The Inquirer's Confusion Reflects Why Democrats Are Losing

 

The Philadelphia Inquirer has an article reporting on the fact that Democrats have been losing ground to Republicans among working-class Philadelphians. The article itself is marked by a terminological conflation that precisely reflects the reason many Democrats don't understand why this is happening.

It says, "[W]orking-class voters in Philadelphia, a once reliable voting bloc for the party, have drifted right in recent years." Variations on this are repeated several times in the article. Yet not an iota of evidence is presented that working-class Philadelphians have become more conservative ideologically -- only that more are voting for the GOP, at least when its nominee is Trump.

It's not working people who've been moving to the right; it's the Democratic Party that's done so, leaving workers less reason to vote for it. In the absence of a mass workers' party, it's primarily the Republicans that benefit.

But this shift also increases the opportunities for a solution to this problem. The more workers see Trump as the lesser evil, the more can make Vote Pacts with those who still see Harris in that light -- freeing both to vote for a real pro-worker alternative like the Green Party.