Twilight of the Blue-Collar Democrat

[Roger Duke]

I'm a White man, but I don't base my political beliefs on culture war bullshit or because a dumb**** lefty was mean to me online.

It is sweet of you to care about a party that has so much contempt for you.

 

[Nomad4Ever]

It is sweet of you to care about a party that has so much contempt for you.

I don't give a shit about the Democrats. Their a political organizing body, nothing more.

I just don't change my political beliefs because of who was the meanest to me most recently.

 

[Roger Duke]

“Blue collar” individuals simply buy much more into the white victimhood narrative the GOP puts out than they do the actual facts. Hardly surprising.

But the actual facts prove that straight white man have become the victims in this progressive society. The defense is that even though they are victims, it is not as bad as what straight white men did to others in the past. Stupidest defense ever....but it works for the twisted woke progressive sheep.

 

[Tigerace117]

But the actual facts prove that straight white man have become the victims in this progressive society. The defense is that even though they are victims, it is not as bad as what straight white men did to others in the past. Stupidest defense ever....but it works for the twisted woke progressive sheep.

Except that’s laughably untrue. Pretending straight white men are “victims” because it isn’t acceptable to celebrate the Confederacy or use racial slurs is pathetic. Almost as pathetic, in fact, as the outrage over actual history, rather than the whitewashed garbage pumped out for Cold War audiences, being taught.

 

[Nomad4Ever]

But the actual facts prove that straight white man have become the victims in this progressive society. The defense is that even though they are victims, it is not as bad as what straight white men did to others in the past. Stupidest defense ever....but it works for the twisted woke progressive sheep.

There are plenty of ways that straight white men seem to be specifically struggling. The thing is, it is the left that seems to care about finding solutions to all those problems.

Bias in against men winning custody of kids? A product of the patriarchal assumption that women and naturally better parental figures. Feminists are the ones fighting to fix this.

Poor mental health leading to a disproportionately high suicide rate? That's caused by the assumption that men always have to live up to masculine standards of dignity, strength, and composure. These social pressures that hurt men are called...toxic masculinity. A feminist concept on how aspects of the patriarchy can harm men.

We all hear about how fatherless households lead to bad outcomes for kids. Men disproportionately commit crimes and therefore get imprisoned more. The left are the ones pushing for restorative instead of retributive justice and to get non-violent offenders out of prison. The left are also the ones pushing for paternity leave.

I could keep going but I think I've made my point.

 

[CaughtInThe]

Other than grievance peddling and lip service... what did Trump do for Blue Collar Americans?

He made them feel superior for a moment.

 

[Schism]

I left the Donkey Party years ago. My entire family was made up of democrats, blue collar workers, factory-plant-shift workers. I was union for 15 years, my dad was union 33 years and local union president for 20. American workers built the Democratic Party with union dues, election volunteers, rallies, and of course political donations.

Then democrats learned there's more money and personal riches if they support the corporate class.

That's when they abandoned us. My message for the Dem Party? Kiss my ass.

 

[Nomad4Ever]

I left the Donkey Party years ago. My entire family was made up of democrats, blue collar workers, factory-plant-shift workers. I was union for 15 years, my dad was union 33 years and local union president for 20. American workers built the Democratic Party with union dues, election volunteers, rallies, and of course political donations.

Then democrats learned there's more money and personal riches if they support the corporate class.

That's when they abandoned us. My message for the Dem Party? Kiss my ass.

I'm assuming you still support unions?

 

[Credence]

Support your right to organize.
Support paying you more than $7.25 and hour.
Access to health insurance if the employer doesn't provide it.

How does it make sense for a blue collar worker to vote Republican?

Hope someone explains that to me. I do know a lot of blue collar workers who supported Trump but never understood why and other blue collar workers who don't support Trump don't understand it either. He is definitely not for unions either and would use illegal immigrants on his projects when he could get away with it.

 

[ElChupacabra]

An example of keeping America all working? Then it is a tide which raises all boats?
Sure sounds like a sensible and common sense policy arc.

I don't think people are buying that anymore, and simply because the increased profits corporations boast about don't float all boats; specifically the people who help those companies make those profits. There's a fair degree of cynicism toward the idea that if a company prospers its employees do as well, and rightfully so. What's interesting about the current employment climate is employees have a bit more leverage, and that's what's driving increases in wages versus just the success of any particular company.

 

[eohrnberger]

I don't think people are buying that anymore, and simply because the increased profits corporations boast about don't float all boats; specifically the people who help those companies make those profits. There's a fair degree of cynicism toward the idea that if a company prospers its employees do as well, and rightfully so. What's interesting about the current employment climate is employees have a bit more leverage, and that's what's driving increases in wages versus just the success of any particular company.

Well, you can certainly hold that position, but it would be at the discounting of the real wage growth which occurred prior to the onset of the pandemic.
Back in 2019:

Wages Rising: The US Economy Is Now Working Best for Lower-wage Workers

Though Trump's economic policies have been attacked for favoring the rich and corporations, they're hardly the only ones doing better over the past two years.

www.aei.org

The gains with the additional leverage that you speak of would appear to be only consumed by the inflation rate with no real actual purchasing power gains.

 

[Nomad4Ever]

There's a fair degree of cynicism toward the idea that if a company prospers its employees do as well, and rightfully so.

This is especially true when it comes to automation and/or offshoring.

 

[Roadvirus]

When the economy goes south, voters tend to punish the party in power.

Or when someone says that parents have zero rights in school matters.

 

[Blue Dog]

Or when someone says that parents have zero rights in school matters.

Don’t disagree. That was sheer stupidity on the part of McAuliffe.

 

[Roger Duke]

Except that’s laughably untrue. Pretending straight white men are “victims” because it isn’t acceptable to celebrate the Confederacy or use racial slurs is pathetic.

You have no idea why Trump beat Hillary do you?

 

[mrjurrs]

wage gains and jobs. Trump's wage gains were skewed to middle/ lower incomes - unlike the Obama recovery.

But his is political as well as factual. New Jersey almost went Republican governor -Virginia did at all statewide elected offices
Blue collar look at the Progressive and their Woke/CRT junk and are appalled at the divisions they foster
as well as their economic incompetence

Really?

 

[mrjurrs]

Don’t disagree. That was sheer stupidity on the part of McAuliffe.

It was poorly worded but was the exact truth. There is a process parents can join to select curriculum for schools, but allowing parents to determine what takes place in the classroom? Homeschool only...

 

[Lisa]

In New Jersey and Pennsylvania, last week’s election marked the end of a crucial party constituency.

Twilight of the Blue-Collar Democrat

Following the Democratic Party’s widespread losses in last week’s election, President Joe Biden declared that passage of the infrastructure bill in the House of Representatives “is a blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America.” Though polling indicates that Americans support that bill—not the...

www.city-journal.org

Overall, last week’s election returns in Pennsylvania and New Jersey clearly established that large segments of blue-collar voters believe the Democratic Party has betrayed their socioeconomic interests, even as progressive identity politics and accusations of “privilege” infuriate the party’s former base voters. The idea of privilege is alien to working-class communities in northeastern Pennsylvania, where older voters, living on fixed incomes, struggle to pay rising bills and property taxes. Now, as the region’s notoriously brutal winter arrives, they face the prospect of devastating oil and gas bills to heat their century-old homes.

Rejection of the Democrats’ progressive platform, with its identity-politics fixations, was particularly evident among blue-collar voters, who once made up the party’s electoral base. Biden spent his political career courting these voters—and promoting his “scrappy” Scranton roots—with Kennedy-era platitudes befitting an Edwin O’Connor novel. But last Tuesday showed that the Democrats’ working-class constituency has finished its years’ long last hurrah.

How does Joe Biden control the price of oil when it is owned by for-profit capitalist companies?

Fact check: Rising gas prices due to high demand and low supply, not Biden's policies

A post online claims the recent increase in gas prices is associated with President Joe Biden. This is false.

www.usatoday.com

The high prices are due to high demand and low supply. This is capitalism. Joe Biden can not do anything about this unless conservatives want him to add regulations and price supports to the oil industry?

 

[Blue Dog]

It was poorly worded but was the exact truth. There is a process parents can join to select curriculum for schools, but allowing parents to determine what takes place in the classroom? Homeschool only...

There’s the rub.

 

[What if...?]

Sometimes I wonder if the so-call blue collar worker will ever wake up to the fact that the right-wing is using them only to make the wealthy more wealthy.

To do that they would have to admit to themselves that they let themselves be fooled. A thing human beings are loathe to do as it causes an existential crisis. A threat to their egos.

I am convinced that this phenomenon alone is responsible for the constant swallowing of lie after lie.

 

[anatta]

How does Joe Biden control the price of oil when it is owned by for-profit capitalist companies?

Fact check: Rising gas prices due to high demand and low supply, not Biden's policies

A post online claims the recent increase in gas prices is associated with President Joe Biden. This is false.

www.usatoday.com

The high prices are due to high demand and low supply. This is capitalism. Joe Biden can not do anything about this unless conservatives want him to add regulations and price supports to the oil industry?

losing blue collar voters is more then oil -but to your post:

Wicker: Biden Undermines U.S. Energy Independence

Gas Prices Surge as Biden Targets U.S. Oil Production

www.wicker.senate.gov

Mr. Biden has systematically dismantled President Trump’s policies that helped the U.S. become energy independent. In his first week, President Biden killed the Keystone XL Pipeline project, which would have brought oil to American refineries and supported up to 11,000 jobs. Later, he cut off expansion of a tremendous source of American oil and natural gas by suspending new drilling leases on federal lands and waters. He also rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement, which will kill energy jobs

Democrats in Congress have plans to escalate this assault on American energy. Their massive tax-and-spending proposal would include “Green New Deal” style tax hikes and other restrictions on traditional energy sources, which would likely result in higher energy costs for American households.

 

[anatta]

The U.S. Census Bureau said real median household income jumped 6.8% from $64,324 in 2018 to $68,703 last year - the highest since the agency began tracking the data in 1967.
It also said the nation’s poverty rate fell last year to 10.5%, a 1.3-percentage-point drop. Another measure of poverty that adjusts for government aid programs for low-income Americans showed a drop to 11.7% last year from 12.8% in 2018.

U.S. median income hit record in 2019, Census data shows

U.S. median household income hit a record high in 2019 and the poverty rate fell, according to a government survey released on Tuesday that offered a snapshot of the economy before millions of American jobs were destroyed by the coronavirus pandemic.

www.reuters.com

In case you missed it, and most of the media did, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday that the median household income in 2019 grew a whopping 6.8%—the largest annual increase on record. While this year’s government-ordered lockdowns will erase these gains in the short term at least, it’s still worth highlighting how lower-income workers and minorities benefited from faster growth and a tighter labor market before the pandemic.

Opinion | The Higher Wages of Growth

Before the pandemic, income growth soared and poverty fell to the lowest rate since 1959.

www.wsj.com

 

[anatta]

It is not unusual for me to vote for both red and blue candidates (for different offices) in a general election.

I vote blue and 3rd party for local elections, but not Congress or POTUS.. sad to say but partisanship is supreme in DC
and the differences in the partys are now stark..I've also given up trying to sway Progs. they are dogmatic and unwilling to bend

So it's a war and you choose sides. not what I want but it is what it is

 

[Lisa]

losing blue collar voters is more then oil -but to your post:

Wicker: Biden Undermines U.S. Energy Independence

Gas Prices Surge as Biden Targets U.S. Oil Production

www.wicker.senate.gov

Mr. Biden has systematically dismantled President Trump’s policies that helped the U.S. become energy independent. In his first week, President Biden killed the Keystone XL Pipeline project, which would have brought oil to American refineries and supported up to 11,000 jobs. Later, he cut off expansion of a tremendous source of American oil and natural gas by suspending new drilling leases on federal lands and waters. He also rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement, which will kill energy jobs

Democrats in Congress have plans to escalate this assault on American energy. Their massive tax-and-spending proposal would include “Green New Deal” style tax hikes and other restrictions on traditional energy sources, which would likely result in higher energy costs for American households.

The Keystone XL had nothing to do with US energy independence. That is Candian oil sands oil that will be refined in Texas and then shipped to China and India. It was never coming here and it is not oil owned by American companies. They want to ship it via that pipeline because it is easier, cheaper, and faster than trying to truck or build a pipeline it to the Pacific coast in Vancouver across the Candian Rockies and ship it to a refinery before it goes across the pacific to the intended consumers.

 

[ttwtt78640]

The Keystone XL had nothing to do with US energy independence. That is Candian oil sands oil that will be refined in Texas and then shipped to China and India. It was never coming here and it is not oil owned by American companies. They want to ship it via that pipeline because it is easier, cheaper, and faster than trying to truck or build a pipeline it to the Pacific coast in Vancouver across the Candian Rockies and ship it to a refinery before it goes across the pacific to the intended consumers.

Additions to the global supply help keep the costs down while creating US jobs.