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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
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Tag Archives: working-class voters
Cultural and Political Diversity in the White Working-Class
Influential political analyst Ron Brownstein thinks American politics is all about answering this question: “How long can Paducah tell Seattle what to do?” The question resonates because metro areas vote so differently from small town and rural areas and because … Continue reading
After the Election: Finding Our Dignity and a Way Out of This Mess
It’s almost 50 years old, but the 1972 book The Hidden Injuries of Class by Richard Sennett and Jonathan Cobb accurately identified the problems of class in the U.S. that have fed the divisiveness of Donald Trump. If only we … Continue reading
A Law and Order Platform to Unite Working-Class Voters
Donald Trump has positioned himself as the “law and order” president, because the term provides a positive framing for the racially-tinged rhetoric he uses to divide members of the white working and middle classes from people of color. The Guardian’s … Continue reading
Can the Working Class Trust the Democrats?
Two years ago, we compared the opioid epidemic to the mortgage crisis that nearly cratered the global economy, noting how both were caused by corporate greed. Recent reporting in the Washington Post and other media outlets reveals an important difference … Continue reading
Posted in Contributors, Guest Bloggers, Issues, Working-Class Politics
Tagged 2016 election, 2020 election, NAFTA, working-class voters
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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
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Working-Class Politics and The Foremen Problem
In a recent unpublished paper, Larry Bartels (author of Unequal Democracy) and Kathrine Cramer (author of The Politics of Resentment), reported a finding sure to surprise many who have been blaming “the white working class” for the election of Trump: … Continue reading
Posted in Allison L. Hurst, Contributors, Issues, Working-Class Politics
Tagged 2016 election, class differences, working-class voters
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Iowa’s Next Election: Bridging the Urban-Rural and Class Divide
My home state of Iowa famously gave Barack Obama a convincing victory in the Democratic caucuses in 2008, the first triumph that launched a young U.S. senator from Illinois to become the first African-American president. Obama ultimately won two terms, … Continue reading
Have Ohio Democrats Learned Anything About the Working Class?
In presidential elections, Ohio has long been a swing state. Its voters supported Obama in 2008 and 2012, then swung right in 2016 to support Donald Trump. On the state level, however, Republicans have dominated for the past two decades. … Continue reading
Posted in Contributors, Issues, John Russo, Working-Class Politics
Tagged Ohio Democrats, Sherrod Brown, working-class voters
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Economic Nationalism and the Half-Life of Deindustrialization
In a 60 Minutes interview in September, Steven Bannon touted his form of economic nationalism and suggested that Democrats like Senator Sherrod Brown and U.S Representative Tim Ryan understood his economic vision, even if they didn’t agree with him. It … Continue reading
Have We Been Had? Why Talking About the Working-Class Vote for Trump Hurts Us
Like many of my friends and colleagues who study class and are worried about the increasing economic inequality of this country, I was at first overjoyed that the recent presidential election would force us to reckon with the subject of … Continue reading
Posted in Contributors, Guest Bloggers, Issues, Working-Class Politics
Tagged 2016 election, class and politics, working-class voters
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