Jared Abbott makes the case that “Yes, Workers Want Progressive Economics,” but warns in the article’s subtitle “But progressives need to be careful about how they pitch their appeals to workers” at Jacobin. An excerpt: “he basic wager of economic populism is that the far right can only be stopped in the long term by enacting epoch-defining changes to our economic system — changes that give all working people a shot at a stable, middle-class life. If progressives hope to build the durable majoritarian coalitions needed to make that happen, they will have to deliver material improvements to working people’s lives, so ordinary Americans will once again feel that their lives are better than their parents’ were. All of which means thinking big. Very big…But what if workers don’t actually want what progressives are offering? In a recent piece for the Conversation, Nicholas Jacobs argues the Democratic Party has moved so far left of working-class voters on economics that “on every major plank of the progressive economic agenda, Democrats are now substantially to the left of the workers they claim to champion.”…The Center for Working-Class Politics (CWCP) retested Jacobs’s economic claim using a much wider evidence base and distilled the results in two heat maps below…” More here.
From Chauncey DeVega’s “The white working-class myth that made JD Vance. From “Hillbilly Elegy” to “Communion,” Vance’s narrative is about power, not solidarity” at Salon. As DeVega writes, “Vice President JD Vance wants to be Donald Trump’s successor. As part of that quest, he has written the obligatory memoir and has embarked on a media tour…In his new book, “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith,” Vance reflects on the culture wars, a need for moral renewal in America and his conversion to a conservative form of Catholicism. Predictably, he does not critically engage with how he can serve a wicked and ungodly president whose personal behavior and politics violate almost every core tenet of his professed Christian values. As Christian Paz detailed at Vox, “In the course of explaining how he came to serve God, he also shows how easy, if not necessary in modern America, it is for him — and for them — to subordinate that faith to politics.”…“Hillbilly Elegy,” Vance’s first book, which follows his journey from poverty to college, the Marines in Iraq, Yale Law School and success as an entrepreneur and beyond, was a cultural phenomenon. The memoir sold millions of copies, was published in dozens of languages and was adapted into a movie directed by Ron Howard…While “Hillbilly Elegy” was celebrated as a compelling story about the American Dream, the book was widely criticized for its stereotypical depictions of Appalachia, and for minimizing the role that structures and institutions such as the opioid crisis and deindustrialization play in poverty and social inequality…The years since the publication of “Hillbilly Elegy” demonstrated that Vance is, at his heart, an opportunist and a chameleon. Before entering politics, he publicly and privately condemned Trump, describing him as “America’s Hitler” and an “idiot.” More here.
In “Dem candidates form ‘Blue Collar Brigade’ to boost fundraising. Five candidates with blue-collar backgrounds are teaming up to boost their fundraising and their populist messaging ahead of November,” Lisa Kashinsky writes at Politico that “A group of blue-collar Democratic House candidates is teaming up to bring in some green…Five House candidates with ties to organized labor are launching a joint fundraising effort Tuesday to help bankroll their campaigns and amplify a populist, progressive message they believe can win back working-class voters frustrated by high costs, according to details shared first with POLITICO…They’ve dubbed themselves the “Blue Collar Brigade,” borrowing from a Time magazine headline on working-class Democratic candidates. The group includes Bob Brooks, a firefighter union chief running against GOP Rep. Ryan Mackenzie in Pennsylvania, and Randy Villegas, an educator and teachers’ union member who defeated national Democrats’ preferred candidate to take on GOP Rep. David Valadao in California. Both seats are top Democratic targets…Other members include ironworker and former union organizer Brian Poindexter, who’s vying to unseat GOP Rep. Max Miller in Ohio, and union leader and former smokejumper Sam Forstag, who’s running in an open district in western Montana — two blue-collar seats that President Donald Trump won by double digits in 2024. Minnesota state Rep. Kaela Berg, a flight attendant and former leader of her local union who’s locked in a competitive primary for an open Democratic-leaning House seat, rounds out the roster…They’re banding together to try to boost their combined fundraising and stay competitive in what’s on track to be the most expensive midterm cycle yet. These candidates, who come from atypical backgrounds, say they lack the access to deep-pocketed donor networks that their more traditionally connected colleagues and rivals can tap. Some of them are starting off the general election at significant cash disadvantages against their GOP rivals.” More here.
Also at Jacobin, Jake Triola explains how “Local Organizing Can Slow the GOP’s Rural Takeover,” and notes: “As Democrats struggle to rebuild their brandwith working-class and rural voters, new evidence points to a surprisingly effective way to increase trust and connection: rebuilding the nonpartisan community organizations that were once crucial for providing the party a solid anchor in rural and small-town America. Building on this work, and scaling it up dramatically, may make all the difference for the party’s prospects in red America…Over the past two years, the Rural Urban Bridge Initiative (RUBI), a group working to bridge America’s rural-urban divide, has used its Community Works program to unite working-class Americans to address what it describes as a “trust crisis” in the country. The program targets deep mistrust of liberals, Democrats, the “experts” of the managerial class, and government itself — and works to change the messaging that reaches these communities…Community Works acts as a kind of invisible hand in local collaborations on everything from road and river cleanups to “home repair, food distribution, diaper drives, kids’ crafts activities, hurricane relief, smoke alarm installations, IT, tax prep assistance, an Easter egg hunt, and a STEM summer camp.”…The program has led to a paradigm shift in rural communities, as evidenced by Heather Vaughn, of Appalachian Tennessee, who says of Community Works:” More here.
