From The Hill
The Democratic Party has shifted to be more liberal over the past decade, with self-identified liberals now making up a majority of the party, according to a new survey. The Reuters/Ipsos poll, released Tuesday ahead of Michigan’s closely watched Democratic Senate primary, found that 71 percent of Democrats now describe themselves as “liberal” — up…
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“We are a great country, an unselfish country, a compassionate country.”
— Robert F. Kennedy in his final speech, June 1968
In the early morning hours of June 5, 1968, Robert F. Kennedy won the California presidential primary. He took the stage at Los Angeles’ Ambassador Hotel and pointed to results in Colorado, Idaho, and Iowa as proof that working-class Democrats — and Americans — “wanted change.” RFK was shot minutes later and passed away the next day. The Democratic Party’s disconnect from working Americans has only grown more vast since the tragic events of June 1968.
Fifty-eight years later, Tim Barnicle writes that Democrats are ready to reconnect with working Americans again. He joined “Morning Joe” today to discuss his new column “Prove It: Democrats and the Working Class”. His Substack piece explains why the path to winning runs through the same coalition Kennedy put together in 1968.
Willie Geist: RFK was the brother of a president, a former attorney general, a senator from New York. How did he become the anti-establishment candidate?
TB: He left the Johnson administration, ran for Senate in New York, and watched the party drift away from working-class solutions. As the Tet Offensive escalated, he had a real crisis of confidence and moved toward an insurgent lane. It mirrors what you’re seeing in the Democratic Party today.
Willie Geist: Is this a left-versus-right fight within the party, or something else?
TB: It’s an up-versus-down appeal to working-class voters who have been bleeding away from the party for over a decade. In 2024, Democrats ceded 56% of working-class voters to Trump. If they can’t get that class of voters back, they’re going to continue to lose.
Jonathan Lemire: RFK reached out to Latino voters, to Black voters, to white working-class voters. How do Democrats win them back?
TB: Sixty-six percent of Americans support universal health coverage. Sixty-seven percent feel the economy is going in the wrong direction. The solutions are there, but moderate party leaders need to look in the mirror — because their disapproval rating is around 60 percent, same as Trump’s.
Eugene Robinson: To what extent has the working class itself changed since 1968?
TB: It’s been hollowed out. More than half of Americans can’t afford a $1,000 emergency expense, and 60% live paycheck to paycheck. It’s not just a Democratic or Republican problem — it’s an American problem.
Willie Geist: Trump has made inroads with working-class voters. How do Democrats respond?
TB: He’s made cultural appeals on racial lines that have been politically beneficial to him, but not to the voters themselves. That’s the problem Democrats have to solve now — not just how to appeal to those voters, but how to provide real solutions that bring them back.
This conversation has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
LISA RUBIN ON THE DOJ’S WEAPONIZATION FUND ORDER
“Nothing that Todd Blanche did yesterday eviscerates or even modifies that settlement agreement. This is really nothing more than me scribbling something on a napkin, handing it to you, and you saying that it has the force of a binding written order.”
JONATHAN MARTIN ON MICHIGAN
“It’ll still be the same fight in the 2060s — the Bernie vs. Hillary proxy war. It hasn’t changed. But the bottom line today is that Abdul El-Sayed is the superior candidate who ran a superior campaign, and that shows. The deeper issue is that winning a primary is fine, but you’ve got to win a general in a battleground state like Michigan.”
Keep up on MS NOW.
The post What RFK’s 1968 campaign can teach today’s Democratic Party appeared first on MS NOW.
From MS Now.
On the Toronto set of Sarah Polley’s forthcoming adaptation of “The Bell Jar,” Eilish has gone full 1950s glam.
Source: Vogue
She has carried out six charity wing walks over the past decade.
Source: BBC.
The 56-year-old, who shot to prominence in 1991 musical comedy film The Commitments, died in a motorcycle crash last week.
Source: BBC.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham responds to Archie Goodburn’s impassioned plea for more money and resources to be put into brain cancer research by inviting the Scottish swimmer to a personal meeting.
Source: BBC.
EXCLUSIVE: Numan Acar (Young Sherlock) has inked a deal to join The Mummy, the next installment in the action-adventure franchise from Universal Pictures. Also newly locked are a pair of franchise veterans, Kevin J. O’Connor and Oded Fehr. Both O’Connor and Fehr were introduced in 1999’s The Mummy, with Fehr reprising in 2001’s The Mummy Returns. O’Connor played Beni […]
Source: Deadline.
Clavicular is no longer facing criminal prosecution in connection with a fight at a short-term rental in Florida … because prosecutors dropped the charges. As we previously reported, the popular and controversial influencer and streamer found…
From TMZ.
From The Hill
Former White House Communications Director during President Trump’s first term Stephanie Grisham filed a restraining order against Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio), following allegations of abuse from his ex-wife. Grisham’s counsel Mark S. Zaid announced on social platform X that they filed for a temporary restraining order against Miller as an ongoing lawsuit continues. The case…
From The Hill
Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico said Monday that Republican attacks on transgender people are “culture war fights designed to tear us apart.” “I mean, I don’t think we win by selling people out. And we’re refusing to do that in this campaign. This is a campaign of, by and for all Texans. And I…
From The Hill
In a reversal, a federal appeals court has once again blocked the Trump administration from rescinding billions in climate funds issued under the Biden administration’s signature Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated part of a previous preliminary injunction that temporarily bars the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from clawing back billions in “green…
UK Sport will no longer channel investment in skiing and snowboarding through the sports’ UK governing body, GB Snowsport.
Source: BBC.