The Democrats Actively Expedited Class Dealignment
In the 1990s, Democrats adopted a neoliberal program to suit the needs of capital, driving many workers out. The party then adopted a political strategy meant to replace working-class voters with professionals — with disastrous consequences.
Bill Clinton and Barack Obama on stage during day two of the Democratic National Convention on September 5, 2012, in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Alex Wong / Getty Images)
The Democrats’ crushing loss to Donald Trump last November made clear that the party’s fortunes with working-class voters of all races are continuing to sink. This process of class dealignment has been decades in the making, and the Democrats’ own strategic choices bear a large part of the blame for workers abandoning the party.
For a recent episode of the Jacobin Radio podcast Confronting Capitalism, Catalyst editor Vivek Chibber talked to Neal Meyer about the state of the Democratic Party and how it got here. Meyer is the author of “The Democrats Embrace Dealignment” in the latest edition of Catalyst and a frequent Jacobin contributor. Chibber and Meyer discussed how the Democratic Party began to drive away workers with their embrace of free-trade deals and austerity in the 1990s, how Democrats responded by reshaping itself to appeal to affluent professional voters, and where this has left the party today.
Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy and published by Jacobin. Subscribe to Jacobin Radio to listen to all of our podcasts here.
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