Joan C. Williams, a law professor and expert on social inequality, dives into the urgent need to reconnect the political left with working-class voters. She discusses the 'diploma divide' and how it fuels political allegiance to the far right. Williams highlights the plight of the white working class and emphasizes how addressing economic concerns while embracing cultural values can bridge political divides. With engaging stories and fresh narratives, she champions a more inclusive approach to empower diverse voices and mend the broken ties in American democracy.
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Diploma Divide Drives Politics
The political divide in the US aligns strongly with education level, with Trump winning two-thirds of non-college counties.
Non-college voters, including people of color, are shifting away from Democrats, highlighting the diploma divide's impact on elections.
insights INSIGHT
Left's Focus Misses Working Class
Democrats focus on issues important to college grads, not the working-class majority without degrees.
This creates a disconnect as working-class voters prioritize different concerns, like economic stability over elite urban issues.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Center Economic Anger Progressively
Democrats should address the economic anger of non-college voters by advocating that hard work should pay off.
Leaning into progressive economic ideals can reconnect with this group without abandoning core values.
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In this book, Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler present a contrarian view that the future is brighter than commonly perceived. They document how exponential technologies, DIY innovators, technophilanthropists, and the rising billion (the world's poor empowered by modern communication technology) are conspiring to solve global problems such as access to clean water, food, energy, healthcare, education, and freedom. The authors provide examples and strategic roadmaps for governments, industries, and entrepreneurs to address these challenges, offering a optimistic outlook on the potential for technological innovation to improve human living standards[2][4][5].
What Works for Women at Work
Four Patterns Working Women Need to Know
Joan C. Williams
Rachel Dempsey
This book, authored by Joan C. Williams and Rachel Dempsey, provides a multi-generational perspective on the realities of today’s workplace. It identifies four key patterns of bias that affect women: Prove-It-Again!, the Tightrope, the Maternal Wall, and the Tug of War. Based on interviews with 127 successful working women, over half of whom are women of color, the book offers practical advice and strategies to help women succeed in high-powered careers. It emphasizes that office politics often favor men and provides tools for women to be savvier and more resilient in their professional lives.
Outclassed
Outclassed
How the Left Lost the Working Class
Joan C. Williams
An eye-opening, urgent call to mend the broken relationship between college and non-college grads of all races that is driving politics to the far right in the US. Is there a single change that could simultaneously protect democracy, spur progress on climate change, enact sane gun policies, and improve our response to the next pandemic? Yes: changing the class dynamics driving American politics. The far right manipulates class anger to undercut progressive goals and liberals often inadvertently play into their hands. In Outclassed: How the Left Lost the Working Class and How to Win Them Back(St. Martin's Press, 2025), Joan C. Williams explains how to reverse that process by bridging the “diploma divide”, while maintaining core progressive values. She offers college-educated Americans insights into how their values reflect their lives and their lives reflect their privilege. With illuminating stories —from the Portuguese admiral who led that country’s COVID response to the lawyer who led the ACLU’s gay marriage response (and more)— Williams demonstrates how working-class values reflect working-class lives. Then she explains how the far right connects culturally with the working-class, deftly manipulating racism and masculine anxieties to deflect attention from the ways far-right policies produce the economic conditions disadvantaging the working-class. Whether you are a concerned citizen committed to saving democracy or a politician or social justice warrior in need of messaging advice, Outclassed offers concrete guidance on how liberals can forge a multi-racial cross-class coalition capable of delivering on progressive goals.
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