The Patriot Post® · Why Liberals Lost the Middle Class

Victor Davis Hanson: “In contemporary straitjacket Democratic orthodoxy, there is no concession that a white male mechanic could face more economic difficulty than a Latina journalist, African-American federal employee or Asian dentist. Lockstep obedience to the mantras of diversity, affirmative action and preferential hiring does not allow that race can be increasingly divorced from class. Moreover, race is not always either absolute or easily definable. Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has to emphasize that he is Latino. Otherwise, based on his name, appearance and speech, he appears to be just another successful grandee of unknown lineage. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren can cynically claim to be Native American – with all the perks that such lineage entails. … For a liberal, when the poor waste money on $300 Air Jordans, such spending should not be criticized. But for the middle class to supposedly squander cash on a shotgun or Jet Ski is gauche. If an undocumented immigrant has seven children, it is not declared to be unwise family planning with the same disdain shown a Mormon blue-collar roofer with a comparably large family. … Democrats’ problem is that the working classes are large and know that they no longer fit into what liberalism has become.”