Ohio, Obama, and the Working Class

Another terrific piece of reporting from George Packer. There are a few things more interesting and enjoyable than his long-form journalism pieces, and this one - about the dynamics of the white working class and the election in Ohio, as a microcosm for the experience of the white working class everywhere - is no different. Some key takeaways:

Until the mid-seventies, the white working class—the heart of the New Deal coalition—voted largely Democratic. Since the Carter years, the percentages have declined from sixty to forty, and this shift has roughly coincided with the long hold of the Republican Party on the White House. The white working class—a group that often speaks of itself, and is spoken of, as forgotten, marginalized, even despised—is the golden key to political power in America...

And the unfortunate unraveling of the modern Democratic Party:

Having earlier moved to the right for economic reasons, the Arizona study concluded, the working class stayed there because of the rising prominence of social issues—Thomas Frank’s argument. But the Democrats fundamentally lost the white working class because these voters no longer believed the Party’s central tenet—that government could restore a sense of economic security.

Packer does a really nice job capturing the feel of economic stagnation and citizen anxiety, mixed with some of the remaining vestiges of racism and retrograde social attitudes that have kept many of this demographic in the GOP camp even as the GOP has royally screwed things up for all of us.

Another nice element is the light he sheds on the Obama ground game - bands of regular folks getting together to knock on doors, make calls, and get organized. That is the epitome of democracy in action, and it's inspiring to see no matter how modest.

A lot has been written about Obama's superior ground game already, but it will never stop being refreshing - and it makes you wonder, why for the love of Mariano did it take the Democrats so long to build this kind of volunteer army?