How a 'class inversion' makes working-class whites so crucial to the GOP: report

24 March 2023

An ongoing source of frustration for Democrats has been how well the GOP performs among working-class white voters, especially since former President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign — and especially in red states. Many college-educated whites, especially women, vote Democrat. But whites with a high school education have become a key part of the GOP base.

Journalist Ronald Brownstein examines the GOP’s advances among working-class whites in an article published by The Atlantic on March 24.

"A much larger share of Republican than Democratic House members represent districts where seniors exceed their share of the national population, census data show," Brownstein observes. "Republicans are also more likely to represent districts where the median income trails the national level, or the proportion of people without health insurance is greater than in the nation overall. House Republicans, in their ongoing struggle with President Joe Biden over raising the debt ceiling, have signaled they will push for sweeping reductions in domestic social programs, likely including Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, the principal federal programs providing health care for working-age adults."

Brownstein goes on to describe this trend as "the class inversion" in American politics and "the growing tendency of voters to divide between the parties based on cultural attitudes, rather than class interests."

According to Brownstein, "That dynamic has simultaneously allowed House Democrats to gain in more socially liberal, affluent, metropolitan areas and House Republicans to consolidate their hold over more culturally conservative, economically hardscrabble, nonurban areas…. Republicans now also control most of the House seats in which the median income trails the national level of nearly $65,000 annually. Republicans hold 152 of the 237 seats in that category. Democrats, in turn, hold 128 of the 198 seats where the median income exceeds the national level."

Read The Atlantic’s full article at this link.

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