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Subscribe to Working-Class Perspectives - Working-Class Perspectives offers weekly commentaries on current issues related to working-class people and communities. Contributors discuss a variety of issues, from what class means to how it intersects with race and gender to how class is shaping American politics. We welcome relevant comments of 500 words or less.
For questions or comments about this blog, e-mail Sherry Linkon. For assistance with news stories about working-class politics and culture, call or e-mail John Russo, 330-207-8085. Categories
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The State of the Working Class
Listen to Working-Class Perspective editor Sherry Linkon's recent interview about Working-Class Studies on KERA's Think with Krys Boyd.Working-Class Studies on Moyers & Company
Why Springsteen Voters Have Fled the Democratic Party
Hillary Clinton Needs to Declare the Trade War Lost
What Trump's Youngstown Problem Says About Campaign 2016
No Passes for Stereotyping -- Of Any Kind
Beyond Working-Class Stereotypes
The Half-Life of Deindustrialization: Donald Trump Is Just a Symptom
How Clinton and Kaine Can Make Youngstown a Call for Unity
Why Trump Is in Youngstown
What We Can Learn from Melania Trump's, Um, Flattery of Michelle Obama
To Really Understand Working-Class Voters, Read These BooksLinks
Blogroll
Category Archives: Jack Metzgar
Racism and the Working Class
When I tell other middle-class professionals who don’t know me well that I’m writing a book about working-class culture, it’s amazing how often they respond approvingly that “white racism” is an important subject. My reaction, depending on the circumstance, ranges … Continue reading
How Polarized Are We?
When I talk with relatives who are not only Trump voters but Trump enthusiasts, I feel pretty damned polarized – especially when I lose my temper and find myself saying some of the things my tribe often hatefully says about … Continue reading
Equality and Electability
In 2015, Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg advised Hillary Clinton to run on a promise to “level the playing field” and “rewrite the rules of the economy.” She didn’t take his advice. Instead, she told voters she would “build on the … Continue reading
Talking Class and Race at the Same Time
Most progressive policies have the potential of unifying people around class interests, but a convention in talking about these things often seems to purposely lean against pointing that out. Cory Booker’s baby bonds, all versions of Medicare for All, and … Continue reading
Jobs and Medicare for All
You can tell that Medicare for All is becoming a real possibility when it gets a rigorous cost-benefit analysis and when its advocates start seriously raising and addressing the inevitable downsides of the policy. There is no greater downside to … Continue reading
Class Prejudice and the Democrats’ Blue Wave?
Two days after the mid-term elections, The Washington Post published an analysis under the headline “These wealthy neighborhoods delivered Democrats the House majority.” That headline is false in several different ways, but it is being repeated among a large group … Continue reading
Posted in Contributors, Issues, Jack Metzgar, Working-Class Politics
Tagged 2018 midterms, suburban Democrats, working-class voters
2 Comments
Middle-Class Influence vs. Working-Class Character
“Jesse” is one of a cohort of 80 students sociologist Jessica Calarco observed from the 3rd through the 5th grades and then revisited in middle school for her new book, Negotiating Opportunities: How the Middle Class Secures Advantages in School. … Continue reading
Posted in Class and Education, Contributors, Issues, Jack Metzgar, Working-Class Culture
Tagged Calarco, class and education, class cultures
2 Comments
Becky and the Grind
Becky and the Grind Becky’s aunt had given her $300 to catch up on her electric bill so the power would not be turned off in her apartment. But when Aunt Millie checked with the electric company, the outstanding bills … Continue reading
Tax Justice and Class Warfare
When Trump Republicans passed the historically unpopular Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, they continued a 3-decades long GOP effort to reshape the tax code in ways that are hard to reverse. Relying on what political scientists call path dependency, Republicans … Continue reading
Social Class and Trump Voters
Politico’s Michael Kruse visited my hometown earlier this month to get a look at “one of the long-forgotten, woebegone spots in the middle of the country that gave Trump his unexpected victory last fall.” Kruse concluded that “Johnstown Never Believed … Continue reading
