The investment of class in American politics—the Republicans’ struggles with college graduates and the Democrats’ struggles with the working class—is a major theme of this newsletter. To help make sense of it, I asked four Times Opinion writers to join me in an exchange this morning. They’re Michelle Cottle, Carlos Lozada, Lydia Polgreen and Ross Douthat, and they’re also the hosts of a new podcast, “Matter of Opinion.”
David: Democrats are nearly out of state office in nearly 20 states, largely because of their weakness with working-class voters. And in the past five years, the party has lost ground with working-class voters of color. How can Democrats do better?
Michelle: There are specific issues where some Democrats stumbled too far to the left, highlighting crime. But I don’t think the main problem is the party’s policies so much as its general atmosphere. Democrats need to relearn how to talk to working class voters, to sound less condescending and dismissive. Too many Democrats radiate an aura of, If only voters understood what’s good for them, they’d support us.
Charles: Dispensing political strategy is not my comfort zone, so all I’ll say is that I find it a little short-sighted when politicians talk to Latino voters as if all they care about is immigration and the border, or when they target black voters as if all they care about is police reform or racial discrimination. Don’t try to attract large and varied voting groups with limited appeals. It’s complacent, it’s obvious, and it’s dismissive.
Lydia: As Michelle hinted, the Democrats have become the party of unofficial technocracy, which makes so much of what they propose sound, well, ridiculous. A classic for me was Kamala Harris’s student loan forgiveness plan from the 2020 race: she had to be a Pell Grant recipient, start a business in an underserved community, and maintain that business for three years. This is not “Make America Great Again.” They should talk about big, bold and simple ways to improve people’s lives.
Michelle: “Official Technocracy” is my new favorite term, Lydia! I am officially and unofficially appropriating.
Charles: The irony of the Democrats’ officious technocracy is that, in some cases, it misrepresented how science works. Admonishing people to “follow the science” on Covid can be counterproductive when recommendations should change as new data comes in. Science is a method of inquiry, not a set of commercial solutions.
Ross: Talking about the material interests of workers in language that doesn’t sound like it was taken from a glossary of progressive activist terminology is the right course for Democrats. Right now, though, I think they have a lot to gain by treating the breakdown of public order in the Covidian era and George Floyd as their main policy problem: dealing with homicide rates, drug abuse, discipline school and border security as key issues where they need. to separate themselves from their own activist class, which has a tendency to act as if living in disorder is an essential part of leftist tolerance.
Remember Kamala Harris, the DA once despised by the left? Democrats could use a leader like that.
Madness and chaos
david: What about the flip side of class reversal? Republicans used to win over white-collar professionals. Not anymore.
Ross: The GOP has multiplied the reasons for college grads to turn against them: Trumpist-style insanity and mayhem cost them one group; the fact that they can now legislate against abortion costs them another.
I think you can see in Brian Kemp’s success in Georgia a model of how they can advance pro-life legislation without suffering dramatic losses. But Kemp’s model requires rigorous reasonableness, studied attention to suburbanites, a moderate and competent effect, none of which are likely to deliver a Trump 2024 candidacy, and the effort to defeat Donald Trump may push Ron DeSantis from of Kempi’s sweet spot. well
Lydia: I think it’s brave to take a principled stand on a defining moral issue like abortion, electoral consequences be damned! Just ask the Democrats what it cost them to embrace civil rights. Perhaps there is something the GOP can learn from Bill Clinton, who was able to triangulate his way to the Oval Office by undercutting criticism of liberal excess.
Michelle: Goes beyond crazy Trumpian. Republicans, for some time now, have been spinning their voters by painting every issue as an existential crisis so that compromise, triangulation, and moderation are anathema. College-graduating-moderate-swing-voting-suburban types find it disturbing.
Carlos: Perhaps the thing to remember is that “rigorous reasonableness,” as Ross calls for, is relative, and the GOP could benefit from the mild fanaticism of low expectations. It might not take long for college graduates repulsed by Trumpism, but still wary of the activist left, to consider a Republican who combines populist political impulses with a more sober style of government. In his book, DeSantis boasts that his administration in Florida was “substantially consequential.”
Michelle: I like your optimism, Carlos. But I’d venture that DeSantis’ nerdier approach is one of the key reasons the MAGA king is stomping his booty in the polls. It’s not juicy enough and sometimes too right/argony.
Listen to the latest episode of ‘Matter of Opinion’: about America’s place in the world and the importance of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US this week.
THE LATEST NEWS
Politics
Modi’s US visit
President Biden is welcoming India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi today, hoping to woo the country at a time of conflict with Russia and rising tensions with China.
By staying neutral in the Ukraine war, India has benefited: it has become a major buyer of Russian crude oil, which it refines and exports.
severe weather
Other great stories
opinions
As Modi visits the US, President Biden should promote shared democratic values with an increasingly autocratic ally. The Times editorial board write
The Ethicist: “My wife lives in a nursing home. Can I take a lover?”
Lives lived: Haim Roet survived the Holocaust by hiding in a Dutch village. At a protest in 1989, he read the names of people killed by the Nazis, starting a practice that has become part of memorial ceremonies around the world. He died at the age of 90.
ATHLETIC SPORTS NEWS
NBA blockbuster: Kristaps Porzingis is headed to Boston and Marcus Smart is headed to Memphis exchange of three teams.
prodigy: Meet Ness Mugrabi, the The youngest agent in the NFL.
Scrutiny: The leaders of the PGA Tour, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia and the LIV Tour were invited to testify before a congressional committee.
ARTS AND IDEAS
Role playing games: The Final Fantasy video game series has been around for over three decades. Recently, while its creators were working on the next entry, Final Fantasy XVI, they faced what The Times’ Brian X. Chen calls the “Star Wars” problem: Can a long-running franchise reinvent itself to win -se new audiences without losing long-time fans who yearn for nostalgia?
Final Fantasy XVI is out today and Corey Plante writes for Kotaku which successfully threads the needle: “It may be the best the series has been in over 20 years.”
