Democrats need to focus on class instead of race

When it comes to identity politics, let’s be honest: Republicans play the game like the Harlem Globetrotters, whereas the Democrats come across as the hapless Washington Generals. Let’s face it: Republicans and especially President Trump have been very successful driving wedges between various demographics and pitting them against each other.

This is most obvious when it comes to race. There is no doubt that this country continues to suffer from racial strife and that some groups continue to suffer from systemic racial issues. But something interesting happened over the last decade or so which worked against the Democrats. Two terms came into our usage which illustrate this are “people of color” and “white privilege.”

I can tell you as a first-generation Indian American about all the vitriolic racial abuse I have faced over the last four decades. There have been physical attacks, verbal insults, incidents at work, at school, in the military, and walking down the street minding my own business. Having a racially ambiguous look, I have been called every slur you can think of.  

I don’t want your sympathy. I just want you to understand these two things. First, the racial abuse I have dealt with my whole life doesn’t compare to what Black Americans have to deal with on a daily basis. And despite all the racial abuse I have dealt with, as an upper middle-class Indian American, I have had a bit more privilege than white people in depressed communities like Appalachia.

So as we watched Democrats paint this incredibly and wonderfully diverse country into two simplistic racial demographics — “persons of color” or “BIPOC” (Black, indigenous, and people of color) versus white people — you could already see the train wreck happening in slow motion. Non-Black “persons of color” have moved markedly toward the Republicans. 

Thirty-four percent of Asian voters are Republicans. Indian-Americans (the group I belong to) has seen a drop in support for the Democratic Party. Among Latinos, Donald Trump saw his share of their vote move from 28 percent in 2016, to 36 percent in 2020, to 42 percent in 2024. That was the largest percentage of Latinos ever to vote for a Republican presidential candidate.

Meanwhile, Democrats have also seen the historical core of their voting bloc — working class white people — flock in droves to MAGA land. Sixty-six percent of white Americans without a college degree voted for Trump. We have come a long way from the days of FDR, haven’t we? 

I would be insulting you if I insisted that using those two terms alone was the cause of all this. But I do think they do speak to the drop in support for Democrats from these groups. The most obvious is that white privilege does exist, but not for every white person. I went to college at Ohio State in the late 1990s and early 2000s. There was a big line of demarcation between white people and poor white people, and white people would be the first to let you know about it.

And when you did take road trips and went through depressed white communities, you could see why. It is not even close to the American Dream, and it is hard for people to rise out of it. That is what makes Vice President JD Vance’s rise to higher office that much more remarkable.

Now take Indian Americans like me who come to this country. Many already have college degrees, including advanced degrees. Others come here to obtain those degrees or as highly skilled workers. When these people, like any other group, come to this country, they look at how Black Americans are treated and ask themselves whether they want to be in the same category. Do you think they leave their countries to come here and claim to be “marginalized?”

We use the term “white adjacency” as a disparaging term toward Asian, African and Latino voters who went for Trump. But the reality is that many of these people see how badly foundational Black Americans are treated and don’t want to be lumped in with them. They may also see how badly depressed white communities are and realize that maybe America has been better to them than to the people who have been here for generations.

And yet talking points from Democratic leadership still project that anyone white in this country has it good and the rest of us are marginalized or worse. In the meantime, there is a massive opportunity being wasted.

President Trump’s disastrous handling of the American economy has exacerbated a major schism that Democrats absolutely need to play identity politics with. There are two Americas and two economies. There have always been “haves” and “have-nots” in America. But most Americans are now in the “have not” category.

Prices have risen while wages are stagnant. Everyone who is not in the 1 percent of American income groups is definitely hurting. Young people can’t afford houses. Health care costs keep going up. Tariffs are killing small businesses and farmers. Immigration raids have shut down local economies. And it’s only going to get worse. Let’s face it, the majority of Americans are going to be going through tough times for the long haul.

And that is what you need to stress. Democrats need to drive that wedge between classes instead of races. Many people from “marginalized groups” in the top 1 percent, and many privileged people are about to face financial calamity as Trump’s policies take shape.

By focusing on class and making sure your messaging stays on class disparities, you can get through to many Trump voters that they are not in the “have” category. In fact, many of the people they thought would be hurt by Trump are benefiting more than they are. And that thought alone will finally break the identity politics game in the Democrats’ favor.

Jos Joseph is a published writer and is a graduate of the Harvard Extension School and Ohio State University. He is a Marine veteran who served in Iraq. He currently lives in Anaheim, Calif.