"Aye, aye! and I'll chase him round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition's flames before I give him up. And this is what ye have shipped for, men! to chase that white whale on both sides of land, and over all sides of earth, till he spouts black blood and rolls fin out." — Captain Ahab exhorting Democrats who are looking for a white working-class voter.
Graham Platner seemed a godsend for the Democrats. He screamed masculinity. He dripped testosterone. The chicks dug him. The metrosexual Democrats looked at him with envy.
At last, many Democrats were saying, we've found our white working-class hero to lead us back to the promised land—to the good old days when a Democratic candidate could expect to get 65-70% of white blue-collar men.
It was not to be. Nazi tattoos, assaulting women, and abusive behavior proved that it didn't matter much what color his collar was or how far left his positions were. Graham Platner was an unlovely human being and a loser.
The Democratic mistake in the Graham Platner race was largely driven by grassroots and progressive voters bypassing the party establishment to embrace an insurgent outsider. Despite multiple public red flags, top Democrats largely endorsed and funded Platner before he collapsed and withdrew over credible sexual assault allegations.
The Graham catastrophe notwithstanding, the same problem that Democrats believed Platner could solve is still haunting the campaigns of Democrats across the country: the puzzle that is the working-class mind.
When you live in a different country than most of your fellow citizens, it becomes extremely difficult to understand the minds of people you want to vote for you. Working-class white men don't act or think like people in the circles you run in. They don't talk about the latest bestseller or a freaky YouTube video featuring that wonderful trans influencer talking about the latest in fashion.
They don't ask if their kids are "comfortable in their bodies," or if their new black neighbor needs space so they aren't triggered by all the white people. People who aren't concerned with that crap are a mystery to most Democrats.
On top of not understanding the mindset of these target voters, Democrats are truly delusional about them as well.
Victor Davis Hanson in American Greatness:
Apparently, during the Biden-era influx of 10 million illegal aliens, Democrats really believed their own slogans about an “Emerging Democratic Majority” and how “Demography is destiny.” They therefore confidently abandoned most efforts to recruit white working-class voters.
In 2017, the then-neocon—and now leftist Mamdani supporter—Bill Kristol (who has advocated abolishing ICE altogether) spoke of the need to open the borders to replace the “lazy” American worker: “Look, to be totally honest, if things are so bad as you say with the white working class, don’t you want to get new Americans in?”
Kristol then characterized this apparently dispensable group as “decadent, lazy, spoiled.”
And yet, until the novelty of Barack Obama’s candidacy and the demographic overconfidence it inspired, Democrats regularly lamented that, aside from the moderate Bill Clinton interlude, their steady leftward turn was becoming both irreversible and electorally costly.
Indeed, Obama aside, conventional Democratic wisdom apparently held that a presidential nominee, regardless of his politics, should have a Southern accent to project authenticity and appeal to working-class whites. Thus, Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Al Gore all won the popular vote.
"These trends have only accelerated with the top-down takeover of the Democratic Party by hardcore leftists, socialists, and even the occasional communist," Hanson notes.
"Their agendas are boutique and have little appeal outside blue-city and blue-state echo chambers."
This makes their delusional attachment to the culturally poisonous issues that have cost them in every election since 2016 all the more insane. It's not like they don't know why the white working-class men they search for are repelled by advocating for boys in girls' bathrooms or nonsense about being accused of "white privilege" when their own economic position is so precarious.
Perhaps most off-putting for white men is the extreme cultural condescension by the left. Progressive media commentators frame blue-collar values as outdated, which has fueled a sense among working-class voters that national Democrats look down on them. Positions that critique historical American figures, national traditions, or institutional norms often clash with the strong patriotic and traditional sensibilities common in working-class communities.
The sneering condescension of the left during the recent America250 celebrations will not be forgotten by many working-class men in November.
"The mainstream Democratic agenda alienates the white working class because it is tailored to affluent urban voters, with its emphasis on climate change, trans issues, illegal immigration, radically expansive abortion rights, anti-military sentiment, DEI, and defunding law enforcement," writes Hanson. "The new socialists are most comfortable among wealthy leftist leaders who wish to take over the Democratic Party, talk down to the white working class, and pontificate about how awful the United States is."
Democrats will never recapture the 65–70% of white working-class voters that gave them power for much of the 20th century as long as they continue to be deluded into thinking that either a majority of Americans care about their fringe issues or that they can browbeat and shame a majority into supporting them despite those issues.
Editor’s Note: Every single day, here at PJ Media, we will stand up and FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT against the radical Left and deliver the conservative reporting our readers deserve.
Help us continue to tell the truth about the Trump administration and its successes. Join PJ Media VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member