The struggle for the votes from the working class has never been more openly discussed. In the mainstream media, we’ve heard the phrase “working class” far more than the classless phrase “middle class” in recent weeks. This is new feature for national elections.
“White working class voters” were crudely characterized as the “lunch bucket” crowd, and they, we were told, supported Hillary Clinton. After her primary wins in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania, the pundits focused on that voting cluster as explaining the results. “White working class males” were similarly lumped into Hillary Clinton’s column.

“Women” were for Clinton. The term was used sometimes to describe working-class woman, but neither their class relationships nor their ethnic backgrounds were ever mentioned. They were portrayed strictly as a gender vote. A significant percent of these voters either belong to labor unions or would if it were possible.

When the phrase “Black voters” is used, the phrase working class is never applied. These voters live a non-class bubble, the media experts told us. Yet, far and away, the largest percent of Black voters fit the traditional working-class definition. Pundits also never talked about the fact that millions of African American voters are women. The media assigned African American voters to Barack Obama without hesitation. Ironically, however, Obama was typically characterized as having difficulty appealing to working-class people and women.

Similarly, the media declassed college-educated voters and never referred to them as working class, even though millions of professionals, professors, and other white collar workers are working class, are members of unions, or want to belong. By the way, many intellectual workers bring their lunch to work, too. The media put this group of workers into Obama’s camp, but, in so doing, some people derisively referred to them as elitist voters.

Then through mass media exit polling and others means the pundits laid out the voting patterns of various religious, racial and age groupings. Some reported a trade union vote but it was always unclear what that designation meant.

The media appears to be trying to explain voting patterns without a knowledge of the voter.