Research indicates that Democrats need to regain significant voting shares of both males and the middle class in order to regain national political competitiveness.
The American male in particular, has had a difficult time adjusting to the changes in the American economy during the past two decades, which is roughly though perhaps not coincidentally, the period of time during which the Republicans have pretty much chased the Democrats out of DC, politically speaking.
First, the formerly well paying blue collar, unionized industries have either disappeared from our shores or their work forces taken over by hard working immigrants who require less money and are not in position to join the union.
Second, the new industries, based around service and technology, require college educated workers. The public education system in the US has not educated boys (or girls) to be scientists or engineers, so that leaves service based jobs like Sales, Marketing, Customer Service. etc. as the main source of employment.
Women are now entering and graduating college at higher rates than men and it could be argued that women are better suited for the “high touch” jobs being created in the US globalized economy these days.
The nature of today’s global business is that production is handled offshore, while management, sales and marketing positions are filled domestically.
In fact, sales and marketing jobs, once the nearly exclusive domain of males, are being filled ever more successfully by females across a wide swath of the service sector.
What can Democrats do to address the dislocation of the American male in the marketplace, and thus recapture his vote?
