We Can’t Ignore Class Dealignment
Matt Karp on class dealignment and why the Left’s weakening connection to blue-collar workers isn’t a problem we can wish away.
39 Articles by: Matt Karp
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Matt Karp is an associate professor of history at Princeton University and a Jacobin contributing editor.
Democrats May Have Won More Suburban Votes in the Midterms. That Doesn’t Bode Well.
If Democrats survived this week’s midterms because they increased their share of wealthier voters, it’s a bad omen for building a working-class coalition around left-wing politics. Something needs to change.
Nina Turner Showed That a Left Candidate Can Win Black Workers
Nina Turner’s primary loss this week stings, but a close look at the numbers makes clear her loss wasn’t the result of a bold left-wing candidate being unable to win over black workers. On the contrary: in black working-class districts, Turner performed well.
We Need Class Politics to End Our Second Gilded Age
We talk with historian Matt Karp about how ending our great age of inequality will take a renewed working-class politics.
No, Joe Biden Won’t Give Us Social Democracy
There were many good things in the stimulus package. But claims that Biden’s Democratic Party has embraced structural change are overblown: an injection of much-needed cash isn’t the same thing as empowering workers or creating a constituency for change.
The Politics of a Second Gilded Age
The mass inequality of America’s first Gilded Age thrived on identity-based partisanship, helping extinguish the fires of class rage. In 2021, we’re headed down the same path.
How Abraham Lincoln Fought the Supreme Court
It is not enough to question the decisions, the justices, or even the structure of the current court — we need to challenge, as Abraham Lincoln did, the foundation of its power to determine the law.
How Abraham Lincoln Fought the Supreme Court
It is not enough to question the decisions, the justices, or even the structure of the current court — we need to challenge, as Abraham Lincoln did, the foundation of its power to determine the law.
Bernie Sanders’s Five-Year War
How he lost and where we go from here.
How the Antislavery Movement Ignited a Political Revolution
The antislavery movement of the mid-nineteenth century fused moral appeals against the sin of slavery with demands that spoke to the material interests of ordinary Northerners. Matt Karp, author of “The Mass Politics of Antislavery,” explains how that movement led to emancipation — and what lessons it offers to those trying to forge a political revolution today.
Bernie Sanders Can Still Win the Nomination and the Presidency
There is no use in sugarcoating the scale of last night’s defeat. But there is still a pathway to victory for Bernie Sanders.
Decent, Responsible Moderates for Bernie Sanders
The United States is the only developed country in the world that does not guarantee all its citizens health insurance, family leave, childcare, and a college education. The Democratic Party elites opposing Bernie Sanders and these measures aren’t “moderates” — they’re conservatives.
Slavery Was Defeated Through Mass Politics
The overthrow of slavery in the United States wasn’t a byproduct of capitalist development nor the triumph of an enlightened activist vanguard. It was a battle waged and won in the field of democratic mass politics — a battle that holds enormous lessons for radicals today.
Elizabeth Warren’s Electoral Track Record Is Incredibly Worrying
A new look at the 2018 midterms shows that while Bernie Sanders has already won back “Obama-Trump” voters, Elizabeth Warren was decimated in exactly the kinds of places Democrats need to win in 2020.
Bernie Is the Candidate Who Can Beat Trump. Here’s Why.
Do you want to see Donald Trump defeated in 2020? Of course you do. The candidate who is best positioned to do exactly that: Bernie Sanders.
Is This the Future Liberals Want?
In a 2020 campaign against Donald Trump, a bet on Elizabeth Warren is a risky wager on its own terms. But over the next twenty years, a turn toward progressive technocracy is not a bet at all — it’s an unconditional surrender to class dealignment.
Antislavery Wasn’t Mainstream, Until It Was
After Republicans lost their first election in 1856, the nineteenth-century Nate Silvers were happy to declare the antislavery movement a radical, fringe idea. Four years later, Abraham Lincoln won on a radical program of change.
Don’t Call It a Comeback
As 2020 approaches, we indulge in some crass Sunday morning horse-race punditry.
51 Percent Losers
The midterms have given the Democratic Party a boost. But their professional-class politics are a cul de sac — we desperately need a political revolution driven by the needs and aspirations of the multiracial working class.
Populism for Plutocrats
Democratic leaders still haven’t learned: you can’t fight the forces of oligarchy without naming the enemy.