I couldn’t agree more with Elizabeth Warren and others like Michael Sandel, via Dan Kennedy’s excellent post, that Democrats long ago embraced elitist economic views that have alienated blue-collar workers and other struggling Americans, enabling the rise of the angry populist politics of Donald Trump et gang. But there’s something missing from their largely economic-focused analysis of what ails Dems. What’s not there? What other college-educated elitist views and causes have Dems fully or partially embraced that have angered and alienated so many voters? Liam Kerr at the Globe and Jonathan Chait at the Atlantic know what’s missing. OK, here they are in a nutshell: social issues.

We’re talking social issues like immigration, racial/gender politics (aka identity politics, woke-ism or whatever else you want to call it), public safety, energy policies etc., all of which are often wrapped in stultifying and suffocating politically-correct language that’s about as rhetorically elitist and alienating as you can get.

Have moderate Dems’ economic policies contributed to the alienation of many non-college-grad voters over recent decades, specifically blue-collar workers? Absolutely. Among other things, they went overboard in embracing market-driven economic policies immediately following the end of the Cold War. 

But have elitist progressive Dems’ social policies also contributed to the alienation of many non-college-grad voters, particularly blue-collar workers? Absolutely. Among other things, they’ve mostly embraced a radical racial/gender view of the world with an oppressed-oppressor pecking order that relegates white males to the very bottom of the social heap. And guess who’s at the bottom of the very bottom of that social pecking order? White blue-collar workers, the core of Donald Trump’s angry populist movement.

So it’s both economic and social issues, stupid, that have alienated so many non-college-grad voters — and there’s plenty of blame to go around when it comes to what ails the Democratic Party.

Btw: Besides Dan Kennedy’s post on Michael Sandel’s views (which I may have unfairly oversimplified here, I acknowledge), check out this video interview with the Harvard professor. He’s so on target about many things.  

As for Warren, definitely check out the piece by Chait, who rightly rips into her “nonsensical” descriptions of the two main factions within the Democratic party.