Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez maintained that the term “working class” is a euphemism in American politics that refers to race and gender, effectively applying to only a few Americans who are working.
On MSNBC’s “The Bernie Sanders Effect,” which covered class politics and the influence of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, the New York Democrat argued that any real discussion of working-class voters must encompass the nation’s multiracial working force.
Since losing the White House in 2024, Democrats have spent much time discussing how to win back working-class voters.
The host started with an image most people associate with that voter.
“When you mentioned the working class, you know, when you talk about working-class voters, I think in a lot of people’s minds, and for all kinds of reasons, when you think about a working-class voter, you think of, you know, what Sarah Palin would call Joe Sixpack,” the host stated. “They look a certain way. They are often a certain color. They live in a certain place.”
Palin, the former Governor of Alaska and Republican candidate for Vice President in 2008, used this phrase at the vice presidential debate that year.
Then the host asked: “What don’t Democrats understand about working-class voters? The definition, the way to talk about it, the way to reach them.”
“Yeah, well, you know, I think, to your point, there’s a lot of euphemisms in politics,” Ocasio-Cortez replied.
“It’s like talking in code, almost,” the host remarked.
“That’s right,” Ocasio-Cortez responded. “And for a very long time, ‘working class’ was a euphemism for race and gender, and it was really about a very specific and only one slice of the working class.”
She explained that the real working class is broader and squeezed.
“And we are talking about the actual working class in this country, which is people who are, they make a living from their job, from working, that they’re trying to put food on the table, put their kids through school, and if you’re lucky, be able to save up for a rainy day,” she clarified. “But increasingly, people are not able to do that.”
“And I think there is no discussion about the working class unless you are talking about all of the working class in America, which is a multiracial working class,” she added.
“Do Democrats do that, though?” the host asked.
“You know …” Ocasio-Cortez started.
“I’m sorry I’m asking you to critique the party, but this is an important conversation right now,” the host said.
Ocasio-Cortez said Republicans had forced her party to dumb down its message about certain parts of the base.
“I think that the right has tried to scare a lot of Democrats out of speaking forcefully about our full coalition,” she said.
She pointed first to Black women and to the job cuts in the federal workforce, done by the Department of Government Efficiency under the presidency of Donald Trump.
“When we talk about unemployment in this country, Black women are experiencing the brunt of unemployment statistics the most,” she said. “They are the most laid off by DOGE efforts in the federal workforce.”
Also, she pointed to Latina entrepreneurs and white working-class communities that struggle with housing costs.
“And when we talk about Latinas as starting some of, having some of the highest rates of starting small businesses in the United States, and you also are talking about white working class areas as well in our ability to make rent, afford their homes,” she said. “We have to talk about these issues in a way that addresses everyone and includes everyone without leaving people behind.”
Ocasio-Cortez rejected the lesson that some drew from the 2024 election.
“And I think that one of the erroneous takeaways from 2024 was that really embracing and celebrating the rich diversity of our country is a political liability,” she said. “And I couldn’t disagree with that more.”
The clip ended while she elaborated: “I actually think …”
