March 4, 2021 ☼ gop ☼ blue-collar ☼ capitalism ☼ demographics
Source: The New York Times - Link
Party leaders want to capitalize on Donald Trump’s appeal to the white working class. But in recent weeks, they’ve offered very little to advance working people’s economic interests.
As the election returns rolled in showing President Donald J. Trump winning strong support from blue-collar voters in November while suffering historic losses in suburbs across the country, Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, a Republican, declared on Twitter: “We are a working class party now. That’s the future.”
And with further results revealing that Mr. Trump had carried 40 percent of union households and made unexpected inroads with Latinos, other Republican leaders, including Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, trumpeted a political realignment. Republicans, they said, were accelerating their transformation into the party of Sam’s Club rather than the country club.
But since then, Republicans have offered very little to advance the economic interests of blue-collar workers. Two major opportunities for party leaders to showcase their priorities have unfolded recently without a nod to working Americans.
The GOP can’t seem to grasp anything beyond “tax cuts for the rich”, “trickle-down”, “laissez-faire”, “job creators”, “rising tides lift all boats”, and “tax cuts pay for themselves”. The blue-collar was won with culture wars, and I’m not sure that’s a durable thing with an aging demographic.