What Everyone Needs to Know
Q&A: A common
refrain among many frustrated people on th American and European Left is that white
working-class people “vote against their own interests.” As U.S. citizens gear
up to vote in the 2018 Midterm Elections, we want to know:Do white working-class people vote against their own
interests?A fundamental
misunderstanding about white working-class interests is that these interests
are singular and economic in nature. Many white working-class people balance a
variety of interests at once. The average white working-class American or
Briton likely supports a range of protectionist economic policies and a range
of nativist social policies. Since the 1990s, no mainstream American or British
party has advocated for protectionism in the way the Left once did. This shift
has left greater contrasts in the realm of social policy. Where white
working-class interests are singular, the data suggest that they care far more
about social and cultural affairs than those pertaining to the economy. In
other words, by supporting UKIP, Donald Trump, and Republicans, white
working-class people do vote in their interests—their social interests, not
their economic interests.One of the
primary conclusions of my research is that white working-class voters are
absolutely rational. They seek representatives who care about their
perspectives. They seek platforms that act on these
perspectives. And they respond to parties and organizations that invest in them
with time, resources, and candidates. This is not different from any other
group of voters. The difference is that social and economic forces have
isolated the British and American white working class as a political constituency
to the extent that many feel like an afterthought in the countries they once
defined. They have responded with rebellion.[Page 130-131, The White Working Class: What Everyone Needs
to Know® by Justin Gest]Image credit: “Construction workers” by WikiImages. CC0 via Pixabay .
Artisan Scribbles 