Democrats need to speak to cultural concerns as well as economics

It’s time for Democrats to end the circular firing squad between moderates and progressives. Each side blames the other for Trump’s win in 2024, with each urging the other to adopt its diagnosis of what went wrong and give in to its vision of the path forward. Both sides need to change — and the key is to understand not just the economic but also the cultural dimensions of politics. Economics first. Moderates now acknowledge that neo-liberal policies like free trade during the Clinton and Obama eras opened the door to far-right populism by robbing generations of Americans of the dream — the implicit promise of doing better than their parents.

Assumptions that free markets would raise all boats led Democrats to shift away from support for unions and good blue-collar jobs to a focus on global trade and cheap consumer goods. The subsequent hollowing-out of American industry led to the anger that fuels the far right. I’m not a Donald Trump fan, but I do credit him with smashing the neo-liberal consensus, shifting to an intense (though probably ineffectual) focus on bringing back good American jobs. Hats off to moderate Democrats who now join progressives in centering the way our economy is rigged in their analysis of what’s wrong with America today. This new economic consensus among Democrats represents real progress.

But it’s not enough. Trump won two elections not just because he gave voice to economic frustrations but also because he understands the cultural dimension of contemporary politics. “He gets us,” said a 2024 Trump voter. Like other populist figures, Trump connects culturally with the middle-status voters in routine jobs who delivered far-right victories in both Europe and the US Democrats need to rival Trump’s cultural competence at connecting with the working class, which will require changes from progressives. Immigration, which has been a defining issue of every successful far-right movement offers a perfect example of the political power of class-based cultural preferences.

Working-class voters respond to arguments about protecting America from foreign “invaders” because being American is blue-collar people’s strongest boast; it’s the source of their status, so they like politicians who emphasize it. A 2020 poll found that being American was an important part of the identity of 79% of Americans with (at most) high school degrees, but only 43% of predominantly college-educated progressive activists.

The college-educated, in contrast, prefer to stress their top-of-the-heap membership in a globalised elite. Working-class voters also define their communities geographically, where they have networks based on neighbourhood and kinship. By contrast, the “Brahmin Left” (to use Thomas Piketty’s term) see themselves as part of an international community characterized by “feeling rules” that mandate empathy for immigrants and racial minorities but less often for class-disadvantaged citizens of their own countries.

People’s values reflect their lives, and their lives reflect their privilege — or lack of it. This is a message progressives, with their acuity about racial and gender privilege, should be able to hear. It could help them come to terms with an uncomfortable fact: Non-college voters of every racial group are less liberal than college grads of the same group.

But moderates need to expand their cultural awareness too. When moderates like commentator Ruy Teixeira and the advocacy group Third Way argue that Democrats should throw identity politics under the bus and abandon their strong views on trans rights and climate change, they too are overlooking the cultural dimension of contemporary politics. Just as members of the Brahmin Left need to acknowledge that the logic of their lives differs from the logic of working-class lives, moderates need to acknowledge that progressives won’t just give in on issues like climate change. Those issues are deeply etched into progressives’ identities: The Brahmin Left is truly worried about the end of the world, even as non-elites are more concerned about the end of the month.

What’s the way forward? For guidance, Democrats should recall how they won an important victory: same-sex marriage. At first, leaders of the gay rights movement weren’t that interested in marriage, said Matt Coles, who led the ACLU’s Center for Equality. But then they listened to other LGBTQ+ people and recognized that those who wanted to get married “were not doctors and lawyers; they were ordinary, average people.” Coles reflected: “I looked at their faces and said to myself, ‘I get it now. It’s the prom and the wedding ceremony and everything rolled into one.’ ” Understanding that quintessentially working-class aspiration — to enjoy the social honour and the stability offered by marriage — drove the gay equality movement to success.

There’s a lot of talk about Democrats’ need for better messaging. That’s too superficial. Coles and his gay rights colleagues did change their messaging to one that resonated with the working class — but they also changed priorities. They didn’t abandon their vision of full LGBTQ+ rights, but they did shift tactics to engage a wider range of people. Democrats, that’s the path forward. Moderates and progressives need to be open to changing both messaging and tactics by developing the cultural competence to connect respectfully with non-college voters.