The Great Realignment: How Democrats Lost The Working Class And How They Can Win It Back
By Nathan Rhind
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 Abundance with 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.
The great realignment has also taken the form of unions, overall, increasingly moving towards the Republicans and away from the Democratic Party (despite Harris-Walz’s gains on Biden-Harris in this department). Even though union leaders are predominantly Democrats, rank-and-file members have surged towards Donald Trump perhaps due to his embrace of social conservatism. In a move intended to represent all members of his party, Sean O’Brien –– head of the Teamsters –– made the decision to speak at the Republican National Convention in 2024. Sending shockwaves through the liberal establishment, O’Brien made clear that the Teamsters would no longer be taken for granted by a Democratic Party in cahoots with the billionaire donor class.
In order to win back union workers and ordinary Americans, Democrats must signal to the public that they are willing to work across party lines to achieve bipartisan consensus. Some are already doing so. In March, Gavin Newsom started a podcast with the first episode featuring Charlie Kirk. In June, Bernie Sanders joined the Joe Rogan Podcast and, a few months later, the Tim Dillon Show in order to discuss his Fight Oligarchy tour with AOC. And this is a trend not only amongst the progressive old guard. Just weeks ago, Talarico and Mamdani discussed their views on the Joe Rogan Podcast and the Flagrant podcast, respectively. Even though Barron Trump orchestrated his father’s victory in the manosphere in the last election, progressives appearing on manosphere talk shows like Theo Von’s have only improved the Democrats’ standing amongst young, male, working-class voters.
Suffice to say, the day will be won by Democratic candidates with common sense proposals to improve the standard-of-living who are unafraid to work across party lines to deliver bipartisan results. AOC, Mamdani, Platner, and Talarico all seem to fit this bill, in my opinion. But all of this being said, where does this leave the place of the leftist intellectual? How can leftist intellectuals spur the class consciousness necessary to carry Democrats to victory in 2028? Well, just as Klein was the soothsayer of the liberal establishment, so is Vivek Chibber of all ostensible leftists.
In a conversation with Joshua Citarella, Vivek Chibber diagnosed the current ailment of identitarianism plaguing the left and offered an alternative vision forward. Rather than concentrating on identity politics, Chibber insists that we should instead focus on what unites us: namely, our socioeconomic status. Simply put, the urban and rural poor must realize their common obstacles to upward mobility in order to build class consciousness and a diverse working-class coalition. As for leftist intellectuals, rather than smoking pot and discussing Rosa Luxembourg, he encourages us to get active and engage with local labor unions. Only by engaging with the working poor will leftist intellectuals gauge the problems and the necessary solutions needed.
Speaking from personal experience, the time I realized how far removed I was from the lives and concerns of everyday workers was when I spent three months as a commercial salmon fisherman aboard the F/V Viking in Valdez, Alaska (best encapsulated in a short story I wrote for my blog). The captain was a stalwart Evangelist Christian and my fellow crew members were a forty-something Nevadan who’d been in and out of prison and an 18-year-old Russian-American who had just graduated high school. In spite of our differences, personal and political, we were still able to gather around our meager floating table and break bread together. Why can’t our politicians do the same?
The causes of political polarization are myriad but as Democrats have abandoned working class voters in favor of billionaire donors, working class voters have increasingly fled into the welcoming arms of the GOP. In order to win them back, Democrats must adopt an ‘abundance’ rhetoric analogous to Klein’s proposal as well as create relationships with union members and everyday workers a lá Chibber. By going beyond mere reading groups and seminars, leftists will regain the coalition they so desperately need in order to unseat Trump in the White House and install a democratic socialist in his place. Yes, I’m saying that Mamdani can win in 2028, but only if Democrats take the right steps.
As a consequence of this dilemma, I make three proposals. First, emphasize affordability and Democrats’ plans to achieve this ad nauseam. Second, avoid fringe culture war issues. Third, mend ties with unions and working-class voters via grassroots movements. If Democrats follow these guidelines, they just might have a chance against Donald Trump in November 2028.
Mandani, to his credit, embodies an ‘outlaw mentality’ that is endemic to the American psyche. When he pounced on Andrew Cuomo in the recent debate, I couldn’t help but recall Bruce Springsteen’s outlaw ballad “Nebraska” where he sings: “From the town of Lincoln, Nebraska / With a sawed off .410 on my lap / Through the badlands of Wyoming / I killed everything in my path.” What the Democrats need, now more than ever, is a candidate willing to put it all on the line, an outlaw for our own fractured age. Someone willing to defy all conventional wisdom and restore American ingenuity to its rightful place.
Klein’s policy of abundance here bears mentioning as it is a typically American proposal of pursuing progress to the detriment of popular opinion. Indeed, if Democrats are to regain power, they must summon this supernatural power of their forebears in defeating the odds and creating abundance in spite of negative backlash. FDR and LBJ both faced criticism for their audacious proposals. Mamdani and co. will undoubtedly receive similar criticism. Whether or not they will withstand it? Again, only time will tell.
Perhaps the most important voice in all of this is Gayatri Spivak, the postcolonial scholar who said that (echoing Marx) the lumpenproletariat (working class lacking class consciousness) cannot be represented and, thus, must be represented by the bourgeois elite. Her appropriation of Gramsci’s term poses serious questions for the new Democratic vanguard. Are they the new representatives of the working class or mere mouthpieces of the bourgeois elite that purports to speak for the working class? Are they willing to represent the lumpenproletariat in spite of the reactionary socio-cultural beliefs the lumpenproletariat may hold?
FDR. LBJ. Klein. All of these formidable thinkers pose important questions and offer viable solutions to the Democrats’ conundrum. But is the Democrats’ best option to renew the New Deal or Great Society reforms of times past or to embrace the ‘abundance’ ideology of the new Democratic vanguard? I don’t have the answer, but I do have a lingering question: What happens to the Democratic Party when effective leaders (i.e. Bernie Sanders) are systematically pushed out and ostracized?
Democrats must unite. At this very instant, Chuck Schumer is propping up Governor Janet Mills to run against Platner in the senatorial race for Maine. This won’t work. In order to beat incumbents like Susan Collins in Maine, Democrats need a radical new vision. AOC, Mamdani, Platner, and Talarico all offer an answer but the question is: Will the Democratic establishment accept it? Likewise, in Texas, Democrats continue to back Colin Allred even as Talarico gains in the polls. Democrats' refusal to gamble on newcomers spells trouble for a party that has consistently been losing ground with the youth vote over the last election cycle.
Perhaps their best bet can be going all in on a democratic socialist. Despite Mamdani’s pitiful performance in national polls, he nevertheless has the JFK-esque charisma that Democrats have been searching for for decades. Additionally, he perhaps has the unique quality of being able to connect with ordinary people whilst leading the revolutionary vanguard. In the words of Eugene Debs: “While there is a lower class, I am in it; while there is a criminal element, I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.” This outspoken solidarity with the working class and lumpenproletariat is something Democrats need to reclaim.
Again, Debs, FDR, LBJ, and Mamdani, all come from the same lineage. They are part of a Democratic party grounded in social democracy which is indebted to the working class for its inception and continued survival. Sure, they have momentarily forgotten this lineage but they can nevertheless reclaim it. Klein and Chibber point to a path forward where Democratic politics will not be grounded in identity but in class and where the leftist vanguard will be united with the proletariat in common purpose.
Nathan Rhind is a first-year MIA student from the United States concentrating in Human Rights & Global Governance. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history and English literature from Boston College in 2023. He is interested in labor economics and industrial labor relations, and he blogs about these topics and more at nathanrhind.com.
