When I was in high school in the early 2000s, my dad and I went to school together. He would drop me off at school, pick me up after sports, and drive me back to our quiet neighborhood outside of Philadelphia. In the morning, we (and I mean him) often listened to sports radio. The audience for these programs is almost exclusively male listeners, most if not all white, most without a college degree, and the audience for these shows is mostly male listeners, most if not all white, and most without a college degree, who were complaining that the Philadelphia Eagles had done wrong the previous Sunday. Ta.
The callers spoke in direct, profane, and politically incorrect language. Sighs, whistles, and implied tones were as much a part of their communication as the words themselves. They spoke the same way my father, who grew up working class and became a college professor, spoke at home (not at work). They spoke like their uncles, most of whom had not gone to college, spoke everywhere.
They talked as if the kids at my progressive college-ready high school had been explicitly and implicitly trained to never talk. Nevertheless, at the time, both the residents of my elite high school and the listeners of sports radio reliably voted Democratic.
Twenty years later, most sports radio broadcasters, along with their many wives, sons, daughters, and a growing number of (Increasingly multi-ethnic) A percentage of their colleagues and neighbors are reliable members of Donald Trump's Republican coalition.
what happened?
Some of my fellow college-educated Democrats think it's no surprise that racism and misogyny were the driving force behind Trump's 2024 victory over Kamala Harris. There are some too. However, as Recognize othersthis It makes no sense. White college-educated voters make up the only demographic group whose turnout for Trump did not increase in 2024 compared to 2020. All other groups leaned toward Trump.
As many people do, already observedthe movement towards Trump is as much as anything else, Democratic Party. What puzzles many of my fellow college-educated Democrats is why anyone would leave the Democratic Party in 2024, or even be likely. Widely recognized dangers of alternatives offered.
I believe that much of the gulf between these college-educated Democrats and the rest of the population has to do with the growing gap in language usage.
Most college-educated Democrats do a lot of what I call “text analysis as a lifestyle.” The actual words said by others are very important to us.
For example, when Ms. Harris' Democratic National Convention featured many explicit (and eloquent!) expressions of patriotism, empathy for families trying to make ends meet, military power and freedom, Most Democrats took her non-extremist words to heart and thought: Others will too.
But focusing solely on words is not the way words are used among working-class people, most Americans.
Mr. Harris's words are too empty, too impersonal, too terse and yet too punchy, too lacking in warmth, and they are as much about how something is said as about what is said. I couldn't connect with ordinary people who get a lot out of being talked about like that. In short, many former Democratic Party They didn't believe in the vice president the way they believed in Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
Trump, by contrast, speaks like a sports radio broadcaster. He skillfully uses gestures, tone, expressions, and facial expressions to convey meaning. This is how everyone speaks among family and friends. That is, all but a small fraction of the largely white, uniquely insular college graduates who happen to make up the staff class of today's Democratic Party and mainstream media.
This takes us deeper and makes it even harder for many of my fellow college-educated Democrats to swallow.
Much of the worldview that the Democratic Party currently relies on is built on a foundation that functionally only has the depth of language. In this worldview, the numbers on the balance sheet are inflation Resolved. A person can claim a pronoun or “.gender identity” makes old dichotomies like “male” and “female” irrelevant. Human dignity is incompatible with precisely the idea that: Immigration can be completely “illegal.” Democracy died when he became president. commit a crime and run away with them. Words that do not respect people's self-understanding are tantamount to violence.
It is the privilege of some college-educated Democrats to go through life with language and thinking bound by these assumptions. But for most Americans, reality doesn't match language. In fact, the opposite is true. No matter what the economic experts say, eggs are too expensive for them because prices haven't come down at my grocery store. Boys are men, girls are women, and in reality it doesn't change depending on the situation. their interests Or what they call themselves. Illegal immigration is a problem because without borders there is no country, and without a country we are left defenseless in a world that is obviously harsh and brutal.
Democracy? He's already dead, I think. Many presidents are viewed with suspicion by many voters. crime committed;Welcome to world history, welcome to American history, and above all, welcome to democracy.
And the words are not violencebecause words are not that important. If the language of ordinary Americans offends college-educated Democrats, then the problem isn't primarily their language; it's that too many college-educated Democrats don't have a real problem. That's true.
America still needs the Democratic Party. After all, if you want to see the devolution and decline caused by one-party opposition rule, look no further than our deep blue cities. As it turns out, the Crimson Nation couldn't get any better. Unchecked power corrupts regardless of political party.
But to serve America, Democrats need to rediscover their sanity. This begins with a widespread recognition that, whether we like it or not, an indescribably fundamental truth actually exists. If the Democratic Party does not recognize this, it will face severe criticism every time.
So ladies and gentlemen, turn off NPR (yes, that applies to everyone) and try sports radio.
elizabeth grace matthew I write about books, education, and culture. on substack.
