Writing at Spiked, Joel Kotkin does an overview of the economies of developed countries. He observes in passing that the percentage of Americans who can be considered middle class has dropped from 61% in the 1970s to 50% today.
Kotkin notes the parties that once supported working class issues have now been captured by the educated and oligarchic classes. And he concludes with this summary.
Can the Democrats and other formerly left-wing parties make the changes necessary to win back working-class voters? This will be tough to pull off when these parties are financed largely by oligarchs – and when their activists are so wedded to unpopular positions, like identity politics, genderfluidity and climate apocalypticism. But if they fail to make this shift and continue to ignore the voters, then they will only have themselves to blame when the populist right eats their lunch.
