Has Liberalism failed the working class? Why do most Liberals I know, not know any working class Americans?
When did the mistrust between Liberals and the working class begin and can the mistrust be overcome?
Surely it must be if the Democratic party is ever to awake from it's stupor and corruption and become, once again, a force for progress in this country
I've recently moved from a Large urban area to a new home in a small town of 20,000 people in a beautiful valley. The beauty could blind one to the hard facts of life here. Beauty does not pay the rent.
For most working people life here is a struggle. Most well paid jobs are gone and most of the jobs available are service jobs which don't pay enough for working people to prosper. In fact for most it is a struggle to survive with any dignity from pay check to paycheck. Many if not most would love to send their children to a good school. Good schools exist in my affluent bubble but working people cannot afford to live here. Rents and house prices are too high. Even Public employees cannot afford to live here so Police officers and Firefighters must also live elsewhere.
What most people want is a good job with good pay, a reasonable amount of job and financial security, good schools for their children and a modicum of respect.
Surely this is a natural constituency for the Democratic party yet these people are alienated and abandoned. They are left to the cold comfort of Republicanism and religion.
If the Liberals and the Democratic party are ever to regain their souls and self respect we/they? must get out of the urban liberal ghettos and organize the working class of America. If that means going to the County Fair or hunting with Bubba thats what needs to be done!
The Liberal message(whatever that is), is not resonating with my hard working neighbors. Liberals will have to work hard to win them back but their issues are our issues. They are the natural backbone of the Democratic party and we must mend the broken fences if progressivism is ever to become a force again in US politics.