Can the Left Win Back Working-Class Voters?
We’ll talk to Joan Williams about what’s driving the rift — and how to start closing it.
June 18, 2025
55 min
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2,872 of 3,393
June 18, 2025
Can the Left Win Back Working-Class Voters?
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Can the Left Win Back Working-Class Voters?
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
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