A Modest Proposal for Democrats: Use the Concept of "Class"
A little under four years ago, Scott Alexander wrote "A Modest Proposal For Republicans: Use The Word "Class."" Now, I have a proposal in the same vein directed at Democrats.
I won't tell you to stop with the 52 genders stuff. That would be a good idea, but you aren't going to listen to it. Instead, I'll tell you to double down on something that's already very politically correct: being pro-choice. The great thing about this issue is that the large majority already agrees with you. The pro-choice side won in referendums in Kansas, Missouri, and Kentucky. The challenge is convincing those people to care enough about the issue to vote based on it.
The standard pro-choice messaging leans heavily into feminism, which is very effective at firing up support among feminists. But to the pro-choice swing voter who's grossed out by both feminism and Bible Belt evangelicalism, that message is counter-productive. Instead, pro-choice messaging directed at swing voters should lean into the Democrats' emerging reputation as the party of upper-class, educated, well-behaved whites. The message will be that the Democratic Party will help you achieve the American dream, a high-paying office job, a nice car and a house in the suburbs, getting married, and your kids being born within a loving marriage. The GOP is the party that will, through their abortion bans, force you or your brother, sister, son, or daughter into low-class behaviors like teenage pregnancy, having children out of wedlock, paternity lawsuits, kids being raised by their grandparents, and living in a trailer park. The Democrats are the party of high-investment parenting; the Republicans are the party of low-investment parenting. Imagine the ads:
A very young woman and her parents walk through the halls of a courthouse. She's slightly frightened as she locks eyes with a guy with prison tattoos. Also in the hallway are cops and a sleazy lawyer in an ugly suit. She enters the courtroom and is told that the other party, "Dustin" didn't show up. The judge tells her he'll issue a bench warrant for his arrest. She asks when they'll find him and when she'll get her child support. The judge casually responds that it could be tomorrow, it could be six months, it could be never. She screams that she's now being left to raise a child alone and starts ranting against the abortion ban. Her parents try to restrain her and the judge says "order, order," and then tells police to take her to jail for contempt of court. As she's led out in handcuffs, she again meets eye-to-eye with the prison-tat guy, who chuckles and smiles back at her as she looks around in horror.
A cop rings the doorbell and a young man answers. The cop hands him papers and, in a Southern accent, tells him he's being served for a paternity lawsuit by a woman named Angel. The man, who also speaks with a Southern accent, says he hasn't heard from Angel in six months and that she told him she was going to get an abortion. The cop laughs and says, "Abortion! Don't you follow the news, son? They made abortion illegal." Young man then turns, walks inside, and tells his mother what happened. Both share a tearful embrace and express regret that neither voted.
A family sits down to dinner. They have a large house in a wooded area, an expensive car and SUV in the driveway, hunting trophies in the garage, diplomas on the wall, and they're white. In other words, they're people who everyone used to assume would vote Republican. Son and daughter, who the viewer will imagine are twins, are about fifteen years old. Mom asks daughter how things are going at school. She says her volleyball team is going to play at Granite Hills; they're gonna dissect frogs in her science class, and then, in the same nonchalant voice, that "Juliet is pregnant." Her parents are taken aback. The Bart Simpson-esque son chuckles at their surprise and says, "What'd you boomers think was going to happen when you voted Republican? This is the new normal. Michigan is Mississippi now." He then turns to his sister and says, "I just wonder who the father is," as the parents look horrified. (This particular ad should be run in the Midwest, not so much in Georgia or North Carolina.)
A woman is playing in the backyard with her two toddlers. The next shot is her putting her hand on her new car and smiling. (Cars are an important status symbol for working and lower-middle-class people.) Then she's on the couch, cuddling with her husband and looking at her wedding photos. Then she's in the kitchen cooking something; it's a clean, modern kitchen with modern appliances. She isn't shown working a job; the implication is that she's a housewife. Then she begins talking about how happy she is with her life, which she would never have gotten if she had been forced to have a kid at eighteen years old. She says she knows which party wants to give her the freedom to make her own choices and which wants to take it away. The idea behind this ad is that legal abortion is not just for women who want to have high-powered careers and no kids,* it's also for women who want to be housewives. While it shouldn't be stated too openly lest it cause a backlash, the subtle reminder should be that men, particularly high-value men, do not want to marry single mothers.
The best part of this strategy is that it can wind up goading the conservative intelligentsia, the members of which almost all live in upper or middle-class neighborhoods, into defending these low-class behaviors. Muh Salt of the Earth Working People! They'll tell themselves they might lose in Belmont, but they'll win in Fishtown, and there are more people in Fishtown. What they don't get is that working-class whites and Hispanics largely want the same things middle and upper-class people do. They want their grandchildren born within wedlock. They don't want their daughter coming home from high school pregnant. They don't want their son paying eighteen years of child support because of a mistake he made while he was seventeen years old. While some express disinterest in or even contempt for higher education, they still aspire to make money and own a big house and a pickup truck. While some low-class people proudly embrace dysfunction, they are the minority and don't vote much.
*That's the fantasy conservatives have concocted and convinced many people to believe. In reality, abortion patients are more likely to be low-income, uneducated, and non-white.