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December 1, 2016 by Kalmanovitz Initiative Leave a Comment

WCP: Engaging the Unreachables

Since the dust from this election settled, many have reflected on the extent of their own participation in the process. This Working-Class Perspective features Jack Metzgar expressing regret for not engaging members of his white working-class family and community about their support for Trump, and explaining what unmotivated him in the first place.

My gripe with much of the punditry is that they so routinely mistake one part of the white working class for the whole, thereby stereotyping a class of people with whom they have little direct contact or knowledge.  I insist on the value of using a union organizer’s approach when discussing the politics of working-class whites.  Following Andrew Levison’s three-part breakdown, based on opinion research, one part are unreachable conservatives who can never be won over, but you must work to “neutralize” them in order to reduce their influence on others.  Calling them boilerplate names rather than engaging their arguments doesn’t accomplish that, however, and it may actually increase their influence.  Another part consists of solid supporters, and you need to enlist their activity and leadership in persuading “the persuadables,” which is the third part that Levison calls “on-the-one-hand, on-the-other-hand thinkers.”

Read the post in its entirety and check out other Working-Class Perspectives posts on our website.

The Working-Class Perspectives blog is brought to you by our Visiting Scholar for the 2015-16 academic year, John Russo, and Georgetown University English professor, Sherry Linkon. It features several regular and guest contributors.

Filed Under: Visiting Scholars Tagged With: Andrew Levinson, Deindustrialization, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Jack Metzgar, John Russo, Presidential Election, Rust Belt, Sherry Linkon, WCP, White Working Class, Working-Class Perspectives

July 20, 2016 by Kalmanovitz Initiative Leave a Comment

WCP: Why Clinton Could Lose the Working Class in Ohio

hillarysherrod

As the Republican National Convention wraps up in Cleveland, John Russo explores why Hillary Clinton could lose working-class voters in Ohio and what she would need to do in order to win. The piece originally appeared in The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) on June 26, 2016.

In Ohio, about 60 percent of voters in 2012 did not have a college degree, one of the most commonly used (though problematic) proxies for identifying working-class voters. Slightly more than half of them voted for Obama, according to CNN exit polls. But while Obama won a majority of working-class votes in Ohio, he lost among whites, winning only 41 percent of their votes. This suggests that a significant portion of Obama’s working-class support in 2012 came from Ohio voters of color, not white voters. Four years later, the combination of white working-class support for Trump, as we saw in the primary, and expected lower African-American turnout — Clinton is unlikely to inspire the enthusiasm that Obama generated — may swing Ohio’s prized electoral votes to the presumptive Republican nominee.

Don’t miss the post in its entirety and check out other Working-Class Perspectives posts on our website.

The renowned Working-Class Perspectives blog is brought to you by our Visiting Scholar for the 2015-16 academic year, John Russo, and Georgetown University English professor, Sherry Linkon. It features several regular and guest contributors.

Filed Under: Visiting Scholars Tagged With: Cleveland, Democrats, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, John Russo, Ohio, Presidential Election, Republicans, Sherry Linkon, WCP, Working-Class Perspectives, Working-Class Voters

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Georgetown University's Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor develops creative ideas and practical solutions for working people that are grounded in a commitment to justice, democracy, and the common good.
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Georgetown University
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Washington, DC 20057
202.687.2293

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