The Great Realignment
A more extensive version of this article can be found at the Hertie School Work, Economy, Social Policy Club’s blog here.
Much ink has been spilled on the question of how Democrats lost the working class. From FDR’s landmark “New Deal” reforms in the 1930s through LBJ’s “Great Society” proposals in the 1960s, Democrats retained firm control of the working-class vote and commanded a broad, diverse coalition. Then, things began to change. White, working-class, non-college-educated whites began drifting away from the Democratic Party in the 1970s, culminating in the 2016 election of Donald Trump. Moreover, Trump made inroads with black and Hispanic voters in his reelection campaign of 2024. In this piece, I want to focus not so much on how or why this great class realignment happened but rather on what Democrats can do about it. Politics is for power, and it is imperative that Democrats reclaim popularity with the working class.
There are a number of promising candidates jockeying to assume the mantle of the Democratic Party. Their candidacies, however, have yielded as many answers as they have questions to the Democrat’s governing dilemma. Most notably, Zohran Mamdani has performed exceptionally well in the NYC mayoral race and looks set to be the next leader of America’s largest city. But can a democratic socialist command broad-scale support in a national election? Meanwhile, in Maine, Graham Platner has been steadily rising in the polls. But can he overcome his recent controversies? Finally, in Texas, James Talarico looks poised to be the Next Big Thing after an endorsement from Obama. But is he too young, too untested, to be the next Democratic hopeful in the national arena?
Now, if Bernie Sanders hadn’t been pushed out by the DNC in 2016 in favor of the “safer” Hilary Clinton candidacy, we might be looking at a very different picture. But, alas, here we are; and Bernie is only getting older. What Mamdani, Platner, Talarico, and the first rising star of this new Democratic vanguard –– Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez –– all share is youth, something sorely lacking on both sides of the aisle. But what they seem to be missing is the broad-scale support needed to win in a national election. How can they get there? Well, Ezra Klein has some ideas.
Klein, a New York Times opinion columnist, outlines a vision for shared prosperity in his new book Abundancewith The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson. Instead of focussing incessantly on redistribution and risk mitigation, Klein argues that Democrats should harness the power of the market economy to create a more prosperous and equitable future for all Americans. Hearkening back to FDR and LBJ’s visions, he has proposed broad “institutional renewal.” In a conversation with his colleague Ross Douthat, he diagnosed the problem as such: “I think there has been an evaporation of a bright horizon in liberal thought, in a lot of left thinking.” Klein, however, is not despairing, as evidenced by his recent conversation on how Democrats can win back the working class. As for whether AOC, Mamdani, Platner, or Talarico will be the long-awaited savior of the Democrat Party, only time will tell.
