Workers Are Leaving the Trump Coalition
New survey data show that many of Donald Trump’s 2024 working-class voters are already wavering. But most aren’t turning to Democrats — they’re dropping out of politics altogether.
5 Article(s) by: Joan C. Williams
Joan C. Williams is the author of Outclassed: How the Left Lost the Working Class and How to Win them Back and has published on class dynamics in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, the New Republic, and more. She is Distinguished Professor of Law and Hastings Foundation Chair (emerita) at University of California College of the Law San Francisco.
For Struggling Workers, Appeals to Democracy Aren’t Enough
After decades of rising inequality and stagnant wages for workers, a large majority of people in the US now reject belief in the American dream. These voters won’t be won over by calls to defend a democracy they feel has let them down.
To Stop Losing the Culture Wars, Learn From Gay Marriage
To win on social issues, the Left has to develop the cultural competence to connect progressive goals with working-class priorities. The gay marriage fight offers a formula for appealing to ordinary Americans’ values without giving up on social progress.
The Left Has to Speak to Average Americans’ Values
Joan C. Williams argues that progressives and leftists aren’t doomed to keep losing working-class voters — if they can stop dismissing the cultural principles that grant average Americans’ lives dignity.
On Democrats and Class, the Writing Was on the Wall
Two writers, Thomas Frank and Joan Williams, provided sharp insight into the Democrats’ hemorrhaging of working-class voters eight years ago. The Democratic Party ignored their perspectives. We asked them to explain how we ended up here — again.