Episode Description
Community Voices for Change - 30 mins - First Aired August 31, 2026
WMPG-FM. Univ of So. Maine - Weekly - Mondays - 7:00 PM
Producer & Host: Richard Rudolph, PhD.
The program is an interview with Jarrett Abbott who is the Director of the Center for Working Class Politics which is a research institute dedicated to surveying the political and economic attitudes of working-class voters, statistical analyses of elections, and the construction of a comprehensive database of progressive candidate demographics, strategy, and messaging. The interview focused on a recent report that Professor Joan Williams and Jarret Abbot have put together, "The Lefts' Coalition Crisis: Understanding the Massive Divide Between Working Class and College Educated Voters, and How to Bridge It." The report points out that the left needs to develop class competence. We need to connect with people whose top priorities are paychecks, prices and personal safety. It is not just about winning elections as crucial as that is when democracy is under attack. It's about understanding that people need a sense of personal and economic security before they will support the changes that progressives are calling for. While Liberals are primarily concerned about costs / working class folks are also concerned about cost, but economic security is the highest working class priority. Protecting Social Security, Medicare, lowering rents and housing costs, drug prices, Medicare and affordable childcare. All of this requires a steady income stream, a secure economic future, rising wages, creating jobs and boosting economic growth. Given these working class concerns, the key to success is to keep focus on the economy. The lesson is not that working-class voters are unreachable. It's that you can't reach them if you don't prioritize the issues that they care most about. The report also points out that class competence can increase working-class support for progressive policies on hot button culture and climate issues. The key is mutual respect accompanied by class-competent reframing around working-class values can move public opinion in a progressive direction.
WMPG-FM. Univ of So. Maine - Weekly - Mondays - 7:00 PM
Producer & Host: Richard Rudolph, PhD.
The program is an interview with Jarrett Abbott who is the Director of the Center for Working Class Politics which is a research institute dedicated to surveying the political and economic attitudes of working-class voters, statistical analyses of elections, and the construction of a comprehensive database of progressive candidate demographics, strategy, and messaging. The interview focused on a recent report that Professor Joan Williams and Jarret Abbot have put together, "The Lefts' Coalition Crisis: Understanding the Massive Divide Between Working Class and College Educated Voters, and How to Bridge It." The report points out that the left needs to develop class competence. We need to connect with people whose top priorities are paychecks, prices and personal safety. It is not just about winning elections as crucial as that is when democracy is under attack. It's about understanding that people need a sense of personal and economic security before they will support the changes that progressives are calling for. While Liberals are primarily concerned about costs / working class folks are also concerned about cost, but economic security is the highest working class priority. Protecting Social Security, Medicare, lowering rents and housing costs, drug prices, Medicare and affordable childcare. All of this requires a steady income stream, a secure economic future, rising wages, creating jobs and boosting economic growth. Given these working class concerns, the key to success is to keep focus on the economy. The lesson is not that working-class voters are unreachable. It's that you can't reach them if you don't prioritize the issues that they care most about. The report also points out that class competence can increase working-class support for progressive policies on hot button culture and climate issues. The key is mutual respect accompanied by class-competent reframing around working-class values can move public opinion in a progressive direction.