O’Connor, the Republican ward leader, said he believes the GOP will perform better than expected in Philadelphia this year, in part because he sees the parties realigning based on class.
“When I first started in politics in 1978, the managerial class was Republican — no one votes the way their bosses vote,” he said. “Now, most people in t…
O’Connor, the Republican ward leader, said he believes the GOP will perform better than expected in Philadelphia this year, in part because he sees the parties realigning based on class.
“When I first started in politics in 1978, the managerial class was Republican — no one votes the way their bosses vote,” he said. “Now, most people in the managerial class vote Democratic and no one is voting the way their boss is. So it’s been a flip. Most of the bosses are Democrats and the Democratic Party has become the party of the upper middle class.”
That's actually usually the way things work, although less by class than by education. At least that's the trend and I fully expect it to continue and accelerate this cycle.
"Management" covers a huge swathe of people. Most of them will be no better than upper middle class. Republican policies are bad for all of that group.
That said, a lot of people do vote against their economic self-interest. Just look at how Appalachia votes.
But also, the ward leader's assumptions aren't sound. Especially in a major city, like Philly. The working classes are going to have heavy ideological divides along various lines: ethnicity, age, gender, religion, where they live... A major city is going to have most of that demographic data pointing towards those voters being very heavily left leaning. We're not going to lose some of them because their boss votes the same as them. We might lose some of them for other reasons, but not because of that.
We're picking up more of the managerial class because we're picking up more of the college educated demographics, not because they want to be opposed to voting behavior of the 9-5 workers...
He certainly isn't wrong although the pattern hasn't tracked in big cities like Philadelphia as aggressively as it has in less populous jurisdictions....at least not yet.
O’Connor, the Republican ward leader, said he believes the GOP will perform better than expected in Philadelphia this year, in part because he sees the parties realigning based on class.
“When I first started in politics in 1978, the managerial class was Republican — no one votes the way their bosses vote,” he said. “Now, most people in the managerial class vote Democratic and no one is voting the way their boss is. So it’s been a flip. Most of the bosses are Democrats and the Democratic Party has become the party of the upper middle class.”
https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/inq2/philadelphia-working-class-voters-republican-20241001.html?query=in%20deep-blue%20philly,%20working%20class%20voters
Ah yes, the eternal "flip," where all things that change must be compensated by a corresponding and related change elsewhere.
That's actually usually the way things work, although less by class than by education. At least that's the trend and I fully expect it to continue and accelerate this cycle.
Only 1 problem here:
Republican POLICIES are pro-management & anti-labor and voters aren't that dumb (hopefully)!!
"Management" covers a huge swathe of people. Most of them will be no better than upper middle class. Republican policies are bad for all of that group.
That said, a lot of people do vote against their economic self-interest. Just look at how Appalachia votes.
But also, the ward leader's assumptions aren't sound. Especially in a major city, like Philly. The working classes are going to have heavy ideological divides along various lines: ethnicity, age, gender, religion, where they live... A major city is going to have most of that demographic data pointing towards those voters being very heavily left leaning. We're not going to lose some of them because their boss votes the same as them. We might lose some of them for other reasons, but not because of that.
We're picking up more of the managerial class because we're picking up more of the college educated demographics, not because they want to be opposed to voting behavior of the 9-5 workers...
Remember, the quote is messaging, not necessarily an honest assessment of the ward leader's real opinions.
He certainly isn't wrong although the pattern hasn't tracked in big cities like Philadelphia as aggressively as it has in less populous jurisdictions....at least not yet.