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cover of episode Can the Left Win Back Working-Class Voters?

Can the Left Win Back Working-Class Voters?

2025/6/18
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Joan Williams: 文化和阶级怨恨，而不仅仅是经济焦虑，正在推动工人阶级选民走向极右。自由派经常在无意中通过语气、语言和对优点和道德的假设来疏远工人阶级选民。为了弥合这一差距，我们需要理解蓝领价值观反映了蓝领生活，特权价值观反映了非常不同的生活。我们需要培养阶级意识，理解我们自己和他们的观点。我们需要挖掘深层次的中产阶级价值观，例如爱国主义。与其指责，不如强调共同的价值观和目标，例如确保努力工作能够带来稳定的中产阶级生活。我们需要对这种将一切都变成文化战争的一招鲜做出回应。通过将经济问题和确保努力工作能够获得稳定的中产阶级生活的承诺放在中心位置，我们可以与这些反精英建立联系。民主党应该高度关注并与这些反精英建立联系。我们必须建立一个广泛的联盟，吸引非大学毕业生，这是我们保护你所说的每一个群体的唯一途径。

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This chapter explores the widening class divide in America and its impact on political polarization. It discusses how cultural and class resentment, not just economic anxiety, are driving working-class voters toward the far right. The author argues that progressives often unintentionally alienate voters through tone, language, and assumptions.
  • Cultural and class resentment, not just economic anxiety, is driving working-class voters toward the far right.
  • Progressives often signal superiority without realizing it, alienating voters.
  • The diploma divide is a key factor in the political shift.

Shownotes Transcript

Working-class voters don’t just vote for their policy preferences — they vote for the party that feels like “their people.” Increasingly, that’s not the left. In “Outclassed,” UC Law professor emerita Joan Williams argues that America’s widening “diploma divide” is fueling the far right — and that liberals often play into the dynamic without realizing it. To protect democracy and build a durable, multi-racial coalition, Williams says, the left must bridge this cultural and class divide. We’ll talk to her about what’s driving the rift — and how to start closing it.

Guests:

Joan C. Williams, distinguished professor of law (emerita) and founding director of the Equality Action Center, UC Law San Francisco; author, "Outclassed: How the Left Lost the Working Class" and "White Working Class: Overcoming Class Cluelessness in America

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