Tag: Larry Bartels

We all know that there are workers who identify with the working class, who work in solidarity with their fellow workers, who seek to advance their interests as a class, while others identify with the boss and seek to advance their interests on their own. Could workers who vote Republican be, well, tools of the master? GSS data from elections over the past 50 years shows that people in working-class jobs who identify as middle class are more likely to vote Republican than similarly situated working-class people who identify as working class or lower class. If we look only at white working-class men, who may be especially prone to bossism, we find even greater differences, not just between those who voted Republican and those who voted Democrat, but also those who did not vote at all. White working-class men are (a) more likely to vote Republican if they identify as middle class and (b) less likely to vote at all if they identify as working class, lower class, or poor. Why might some people regard themselves as middle class and others as working class? Some say that people just don’t understand class in the U.S., so “most” people identify as middle class. Today many see workers (especially white men) embracing candidates and policies that seem to have little to do with working-class solidarity. The more privileged classes don’t always vote Republican (indeed, highly-educated professionals are now the backbone of the Democratic Party). We will need the foremen on our side, too.