The GOP is Now the Party of Workers

President Donald J. Trump delivers remarks on America’s Energy Dominance and Manufacturing Revival Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2019, at the Shell Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Complex in Monaca, Pa. (Official White House Photo by Tia Dufour)

Nine of the ten richest states voted for Hillary in 2016. Democrats represent 41 of the 50 wealthiest districts. Despite their constant calls for increased welfare, one thing is for certain, the Democrat Party is the party of the wealthy. Meanwhile, the GOP has become the party of the working class. James Pinkerton explains in The American Conservative writing (abridged):

Presidential candidate Joe Biden is reportedly considering a proposal for a new tax on Wall Street and the wealthy.

Clearly pressure from Biden’s left—from Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, who have proposed wealth taxes of their own—is forcing the centrist Delawarean, long known for his coziness with big banks and big donors, to shift his ideology. For the flexible politician, it’s never too late to change.

As we all know, the Democratic Party as a whole is shifting. Defeat in the 2016 election has liberated activists from the leash of Clinton-Obama neoliberalism, and now the party is embracing populism, redistributionism—even democratic socialism.

Of course, this shift is not without consequences, including this September 26 headline from CNBC: “Wall Street Democratic donors warn the party: We’ll sit out, or back Trump, if you nominate Elizabeth Warren.”

What if the lefty economic thinking of Paul Krugman and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—both of whom have endorsed substantially higher tax rates—really is the wave of the Democrats’ future?

It has been a long time, after all, since the Republicans were the party of plutocracy. Setting aside the stray Koch Brother—and an economic policy platform that still includes whole chapters borrowed from the Cato Institute.

The GOP is now the party of workers.

By contrast, the Democrats are the party of owners. (Admittedly, the visible line bosses may still be Republicans, but their bosses, the ones operating from Manhattan, are mostly Democrats.).

Thus in the 2016 presidential election, nine of the 10 richest states voted for Hillary Clinton, and nine of the 10 poorest voted for Donald Trump.

Today, Democrats represent all 10 of the wealthiest congressional districts in the country, as well as 41 of the top 50.