America's Forgotten Majority Why the White Working Class Still Matters

The future of American politics belongs to the party best able to win the hearts and votes of the white working class: that is Teixera and Rogers's thesis in a well-documented analysis of the current American political landscape that is coherent, insightful and refreshingly contrary to the prevailing views of Sunday morning pundits and politicos of both major parties. Citing enough exit polls and opinion polls to satisfy the most ardent political junkies, the authors (Teixera is a fellow at the Century Foundation, and Rogers is a professor of law, political science and sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison) build a convincing case that white working-class voters, not the recently fabled suburban soccer moms, were, and will be again, the true swing voters. The straightforwardly presented data indicate that, so far, the swinging has inclined toward the Republicans. But departing from conventional political wisdom, the electorate's swing to the right is less an embrace of traditional conservative values (less government is better government) than a reflection of the voters' loss of faith in government's effectiveness. Government, according to Teixera and Rogers's white working-class voters, no longer responds to real people's problems. The authors are not shy about offering suggestions to Democrats and Republicans on how they can capture the support of this crucial segment of American society. Teixera and Rogers reject what they see as the Democratic Leadership Council's abandonment of the traditional party commitment to government programs responsive to the white working class. They reject even more strongly the minimalist Republican view of government. Instead, the authors predict that the party that can fashion effective government programs--which ensure health-care benefits, educational opportunities and retirement security, for example--will be the party of the 21st century. First serial to the Atlantic Monthly. (June)