White progressive analysis of politics is fundamentally broken.

[Willie Pep]

202. Racism and economic anxiety often go together.

It is often not easy to understand why your economic situation is so bad. Most people are not wonks and don't follow politics religiously so when they see articles from right-wing sources saying that all of your problems come from black welfare queens or Mexicans it fits with racist narratives that people are often raised with. But it is also true that these views are not just held by struggling working-class whites but even by affluent whites who also hold racist beliefs. These are the people that we probably will never win because they oppose liberalism across the board.

But I do think we can win struggling working-class whites with a stronger left-wing economic message. Even people who hold racist views don't always vote primarily on those views. West Virginia was a Democratic stronghold for decades because the strength of unions in the state created a stronger class consciousness among West Virginians. I guarantee that some of those West Virginia Democrats also held less-than-liberal views on race and other issues but because of the culture of the state at the time class came first. As unions have weakened that class consciousness has eroded and people are more susceptible to racist narratives. This is why Southern politicians have always been so anti-union; they knew unions would create organizations where black and white workers would work together for mutual benefit and that this would make Southern workers more class conscious. So Southern politicians passed Right-to-Work laws and promoted tribalism based on racial and religious issues.

I guess my ultimate point is that we have to fight racism and economic inequality at the same time but we don't need to turn everyone into a saint to win elections. I sometimes get the sense that some Democrats believe that we can only tackle economic issues once everyone in the country drops all illiberal beliefs. I don't think that is necessary. We will never win over the hardcore racists but we can win over many people with a much stronger kitchen table message. At the end of the day racism takes a backseat to feeding your family and keeping a roof over your head.