Democrats and Republicans have spent years pitching themselves as champions of the working class, promising economic and social transformations that would improve their lives and put them at the center of national politics. Yet despite good intentions (at times) and non-stop rhetoric about working-class Americans, both parties’ economic agendas have left these voters increasingly dissatisfied.
Political messages and empty promises are no substitute for tangible improvement in wages, benefits, overall living standards, and financial security for working-class Americans.
For context, it’s important to recognize that the “working class” is not a unified group of people. The historical definition does not map neatly onto contemporary America given its origins in industrial-era sociology that distinguished people who earned their pay through labor from those in the middle and upper classes who made money through small trades, business ownership, or investments. In the twentieth century, blue-collar work and jobs with hourly wages typically indicated working-class status, as did household incomes that hovered right around or below the national median.
In contemporary political analysis, education is often used as a proxy for working-class standing, with working-class voters defined as those with a high school diploma, some college, or other technical certification and non-working-class voters defined as those with a four-year or postgraduate degree. Cultural values and attitudes also help to define working-class communities in terms of ties to family, religious and ethnic traditions, major regional employers, labor unions, and music or other popular culture.
Clearly, some combination of type of employment, overall income, educational attainment, and social values helps to differentiate a working-class person from a non-working-class one.
Interestingly, most Americans today do not readily identify as working class. A recent Politico survey found that less than one fifth of U.S. adults label themselves “working class” compared to nearly half who call themselves either “middle class” or “lower middle class.” The percentages were roughly proportional among both Trump voters and Harris voters from 2024.
More telling, only one quarter of self-identified working-class Americans—and around three in ten Trump and Harris voters—believe politicians “genuinely want to help the working class” compared to nearly six in ten who feel they just want “to get votes.”
The crux of the political problem for working-class Americans is clear: no one buys what either party is selling, and few see any substantial progress after decades of unkept promises.
It’s difficult to blame working-class Americans for their cynicism about politics. Look at recent results.
President Joe Biden spent a great deal of time talking about his own working- and middle-class upbringing in Scranton, PA, and admirably tried to orient his administration toward “pro-worker” industrial policy, support for unions, investments in American businesses and good-paying construction jobs, and basic governmental redistribution on health care and education.
But much of this was for naught in political terms. Whether intentional or not, Biden clearly failed to address working-class voters’ core concerns about inflation and the soaring cost of groceries, consumer goods, housing, and energy—along with his deeply unpopular handling of immigration and the southern border. Biden’s administration could certainly point to economic achievements, especially coming out of the pandemic-induced recession, but those achievements did not translate into widespread belief among working-class voters that their lives were improving. Biden’s successor was denied a second term for Democrats, and Biden left office with poor job approval ratings from working-class and other Americans, especially on economic issues.
Similarly, President Donald Trump, despite his personal wealth, has long viewed himself as a champion of working-class economic opportunity and the embodiment of working-class cultural values and discontentment. He has performed very well with large numbers of these voters, particularly those without college degrees. Trump promised to disrupt the status quo and did so in several areas. But, like Biden, he is now suffering serious reputational decline among working-class voters, both in and out of his partisan base, for his blasé dismissal of their economic worries about costs.
Trump’s policies—including tariffs and trade wars, tax cuts that disproportionately benefit high earners, and some reductions in health-care spending—haven’t addressed basic cost-of-living concerns among the working class. The stock market may be booming, but working-class life remains tense and economically tight as the costs of food, gas, housing, and health care continue to constrain financially stretched workers. Consequently, Trump and Republicans now face a potential reckoning in the upcoming midterms.
These disillusioned working-class voters are fed up and increasingly up for grabs.
What do working-class voters want? Even with the diversity of working-class people in America, a clear set of policy goals crosses all segments: a desire for more jobs, stronger economic growth, rising real incomes, decent health care and retirement benefits, attainable housing in a safe neighborhood, quality schools, cheap gas, affordable basics, fair rules for all workers, and lower taxes.
These are not the easiest things to deliver, even for well-intentioned and competent political leaders operating in fairly decent macroeconomic environments.
Working-class voters might be willing to wait for long-term policies to take root. However, this requires both parties to be honest about the scale of the challenge, acknowledge the limits of public policy, and sincerely work together to improve life for working families.
But politicians and parties don’t act this way, so patience among the working class is wearing thin.
Extravagant promises and posturing about helping the working class—whether of a Democratic or Republican variety—will not make up for the lack of concrete improvements in working-class life. It will only make working-class voters more cynical about politics, less trusting of both political parties, and more willing to turn elsewhere for answers.
In one sentence you succinctly listed most things that would be desirable for the working class, I'll quote a portion of the sentence.
"more jobs, stronger economic growth, rising real incomes, decent health care and retirement benefits, attainable housing in a safe neighborhood, quality schools, cheap gas, affordable basics, fair rules for all workers, and lower taxes."
I guess an increase in wages by half would do it for much on your list. A scarcity of workers forcing employers to give good benefits would also help, of course then you get inflation as the goods and services supplied by workers also rises. But by how much. When I do the math labor costs of a big mac aren't a very big proportion, nor of picking vegetables, or of building a house etc. Costs would rise, but would be outpaced by wages.
How do you accomplish a scarcity of workers or a half again increase in wages, we are not a Communist country after all. Numbers are deceiving. Employers already say they can never find workers, unemployment rates are very low, yet 30% of the adult population doesn't work. That's not counting stay at home moms or early retirement.
Around 2 million workers have been deported, I've yet to hear of much increase in wages or benefits, nothing like early covid when wages skyrocketed and people moved to different employers seeking better conditions. Supply and demand works for the labor market. For too long we have only tried to increase supply, either via our borders or by offshoring to low cost countries.
Would it be possible to not give H2A and H2B visas? We have already seen that tariffs didn't really cause any measurable cost to consumers as most increases were absorbed by the manufacturer looking to preserve market share in the US economy. Would we be willing to pay high enough wages with provided living conditions to attract Americans to work ag? We do currently for oil rigs offshore and in the arctic, ag is much easier and safer work.
The working class voter is gettable, the question is will corporate and the 20% be willing to pay the price.
There is an interesting possibility or two here. We might see a successful new party similar to, say, the German AfD. If both parties continue to move outwards, space for a center party might arise. We might start to see incumbents thrown out of office much more rapidly, as was once the case. We are seeing more primary challenges that succeed. Term and age limits on Federal office make some sense, though the term limits usually proposed are a bit short.