In Issue No. 4 of Berggruen Insights, Stephanie Coontz, CCF’s Director of Research, applies her well honed skills at deconstructing nostalgia to reveal the very real injuries endured by white voters without a college degree. Coontz argues that historic grievances must be clearly voiced and acknowledged in order for this demographic to lay aside its anger at the polling station. Unless and until political leaders begin to constructively address their issues, working and middle class whites will remain vulnerable to the cynical manipulation of political campaigns that encourage them to reconstruct a divisive past rather than build towards a communal future.
