The Wrong Way to Win Back the Working Class

"Joe Biden and members of his administration-and, indeed, much of the party's leadership-believed that forming a historically tight partnership with organized labor would help arrest the party's decline with the working class. They turned out to be wrong. Working-class voters, even the small and shrinking share of them who belong to private-sector unions, continued drifting away, seemingly unimpressed by Union Joe's long list of policy concessions."

"This approach would recognize that the political cost of trying to satisfy the labor movement's every demand is rising, and the number of votes that the movement delivers in return for such fealty is shrinking. The experience of the Biden administration, and of some Democratic-run localities, suggests that automatic deference to unions can undermine what ought to be politicians' top priority right now: lowering the cost of living."

Joe Biden and party leaders forged a historically tight partnership with organized labor to halt the party's decline among the working class, but working-class voters kept drifting away despite policy concessions. Democrats now face a choice: double down on pro-union commitments or return to a pre-Biden stance toward labor. Some progressives argue that stronger union alignment would win blue-collar votes, but that view lacks evidence and the means to exceed Biden's approach. A revert-to-tradition strategy recognizes rising political costs of satisfying every union demand while union-backed votes shrink. Automatic deference to unions can undermine priorities like lowering the cost of living.

Read at The Atlantic