University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2018 Contested Majority: The Representation Of The White Working Class In Us Politics From The 1930s To The 1990s Christopher Cimaglio University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Communication Commons, and the History Commons Recommended Citation Cimaglio, Christopher, "Contested Majority: The Representation Of The White Working Class In Us Politics From The 1930s oT The 1990s" (2018). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 3006. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3006 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3006 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Contested Majority: The Representation Of The White Working Class In Us Politics From The 1930s oT The 1990s Abstract This dissertation examines the representation of the white working class in US politics from the 1930s to the 1990s: how politicians, journalists, pollsters, pundits, political commentators, social movement groups, and others have studied, written about, and claimed to speak for white working class people and how this work has shaped American politics. Most existing literature on the role of the white working class in American politics has examined political opinion and political identity formation among white working class people, too often treating the “white working class” as a homogenous group with uniform political views. This project takes a different approach, focused on elite engagement with the white working class as a social and political category. It traces how prominent elite-level understandings of white working class identity, politics, and culture—from progressive workers combating economic elites to culturally conservative “Middle Americans” opposed to liberalism—emerged and impacted political contestation. In doing so, it stresses the importance of the white working class as a political symbol, one that has consistently been at the center of conflict around fundamental issues in US politics, including the nature of privilege and disadvantage, challenges to racial, gender, and class inequality, the state’s sphere of responsibility, and the contours of national identity. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Communication First Advisor Carolyn Marvin Keywords media history, twentieth-century US history, US media and politics, white working class Subject Categories Communication | History This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3006 CONTESTED MAJORITY: THE REPRESENTATION OF THE WHITE WORKING CLASS IN US POLITICS FROM THE 1930s TO THE 1990s Christopher Cimaglio A DISSERTATION in Communication Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2018 Supervisor of Dissertation ____ __________ _______ Carolyn Marvin, Frances Yates Emeritus Professor of Communication Graduate Group Chairperson ________________________ Joseph Turow, Robert Lewis Shayon Professor of Communication Dissertation Committee Victor Pickard, Associate Professor of Communication Michael Delli Carpini, Professor of Communication and Walter H. Annenberg Dean Thomas Sugrue, Professor of Social & Cultural Analysis and History (New York University) ABSTRACT CONTESTED MAJORITY: THE REPRESENTATION OF THE WHITE WORKING CLASS IN US POLITICS FROM THE 1930s TO THE 1990s Christopher Cimaglio Carolyn Marvin This dissertation examines the representation of the white working class in US politics from the 1930s to the 1990s: how politicians, journalists, pollsters, pundits, political commentators, social movement groups, and others have studied, written about, and claimed to speak for white working class people and how this work has shaped American politics. Most existing literature on the role of the white working class in American politics has examined political opinion and political identity formation among white working class people, too often treating the “white working class” as a homogenous group with uniform political views. This project takes a different approach, focused on elite engagement with the white working class as a social and political category. It traces how prominent elite-level understandings of white working class identity, politics, and culture—from progressive workers combating economic elites to culturally conservative “Middle Americans” opposed to liberalism—emerged and impacted political contestation. In doing so, it stresses the importance of the white working class as a political symbol, one that has consistently been at the center of conflict around fundamental issues in US politics, including the nature of privilege and disadvantage, challenges to racial, gender, and class inequality, the state’s sphere of responsibility, and the contours of national identity. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ II INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER 1: THE RISE OF THE PROGRESSIVE WORKER ..................................... 62 CODA: THE (WHITE) WORKER AS A LATENT PROGRESSIVE FORCE ............ 139 CHAPTER 2: THE RISE OF THE AFFLUENT WORKER ......................................... 156 CHAPTER 3: RETHINKING MIDDLE AMERICA..................................................... 230 CHAPTER 4: THE NEW LIBERALISM AND THE VICTIMIZED WHITE WORKER ......................................................................................................................................... 297 CONCLUDING CHAPTER ........................................................................................... 367 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................... 405 iii Introduction On November 8, 2016, Donald Trump was elected President of the United States, an outcome that came as a shock for most professional political observers. The dominant explanation for Trump’s win focused on his appeal to one specific group: the white working class. “Working-class whites give Trump the White House,” read a CNN chyron. For ABC News, “A revolution against politics shook the country, [with] working class whites venting their economic and cultural frustration by lifting…Trump to the presidency.” 1 By November, this frame was nothing new; for most of the campaign, Trump supporters and Trump opponents with almost nothing in common could agree that Trump’s candidacy was a bottom-up revolt of blue-collar whites against the political establishment. One prominent Democrat called Trump the “staunchest champion of the white working class that American politics has seen in decades.” 2 Signs reading “The Silent Majority Stands With Trump” were fixtures at campaign rallies. Trump championed coal miners, factory workers, and cities and towns harmed by trade deals. “I am your voice,” he promised “the forgotten men and women of our country.” 3 Donald Trump’s rise to the presidency was unique in recent American political history. The symbolism around the white working class that accompanied it was deeply rooted in that history. Trump’s promise to restore high-wage manufacturing jobs tapped 1 “Working-Class Whites Give Trump the White House,” as featured on “The Lead with Jake Tapper,” CNN , November 9, 2016, http://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2016/11/09/donald-trump-white-voters-white- house-2016-president-tapper-dnt-lead.cnn; Gary Langer et al., “Huge Margin Among Working-Class Whites Lifts Trump to a Stunning Election Upset,” ABC News , November 9, 2016, http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/huge-margin-working-class-whites-lifts-trump- stunning/story?id=43411948. 2 William Galston, “Trump Rides a Blue-Collar Wave,” Wall Street Journal , November 17, 2015. 3 Donald Trump, address accepting the Republican Party nomination for president, Cleveland, Ohio, July 21, 2016, transcript at http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/22/politics/donald-trump-rnc-speech-text/index.html. 1 cultural memory of the period between the 1950s and 1970s, when a (usually white, male) worker with a high school education could securely support a family on a single wage. “Forgotten Americans” is a longstanding trope invoked by politicians as diverse as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Richard Nixon (the Trump campaign’s most obvious inspiration), and Bill Clinton. Observers on the left and right have, over many decades, condemned journalists and political elites as out of touch with the (white) working class. Present-day elite observers commenting on the political importance of working class whites tend to see their arguments as novel responses to the urgency of the moment. From a historical perspective, patterns are very clear. White workers have long been central to elite political contestation in the United States. Liberals have invoked them as chief beneficiaries of a liberal agenda, as the backbone of the liberal coalition, and (in more recent decades) as those voters most responsible for the rise of conservatism. Conservatives have figured them as dupes of liberal elites and (in more recent decades) as the mass base for populist resistance to liberalism. White workers have been, as consistently as any other social group, identified as “average Americans”