Can the Left Win Back Working-Class Voters?

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 18 June 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Working-class voters don’t just vote for their policy preferences — they vote for the party that feels like “their people.” Increasingly, that’s not the left. In “Outclassed,” UC Law professor emerita Joan Williams argues that America’s widening “diploma divide” is fueling the far right — and that liberals often play into the dynamic without realizing it. To protect democracy and build a durable, multi-racial coalition, Williams says, the left must bridge this cultural and class divide. We’ll talk to her about what’s driving the rift — and how to start closing it. Guests: Joan C. Williams, distinguished professor of law (emerita) and founding director of the Equality Action Center, UC Law San Francisco; author, "Outclassed: How the Left Lost the Working Class" and "White Working Class: Overcoming Class Cluelessness in America Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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1:07.7	Coming up on forum, is there a single shift in our politics that could protect democracy,
1:12.9	move climate policy forward, address gun violence, and rebuild trust in government?
1:18.3	Author Joan Williams argues, yes, but it'll take bridging America's deepening class divide.
1:24.3	In her new book, Outclassed, Williams shows how cultural and class resentment, not just
1:28.9	economic anxiety, is driving working class voters toward the far right. She says progressives
1:34.8	often signal superiority without realizing it alienating voters. We'll talk with Williams about what
1:40.5	it would take to build a multiracial cross-class coalition. That's next after this news.
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