- Stanley Greenberg warned about tje Democratic Party's struggle to appeal to working-class voters of color,
- He says there's "no room for error" in trying to reverse this erosion of support among voters of color.
- The famed pollster also writes in American Prospect that Obama isn't the answer in solving the problem.
Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg delivered a warning shot to his party on Monday, saying there's a possibility that the party is at risk of losing working-class voters of color.
"After studying working-class voters for nearly four decades, I believe the trajectory can be shifted or reversed. But there is no room for error. There is no room for fools," Greenberg writes in the "American Prospect."
Greenberg also warns that Democrats' perceived strength is also hurting the party, arguing against using high-profile campaign appearances by former President Barack Obama.
"[Obama] rallies helped motivate Republican voters to vote but had disappointing results for Democrats," Greenberg writes.
As a Yale Academic, Greenberg documented the Democratic Party's waning support among white working-class voters in Michigan's Macomb County in the 1980s, coining the term "Reagan Democrats" for voters who backed JFK in 1960 and they deserted the party after they felt it had abandoned them.
Trump's gains among Latino voters, especially in South Florida, have deeply worried other Democratic officials. Greenberg argues that Trump's appeal to working-class voters of color is rooted in their distrust of Obama's handling of the financial crisis.
"They believed Obama's principal policy to rescue the economy was the bailout of the Wall Street banks that had 'played with our money,'" Greenberg writes. The Obama administration's failure to prosecute the banks' CEOs just confirmed the nexus between Wall Street and Washington.
Democrats are facing rough midterm elections. But Greenberg says the party could help itself if it touts some of President Joe Biden's economic agenda, which he says is popular in the "battleground states and districts" that will be closely watched in November.
"In our survey, respondents read the transformative policies in the American Rescue Plan, the bipartisan infrastructure legislation, and Build Back Better," Greenberg writes. "They heard Democrats concerned about public safety, crime, and funding and reforming the police, not defunding them. And they heard Democrats embracing a blue-collar message and taxing big corporations."
Biden faces an enormously difficult task when it comes to passing his climate and spending plan known as "Build Back Better." Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia told Insider recently that it was "dead," holding out the prospect of talks on smaller pieces of the plan. Manchin has also said the party needs to tackle other priorities like elections reform first.