Americans may dislike the term class, but it has been an essential part of our political history. And for most of our history, Democrats represented the middle and working classes, dating at least back to the days of Andrew Jackson. Under William Jennings Bryan, the Democratic Party cast itself as largely the voice of the small farmer and the working and middle classes. Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and even Bill Clinton maintained this tradition.
Yet over the past two decades, and particularly the last few years, the party’s base has shifted decisively in both demographic and geographic terms. Increasingly, the core Democratic constituency—and, even more so, the base of Senator Barack Obama’s campaign—consists not of working- and middle-class whites but of African-Americans and a rising new class of affluent, well-educated professionals.
In the mid-1990s high-income voters preferred Republicans by 20 percentage points; in 2008 they appear to be decisively favoring the Democrats. Already, the most affluent districts in the country—from Silicon Valley and Manhattan to Madison and the Washington suburbs to west Los Angeles—are also among the most solidly Democrat.
Class Conflicted
For practically the entire history of their party Democrats have been the party of middle and working class interests. But as Obama's campaign shows, the leadership of the party is increasingly directed by affluent white collar urbanites. Does this shift in support signal a new set of priorities for Democratic policies?
