How Democrats Forgot To Be Normal, with Joan Williams

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May 29, 2025

Joan Williams, a distinguished professor of law emerita at UC Law San Francisco and author of 'Outclassed', dives into the political disconnect between the Democrats and non-college educated voters. She discusses her viral essay explaining Trump’s appeal and introduces the concept of the 'diploma divide.' Williams argues that Democrats need to merge progressive values with economic messaging to reconnect with working-class voters, addressing the importance of class dynamics, shifting political coalitions, and battling identity politics.

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INSIGHT

Class Culture Gap and 2016 Election

The 2016 success of Donald Trump was deeply rooted in a growing class culture gap between college-educated elites and non-college white working class.
The left’s failure to understand this gap and address economic concerns alienated many working-class voters.

INSIGHT

Economic Populism Denial

Economic populism is often denied as being about economics due to identity threat among elites.
This denial prevents the Brahmin left from hearing the grievances of non-college voters who feel economically disenfranchised.

INSIGHT

Economic Grievance and Trump Rhetoric

Many working-class people feel economically ripped off due to stagnant wages despite rising productivity.
Trump’s rhetoric like 'Stop the Steal' symbolized stealing their futures, not just elections, resonating deeply with these voters.

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Back in 2016, Joan Williams, distinguished professor of law (emerita) at UC Law San Francisco, wrote an essay for the Harvard Business Review on why President Donald Trump attracted so many non-college voters. It went viral with almost four million views, becoming the most-read article in the 90-year history of the publication.

Williams’ new book, Outclassed: How the Left Lost the Working Class and How to Win Them Back, outlines how the seemingly common view that her fellow progressives must abandon their social causes to win back those non-college-educated voters is wrong. What is required, she argues, is a renewed understanding of class. She introduces her conceptualization of the “diploma divide,” or the gap between Americans with and without college degrees. Her worldview divides the electorate into three class-based groups: the college-educated, upper-class “Brahmin left”, the low-income working (middle) class, and the right-wing merchant class, which pushes for economic policies that benefit the rich. Her argument is that a new coalition between the latter two has shifted politics to the right.

In this week’s Capitalisn’t episode, Luigi and Bethany invite Williams to discuss whether our society indeed breaks down so neatly. If it does, how does her breakdown help us understand recent electoral shifts and trends in populism and why the left is on the losing end of both? As she writes in her book and discusses in the episode, “[the Brahmin] left’s anger is coded as righteous. Why is non-elite anger discounted as “grievance?” Together, their conversation sheds light on how the left can win back voters without compromising on progressive values.Over the last four years, Capitalisn’t has interviewed conservative thinkers like Oren Cass, Patrick Deneen, and Sohrab Ahmari to understand how the political right developed a new platform after President Joe Biden’s victory in 2020. With this episode, we begin the same project with the left by asking: What could be the economic basis for a new progressive platform?

Show Notes:

Read an excerpt from Joan Williams' new book, “Outclassed: How the Left Lost the Working Class and How to Win Them Back,” out now at St. Martin's Press
Quiz: “Are You in a Class Bubble?”
What So Many People Don’t Get About the U.S. Working Class, by Joan Williams, Harvard Business Review, November 10, 2016