“The Democratic Party has become the party of overqualified college elites. They hate the working class. They despise them. And the working class has noticed.” author Batia Unger Sargon told the Post.
Case in point: Joe Biden charged as much as $500,000 for tickets to a so-called “grassroots fundraiser” with Bill Clinton and Barack Obama at Radio City Music Hall on Thursday. (Donald Trump also attended a vigil for New York City police officers killed in the line of duty on Long Island on the same day.)
In his new book, “Second Class: How the Elite Betrayed America’s Working Men and Women,” the Newsweek Editor-in-Chief sets out to answer important questions: Today’s Who are the working class and do they still have a chance? American dream?
She traveled around the country interviewing people from different political, gender, racial, and religious backgrounds and was surprised at how much they had in common.
“Whether it was a Hispanic hotel cleaner in Las Vegas, a black sanitation worker in New York, or a white rural worker at Amazon, they had very similar views,” Unger Sargon said. he told the Post. “They actually have incredible agreement on important issues and what they want from government.”
The author describes himself as a left-wing populist and pro-Trump Marxist, and believes that the supposed ideological and demographic cleavages are misleading.
“We think we have a political divide in this country, but we’re not really politically divided,” she told the Post. “The real divide in this country is along class lines between the overqualified university elite and the working class.”
Although she herself has a Ph.D. and admits that “the class I criticize is 100%,” she gives voice to the working class, which has been displatformed by elite politicians and journalists. It is said that he has the desire to do so. social.
“It is simply intolerable to see the good working-class people of this country corrupted by the leftists who sold them out,” she said. “We just pushed the working class out of public life. Even though they represent most Americans, we don’t hear from them anymore.”
Unger-Sargon’s extensive interviews with The Second Class show that working-class Americans, regardless of their personal characteristics or political affiliation, generally have no idea which political reforms would improve their lives. It became clear that there was a common point that they agreed with each other.
The authors found that working-class Americans share nearly identical views on stricter border controls and trade tariffs that favor domestic industry.
“Opening borders hurts them economically in a very real way by lowering their wages. That’s clear to people, whether they’re Democrats or Republicans,” she explained. .
Although working-class Americans also overwhelmingly support promoting vocational training and trade schools as alternatives to higher education, Unger-Sargon points out that our government has invested $150 billion in higher education. He writes that the responsibility for this fact lies with elite politicians. $1 billion in professional transactions.
“Skilled trades are one of the few working-class jobs that truly guarantees the American dream, and yet we have kind of cut it out from public life,” she said. Ta.
Finally, Unger-Sagon said that America’s working class as a whole opposes zoning laws that restrict housing development for the benefit of NIMBYs, noting that “wealthy liberals are turning their neighborhoods away from duplexes.” If we repeal the law that allows us to keep it, we’ll be able to build a million new units.” If we supply units in one year, we’ll solve the housing crisis in 10 years. ”
Unger-Sargon accused Democrats and Republicans of sometimes failing to listen to working-class Americans, saying, “Both parties have one piece of the puzzle, but the other side is the It is actively undermining the interests of
She points to Democrats’ open border policies and Republicans’ inaction to expand health care access as failures.
But the author says there are politicians who stand out as representing the working class: Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. Although they may seem diametrically opposed at face value, Unger-Sargon believes they share a populist sensibility, as does Republican Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio. .
“Bernie talked about the little man’s fight against billionaires and big corporations. And Trump is doing something very similar. He doesn’t vilify billionaires, but he ‘s policies are designed to emphasize power in favor of workers in relation to corporations,” she said.
Trump supporters are “people who feel like the little guy has been left behind,” she added.
Unger-Sargon’s book could not be more timely ahead of the 2024 election.
Increase in Hispanic voters support trump over bidenAccording to polls, President Trump is reportedly making inroads with black men, and Unger Sargon predicts this trend will continue.
“Any Republican who thinks that way, [these voters are] Defecting to the Republican Party is completely wrong.they are in exile playing cardsBecause they see in him a champion of working-class issues,” the author said.
“I think that’s the most notable trend. It’s really a recalibration.”
