Les Leopold’s article argues that the working class has turned away from the Democratic and liberal establishment because too many liberal institutions preach solidarity while practicing disposability. He begins with Oberlin College’s 2020 layoffs of unionized food service and maintenance workers, using that betrayal as a metaphor for a broader political crisis: elites talk about inclusion, community, and shared sacrifice, but when budgets tighten, workers get sacrificed while administrators, donors, consultants, and corporate-aligned interests remain protected. Leopold ties that hypocrisy to the collapse of Democratic strength across the Midwest, where mass layoffs, deindustrialization, NAFTA, and job insecurity have left deep political scars.
Oberlin College’s layoffs exposed how elite liberal institutions can abandon blue-collar workers while maintaining a public language of care, community, and justice.
Leopold argues that mass layoffs are not just economic events; they are political radicalizers that push workers away from the Democratic establishment.
His research found that as county mass layoff rates rose, Democratic vote share fell between 1996 and 2020, especially across the crumbling “Blue Wall” states.
The article cites a YouGov survey of 3,000 voters in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin showing broad negative views of Democrats and strong rural support for an independent working-class political formation.
Leopold argues that Democrats cannot rebuild trust with slogans like “opportunity society”; they must put job security, federal job guarantees, and working-class candidates at the center of politics.
The progressive conclusion is unavoidable: working people need material security, not liberal branding. A party that protects donors, consultants, and corporate comfort while asking workers to absorb the pain will continue losing the very people it claims to represent. The answer is not technocratic messaging. It is working-class power, job guarantees, union strength, anti-corporate politics, and candidates who know what it means to live under economic insecurity.