Thomas B. Edsall is one of the New York Times' house progressives and, as such, I normally avoid his columns. Today's column is an exception, in it he catalogues the Democratic Party's weaknesses.
Edsall cites source after source which make the point that Democrats have a problem with all working class voters, not just white working class voters. One of the most interesting things he notes is a study which found it was the successful members of the white working class who voted for Trump, moreso than the unsuccessful ones. In other words, those who pay income taxes which support the unsuccessful half, whom they know to be mostly drugged-up layabouts.
What Edsall never mentions is that the party has been captured by what Kotkin calls "the clerisy," defined as academia, the media, non-profits, and government. I guess outfits like the Sierra Club and PETA fit into the "non-profits" category. Happily for Republicans, the clerisy shares few interests with working class voters, once a key Democrat constituency, now a Republican mainstay.
