Class background matters

^{Picture source: Infoshop News}

Was sollte die Linke tun? Eine Umfrage in den USA gibt Antworten. (via Fefe)

Working-class voters prefer progressive candidates who focus primarily on bread-and-butter economic issues, and who frame those issues in universal terms. This is especially true outside deep-blue parts of the country. Candidates who prioritized bread-and-butter issues (jobs, health care, the economy), and presented them in plainspoken, universalist rhetoric, performed significantly better than those who had other priorities or used other language. This general pattern was even more dramatic in rural and small-town areas, where Democrats have struggled in recent years.

„Is nich wahr! Drohende Obdachlosigkeit ist den Leuten wichtiger als Gendersternchen? Abwendung der Altersarmut ist dem Wähler wichtiger als paritätische Listenbesetzung? Na sowas!“

Populist, class-based progressive campaign messaging appeals to working-class voters at least as well as mainstream Democratic messaging. Candidates who named elites as a major cause of America’s problems, invoked anger at the status quo, and celebrated the working class were well received among working-class voters — even when tested against more moderate strains of Democratic rhetoric.

Progressives do not need to surrender questions of social justice to win working-class voters, but certain identity-focused rhetoric is a liability. Potentially Democratic working-class voters did not shy away from progressive candidates or candidates who strongly opposed racism. But candidates who framed that opposition in highly specialized, identity-focused language fared significantly worse than candidates who embraced either populist or mainstream language.

„Ach. Ach watt. Leute, die die Miete kaum zusammengekratzt kriegen, haben keinen Bock, sich auch noch wegen „institutionalisiertem Rassismus“ anpöbeln zu lassen? Wer hätte das gedacht!“

Working-class voters prefer working-class candidates. A candidate’s race or gender is not a liability among potentially Democratic working-class voters. However, a candidate’s upper-class background is a major liability. Class background matters.