On the working class - Thomas B. Edsall in NYT:

‘A chorus of political analysts on the center left is once again arguing that the Democratic Party must reclaim a significant share of racially and culturally conservative white working-class voters if it is to regain majority status.’

(…)

‘However persuasive they are, these arguments raise a series of questions.
First, is the Democratic attempt to recapture white working-class voters a fool’s errand? Is this constituency irrevocably committed to the Republican Party — deaf to the appeal of a Democratic Party it sees as committed to racial and cultural liberalism?’

(…)

‘Disaffected working-class voters, according to Judis, “have been put off by Democratic stands on free trade, immigration, crime and affirmative action and by social programs that require sacrifice primarily by those in the middle to benefit those on the bottom.”’

(…)

‘William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution with extensive experience in Democratic politics, disagreed to some extent with the approach outlined by Hacker. In an email, Galston wrote: There are decisive arguments against this strategy: 1. The lines between the white working class and the nonwhite working class are eroding. Donald Trump received 41 percent of the non-college Hispanic vote in 2020 and may well do better this time around. If this turns out to be the case, then the old Democratic formula — add minorities to college-educated voters to make a majority — becomes obsolete.
2. The share of young Americans attending and completing college peaked a decade ago and has been fitfully declining ever since.
3. The “stop chasing the working-class vote” approach flunks the most important test — Electoral College math. The stubborn fact is that working-class voters (especially but not only white) form a larger share of the electorate in key battleground states, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, than they do nationally.’

(…)

‘While much of the focus of this debate has been on the white working class, minority voters have become ever more important to election outcomes.
Patrick Ruffini, a Republican strategist who published “Party of the People: Inside the Multiracial Populist Coalition Remaking the G.O.P.” last year, contended in an email that “many Black and Hispanic voters are culturally and ideologically misaligned in the Democratic Party.” For the moment, these voters, “African Americans especially,” Ruffini wrote, are held in place due to a mutual sense of social obligation to support the Democratic Party as a vehicle for Black empowerment. But what if defection were just a bit more common than it is today? And what if that rendered voting Democratic as a social norm unenforceable? In that case, you could see a sudden shift.’ In fact, Biden has done far more than his Democratic predecessors Bill Clinton and Barack Obama to enact legislation economically beneficial to the working class, including the white working class.
Among the measures the Biden administration has pushed through Congress are: • The $1 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, providing funding for jobs building roads, bridges, passenger and freight rail, public transit, airports and other projects.
• The Inflation Reduction Act, which provides $370 billion in spending and tax credits in low-emission forms of energy, extends federal health-insurance subsidies and enables the government to negotiate Medicare prescription drug prices.
• The $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act to prop up the American chip manufacturing industry.
Despite these substantial programs providing well-paying jobs for non-college workers, the rollout of these measures has so far done little to improve Biden’s prospects with the white working class.’ (…)

‘Richard Florida, a professor of economic analysis and policy at the University of Toronto, may have the wisest guidance for Democrats. “The service class, not the working class, is the key to the Democrats’ future,” Florida wrote in an Evonomics essay: Members of the blue-collar working class are largely white men, working in declining industries like manufacturing, as well as construction, transportation and other manual trades. Members of the service class work in rapidly growing industries like food service, clerical and office work, retail stores, hospitality, personal assistance and the caring industries. The service class has more than double the members of the working class — 65 million versus 30 million members — and is made up disproportionately of women and members of ethnic and racial minorities.
On one hand, the 2024 election, as it stands, will be determined by how many undecided men and women Trump alienates.’

Read the article here.

This problem haunts leftwing parties in Europe as well, but the US is different because of the two-party-system and the fact that presidential elections are decided in well, we know, a few states.

The future of the Democratic party is the service industry? Convince waiters and manicurists to vote for you, that’s the road to a stable majority. As a loyal customer in many restaurants in hotels I look at this development with enthusiasm. The service industry is going to save us. In one way or another.

Also, even if you do quite a few things (economically) for the white working class they’ll abandon you, because cultural issues are more important than economical issues.
They can afford to ignore the economy, apparently.

Demography is an issue; birth rates are falling everywhere. We want AI to replace us. I don’t blame us.
Pets are better friends than children, obviously.

Man will end as a dog walker.