The Democrats have become the party of coastal elites, academia, and the dependency class, and their standing with the more traditional blue-collar constituencies shows it – the Democrats are losing blue-collar workers, and nowhere is this more apparent than in Philadelphia, a key city in a key must-win state in the general election. In Philly, working-class voters are moving over to the Republicans, and it could cost Kamala Harris in the November presidential election.
Gabriel Lopez grew up in a family of Democrats in the Kensington neighborhood of deep-blue Philadelphia. So in 2016, the first presidential election he was old enough to vote in, he picked Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump.
But Lopez, now 27, says his views have changed. He switched his registration to Republican this year, and he plans to vote for Trump, who’s running for president a third time.
“Democrats keep saying [Trump] is going to bring down the economy, but he was already president for four years, and taxes were lower,” Lopez said. “We’re tired of the same politics. We got a different type of guy, and the people actually love him.”
Mr. Lopez isn’t alone in this estimation.
Jim Kohn voted for Democrats much of life — that is, until Trump came along in 2016.
Kohn, a retired truck driver who lives in South Philly and for years voted along with the Teamsters union, is still a registered Democrat. But he’s planning to vote for Trump for the third time, and he believes more of his neighbors frustrated with inflation and the high cost of goods will, too.
“When Trump was president, everything was cheaper,” he said. “Now, everything is so sky high.”
This should come as a surprise to no one; people have and always will tend to vote their wallets. “It’s the economy, stupid,” and almost every economic measure in Trump’s first term was better than they are now; people aren’t blind to this. That’s almost certainly part of the reason Trump is starting to pull ahead in the Keystone State.
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There are just too many things the Harris/Walz ticket doesn’t get.
- People are tired of paying through the nose for gasoline, home heating oil, natural gas, and electricity.
- People are tired of spending half their paycheck on a week’s groceries.
- People are tired of having thousands of illegal immigrants granted housing and benefits in their communities, placing unfair burdens on housing and services.
- People are tired of being lectured about their carbon footprints by people who globe-trot in carbon-spewing private jets.
- People are tired of being told they are intolerant bigots if they object to a boy being in their daughter’s locker room – or showers.
- People are tired of the wackadoodle “progressive” left that has largely taken over the Democratic Party.
People are tired of all this, and they are showing it by looking at the other guy in the race and saying, “You know, what he’s saying, it makes sense.”
Pennsylvania will be the battleground state in this election. Philadelphia is a key area in that state – traditionally and still a Democrat stronghold, reportedly the site of election shenanigans not only in 2020 but in other years. But even if the Philly metro area remains blue, a shift of a few thousand votes may tip the balance for Pennsylvania as a state – and Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes may well decide who will be sitting at the Resolute Desk in January. And if the Democrats keep on bleeding their traditional working-class voters, they may well lose the Keystone state decisively.
