It is no secret the Democratic Party is undergoing a massive political realignment. One recent poll found that Democrats, for the first time, are more likely to win the votes of white, college-educated voters than minority, blue-collar workers. As recently as 2016, the opposite was true: Democrats won 70% of the vote among minority voters, according to the New York Times, while losing among affluent, white college graduates. One might say former President Donald Trump’s election changed the Democrats more than the GOP.
Some in the party are concerned this shift away from union dues-paying laborers and toward wealthy academics will cost them crucial votes in the swing states. It’s also costing them minority votes, especially among the Hispanic community. That’s why leftist candidates like Pat Ryan in New York and John Fetterman in Pennsylvania have leaned into the traditional populist rhetoric that was once commonplace in the Democratic Party. They understand that while affluent liberals will cut them checks, working-class voters are the ones who will get them elected.
The rest of the party, however, has embraced its new voter bloc without a second thought. Democratic leaders like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) have lobbied hard to keep the SALT tax deduction in place because they know it primarily benefits rich people in blue states. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who seems to be gearing up for a 2024 presidential bid, sent a letter to Hollywood elites encouraging them to boycott red states that are out of step with progressive policies, with no care at all for how such a boycott might affect the jobs of workers in places like Georgia.
But perhaps the most obvious indication yet that Democrats are happy to be the party of the rich and elite is President Joe Biden’s plan to forgive hundreds of billions of dollars in student loan debt. The plan, announced this week, would cancel up to $10,000 in debt for borrowers making under $120,000 per year and cost U.S. taxpayers roughly $500 billion over the next 10 years, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. The White House is arguing this debt relief is a necessary expense, even though more than 6 in 10 people in the United States do not have college degrees or student loan debt of any kind, and those who do are probably making much more income-wise than everyone else.
In other words, Biden wants the lower and middle classes to pay off the debt of the upper class.
The only reason the White House might possibly think this is a politically savvy move is because they know it’s a gift to their new base: the white and wealthy. It especially benefits the higher education moguls responsible for making college as expensive as it is, most of whom just so happen to lean to the Left.
Meanwhile, the little guys — the blue-collar workers and labor union members who never went to college or paid their debt off the hard way — get stuck footing the bill.
Time will tell whether Biden’s bribe will be enough to attract the numbers he needs at the polls this November. But the lesson from 2016 is clear: When you lose the working class, you lose elections.
