)?
Nah, they just need voter fraud
And they also need to stop talking about gun confiscation and turning America into a Marxist country.
Actually I disagree. There aren’t as many “working class” voting citizens as there once were. This is a romantic myth that the media likes to embrace. Most Americans today are college educated white collar workers. The blue collar population has decreased over the decades, and even of the sliver that remains, only a small fraction today are actual voting eligible citizens. The rest of the blue collar workers are foreigners unable to vote. So the Dems should safely ignore this stupid advice. This is not 1976 anymore, when they had to worry about a huge fraction of working class voters. That constituency is negligible today.
Actually I disagree. There aren’t as many “working class” voting citizens as there once were. This is a romantic myth that the media likes to embrace. Most Americans today are college educated white collar workers. The blue collar population has decreased over the decades, and even of the sliver that remains, only a small fraction today are actual voting eligible citizens. The rest of the blue collar workers are foreigners unable to vote. So the Dems should safely ignore this stupid advice. This is not 1976 anymore, when they had to worry about a huge fraction of working class voters. That constituency is negligible today.
On my street, the women tend to work/have worked in the medical field.
All but one of the young male homeowners work doing physical labor. One has a college degree and is a global software development manager.
Even NPR is scared.
Are there still “Legalize LA” signs?
If a Democrat tried to talk to my mother in the 1960s about “free” childcare, the Democrat would have been told that she paid the doctors and dentists by check so they couldn’t dodge income taxation.
Yeah, don’t stop believing the treasonous garbage, just don’t mention it. Disgusting.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.