Category Archives: Liberal

BDS activists in Berlin. (photo credit:REUTERS)

More than 200 rabbis from the liberal movements of American Judaism signed a letter opposing Israels travel ban on leaders of the boycott movement against Israel.

The rabbis signing Wednesdays letter were responding to an incident last month in which Rabbi Alissa Wise of Jewish Voice for Peace, which supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, was prevented from boarding an Israel-bound airplane leaving Dulles Airport in Washington, DC.

Four other people traveling to Israel as part of an interfaith delegation, including two other Jews, a Christian and a Muslim, were also prevented from boarding the flight at the request of the Israeli government.

We hold diverse opinions on BDS. Even though many of us have substantive differences with Rabbi Wise and other rabbinic colleagues who support the BDS movement in some or all of its forms, we believe that the decision to bar Rabbi Wise from visiting Israel is anti-democratic and desecrates our vision of a diverse Jewish community that holds multiple perspectives, read the letter, which had been signed by 212 rabbis as of late Wednesday morning.

Boycotts are a legitimate nonviolent tactic that have been used both in our own country and around the world in order to create justice for marginalized and oppressed communities. Whether we support boycott is a controversy for the sake of heaven. It endures because we struggle together and debate how we can create peace, justice, and equality for Israelis and Palestinians alike, the letter said.

The signers included Rabbi Sharon Brous, of the independent IKAR congregation in Los Angeles; Rabbi Amy Eilberg of Los Altos, California, the first women ordained by the Conservative movement; and Rabbi Jill Jacobs, executive director of Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights.

In March, the Israeli parliament, or Knesset, amended the Law of Entry to prevent leaders of the BDS movement from being allowed into Israel. The amendment applies to organizations, as well as the leadership and senior activists of those groups, that take consistent and significant action against Israel through BDS and threaten it with material harm.

JVP said at the time of the incident that it was the first time the amendment had been enforced before passengers boarded their flights to Israel and the first time that Israel has denied entry to Jews, including a rabbi, for their support of BDS.

An anti-BDS bill making its way through Congress would expand existing law that bans boycotts imposed by foreign governments to include those imposed by international organizations like the European Union and the United Nations.

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Liberal US rabbis call on Israel to lift travel ban on BDS leaders - The Jerusalem Post

Former British Columbia finance minister Kevin Falcon, who ran a close second to Christy Clark for the BC Liberal leadership in 2011, says the party might now be best led by a caucus outsider who could overcome criticisms of the partys record in government.

Mr. Falcon, whose name frequently comes up as a potential successor to Ms. Clark, says hes not interested in running, having retired from politics in 2013.

The BC Liberals are preparing for a leadership contest to replace Ms. Clark, whose resignation took effect last Friday. The campaign will likely focus on what factors reduced the Liberals to a minority in the provincial legislature, setting the stage for the NDP to take power, and what direction the party must go to recover.

Mr. Falcon said it would be difficult for anyone from the previous government to take over the party. Thats going to be the challenge for candidates that are coming from the existing MLA cast, he said in an interview. Its not impossible; it just makes it more challenging to be that change candidate. I think outside candidates probably have that advantage.

However, Mr. Falcon, an executive vice-president with the B.C. investment company Anthem Capital Corp., says he wont be seeking the job.

I am not going to be a candidate for the leadership of the BC Liberal party and while I appreciate all of the calls, e-mails, texts and people stopping me on the street and encouraging me to run, my circumstances are similar to what led me to retire in the first place, Mr. Falcon said.

I have two young daughters and a very satisfying career in the private sector.

Mr. Falcon quipped that his days are being destroyed by having to respond to all the people calling about a leadership campaign that is not going to happen.

Ill never get any work done if I have to return all the calls and e-mails.

Among the calls have been outreach from the leadership prospects, largely members of the BC Liberal caucus, who have said they are considering leadership bids.

Ms. Clark won the BC Liberal leadership with 52-per-cent support, compared with 48 per cent for Mr. Falcon, who had considerable support in caucus over the one MLA who backed Ms. Clark. Mr. Falcon had previously served as ministers of finance, health and transportation, as well as deputy premier. He spent a dozen years as a member of the legislature. Ms. Clark led the Liberals to a surprise win in 2013. Mr. Falcon did not seek re-election.

This past spring, the New Democrats and Greens joined together to oust the Liberals in a confidence vote, prompting the Lieutenant-Governor to ask the NDP to form a new government.

John Horgan is now Premier and the Liberals find themselves in opposition after 16 years in power.

As defeat in the legislature became a near certainty, Ms. Clarks beleaguered Liberals tabled a Throne Speech in June that offered a wholesale remake of the partys election campaign.

Mr. Falcon said that Throne Speech presents a challenge to the party.

That recent Throne Speech was not helpful at all, to say the least, Mr. Falcon said.

By adopting the NDP-Green platform holus-bolus, it went against 16 years of largely principled policy leadership.

Ms. Clark, asked about that issue in a final news conference as leader, said the partys next leader would be free to break with the Throne Speech she presided over a point that others in the party have also made.

Mr. Falcon said integrity and transparency need to be front and centre for all candidates seeking the leadership, making specific reference to campaign finance reform and how government operates.

He also advised boldness in policy to address legitimate issues of affordability, especially in the Lower Mainland.

That means really bold and new ideas in transit, in housing, in daycare all of those issues that are going to be important for urban-suburban voters.

He also said there needs to be a debate about how to raise government funds. People talk often about how we spend governments money, but people need to focus about how we generate it.

BC Liberal caucus members Sam Sullivan, a former Vancouver mayor, former advanced education minister Andrew Wilkinson, ex-transportation minister Todd Stone, former education minister Mike Bernier and Jas Johal, a former TV reporter elected to the legislature this spring, have said they are considering runs for the leadership.

Outside the caucus, Iain Black, the former labour minister who is now president and CEO of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, has said he may run. Tory MP Dianne Watts, formerly mayor of Surrey, says she is being urged to run, but has not made any decision.

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BC Liberals' new leader should be an outsider, former politician says - The Globe and Mail

They basically run the Internet. Their parent company dwarfs every other corporation on Earth. But they are more terrified of offending the Left than breaking the law.

On Monday, Google decided to trample free expression and possibly flout federal labor regulations. Afraid of viral outrage from the Left, the international corporation fired a software engineer named James Damore for writing and disseminating an unpopular opinion.

In a ten-page internal memo, Damore dared to question the company line on diversity. He asked instead whether biological differences explain why so many more men than women work in Silicon Valley. He argued that by "shaming into silence" different opinions, Google "has created an ideological echo chamber where some ideas are too sacred to be honestly discussed. And Google proved he was right by firing him.

Google purports to value "honest discussion." And reasonable people should be able to disagree about these things. Google just didn't want the bad publicity of having someone with such ideas on their payroll. But never mind the incongruity or hypocrisy. The more important problem is that litigation is around the corner.

"I have a legal right to express my concerns about the terms and conditions of my working environment and to bring up potentially illegal behavior, which is what my document does," Damore told the New York Times.

According to Dan Eaton, an attorney and ethics professor at San Diego University, the engineer certainly has grounds for a case on two fronts. "First, federal labor law bars even non-union employers like Google from punishing an employee for communicating with fellow employees about improving working conditions," Eaton writes.

And second, because the memo was a statement of political views, Eaton says Google may have violated California law which "prohibits employers from threatening to fire employees to get them to adopt or refrain from adopting a particular political course of action."

An international corporation with armies of both lawyers, Google knew all this. They decided to take their chances with state and federal law anyway rather than stick up for one of their employees and risk public backlash. That's an incredibly telling decision from a company that has mastered everything from artificial intelligence to self-driving cars.

In short, the tech titan is scared. Not of losing talent. Not of legal fees from the pending litigation. And not of a potential settlement. No, Google just doesn't want to stir up outrage from the left and so they squashed speech.

Since their founding they prided themselves on their corporate motto: "Don't Be Evil." Maybe this would be a better motto: "Don't Be Craven."

Philip Wegmann is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.

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Google is more afraid of liberal outrage than federal law - Washington Examiner

9 Aug 2017, 6:37 p.m.

Liberal MPs have stood by embattled Opposition Leader Matthew Guy as pressure mounted on him over his lobster dinner.

Senior Liberal MPs declared their support for embattled Opposition Leader Matthew Guy on Wednesday as he came under intense pressure over his lobster dinner with alleged Mafia boss Tony Madafferi.

However, some expressed concern that Mr Guy's decision to stay at the table after learning Mr Madafferi was there showed a lapse of judgment.

And some believed further damning revelations could prove highly damaging for Mr Guy's leadership.

Mr Guy has repeatedly denied wrongdoing or discussing donations at the April meeting with Mr Madafferi and Mr Madafferi's cousin, long-time Liberal supporter Frank Lamattina, at the Lobster Cave restaurant in Beaumaris.

One senior Liberal MP said the party room was united behind their leader and so far there had not been any push for a leadership change.

"I don't get the sense that anyone genuinely wants change. It's a cohesive parliamentary party room," the MP said.

The MP said switching leaders was an "enormous risk", particularly with an election less than 18 months away.

"The party has to go through devastating convulsions to go there."

This week Fairfax Media revealed explosive secretly recorded phone calls in which a Liberal Party official discussed plans to offer undisclosed donations from the men who attended the dinner.

The official recorded in the phone calls, Barrie Macmillan, resigned from his party position on Wednesday.

The latest turmoil in Victorian politics is also facing scrutiny from Canberra.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, asked in Federal Parliament whether the Australian Federal Police had been asked to investigate the revelations, said, "Those reports will be carefully examined by federal authorities."

Despite the revelations, many Liberal MPs who spoke to Fairfax Media insisted Mr Guy retained their confidence.

Victorian Liberal Party president Michael Kroger told ABC Radio none of the dinner guests had made recent disclosable donations to the party or given smaller sums to his knowledge.

Labor ministers made repeated references to Beaumaris and accepting money from mobsters in question time at Parliament on Wednesday.

And Deputy Premier James Merlino released a list of 17 questions for Mr Guy, including asking exactly how many people attended the dinner and whether he would release all correspondence to the corruption watchdog.

Earlier in the week Mr Guy said he was so confident he had done nothing wrong he would refer the matter to the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission for investigation.

Opposition spokeswoman for children Georgie Crozier said the parliamentary party was united and strongly behind Mr Guy.

She insisted the revelations did not undermine the Coalition's strong campaigning on law and order in Victoria. "I think this is just white noise," she said.

Another opposition frontbencher, Ryan Smith, said Mr Guy could not have been more open about the dinner.

"His team sees that," he said.

Following the Coalition's 2014 election loss, shadow treasurer Michael O'Brien contested the leadership.

But on Wednesday Mr O'Brien insisted he supported Mr Guy to stay in the top job.

"Matthew Guy has done a great job in taking the fight up to Daniel Andrews on behalf of Victorians neglected by Labor," he said. "He will make a great premier and has my full support.

On Wednesday morning Coalition MPs including shadow energy minister David Southwick??? and Kew MP Tim Smith all said Mr Guy had their full backing.

"I'm behind him 1000 per cent," Tim Smith said. "He has my absolute support and he's doing a fantastic job."

Mr Southwick also stood by his leader.

"Matthew Guy has made his comments very clear here in terms of what has gone on. The situation really is that we need to get on with the real issues that matter in Victoria," he said.

The story Senior Liberals stand by Guy first appeared on The Age.

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Senior Liberals stand by Guy - Warrnambool Standard

German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the Bundestag, lower house of Parliament, on June 29, 2017 in Berlin | John MacDougall/AFP via Getty Images

CDU and FDP would only get 47 percent of the vote, poll suggests.

By Cynthia Kroet

8/9/17, 10:48 AM CET

A coalition between Angela Merkels Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) would fallshort of a majority in parliamentif federal elections were held today, according to an opinion poll published Wednesday.

The conservative CDU together with its Bavarian sister party CSU remained stable compared to last weeks survey with 40 percent of the vote, while the FDP led by 38-year-old Christian Lindner lost 1 percentage point and fell back to 7 percent, according to the Stern-RTL Wahltrend.

Together, the possible coalition partners would only get 47 percent of the vote.

The FDP hasnt seen the inside of the German parliament since 2013, when they suffered a humiliating general election thrashing that left the party without any seats in the Bundestag for the first time since 1949.

Lindner, credited by some for reviving the liberal party,has said he would pursue a softer line on Brexit, called for Greece to be granted debt relief and temporarily forced out of the eurozone, and suggested Germany consider the Russian annexation of Crimea a permanent provisional solution.

Martin Schulzs Social Democratic Party (SPD), the current junior coalition partner in government, rose slightly in the polls to 23 percent after stagnating for four consecutive weeks. The Greens, leftist Die Linke and far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) are all projected to get 8 percent of the vote.

Asked who they would prefer as chancellor, half of the respondents opted for Merkel, while 21 percent chose Schulz, marking his lowest level of support since his nomination as the SPDs candidate in January.

Germany goes to the polls on September 24.

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German liberal-conservative coalition short of parliamentary majority: poll - POLITICO.eu

Male graduate wearing cap and gown standing in campus archway at University of Pennsylvania.H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock/Getty Images

This article first appeared in Data Sheet, Fortunes daily newsletter on on the top tech news. Sign up here.

I love the title of the new book by veteran journalist George Anders, You Can Do Anything: The Surprising Power of a Useless Liberal Arts Education, which goes on sale today.

I would say that, as a history and political science graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the renowned computer-science school. Anders, for many years a reporter at The Wall Street Journal, also is a member of the humanities club: He studied economics at Stanford.

My bias notwithstanding, this book arrives at a critical time. For a couple decades now the stars of Silicon Valley have been engineers and coders, nerds whose skills have been highly prized. Yet more and more the technology industry is suffering from an empathy deficit. Enter Anders, who argues that "creativity, curiosity, and empathy are the job skills of the future."

You Can Do Anything is part how-to for humanities types. It offers practical advice, like the relative uselessness of sending out blind resumes and the huge value of networking among alumni and acceptingand then crushingpart-time and other entry-level positions.

Anders also tells stories about liberal arts students made good. These include Josh Sucher, an anthropology graduate whom Etsy ( etsy ) put to work interviewing customers to learn what crafts might sell well. He explains how IBM ( ibm ) turned to Oliver Meeker, a sociology major, to explain to non-technical corporate clients the dastardly difficult-to-understand concept of the blockchain. "You dont want an engineer on this," says Anders. He revels in the story of Andy Anderegg, an English major who wrote snappy copy for Groupon ( grpn ) on her way to becoming a highly paid digital audience development consultant.

Anders isn't so much arguing that a humanities background is better than more practical educational pursuits as he's making the case that the liberal-arts-inclined needn't panic about their lack of hirable skills. More, he wants to persuade fellow parents of college-age children not to hem in their future job seekers by pushing them to study subjects that don't interest them.

These are important words of wisdom by a skilled storyteller and a sharp observer of the human condition.

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Liberal Arts Education Remains Valuable, New Book Says | Fortune ... - Fortune

DODGE CITY, Kan. (KSNW) PenAir, which serves Dodge City and Liberal, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and the search is on for a new airline.

It is a long process, thats for sure, said Corey Keller, who manages Dodge City Regional Airport.

PenAir will be in Dodge and Liberal for the next 90 days and possibly longer until the airport can find a new airline.

Dodge City resident Andrew Priest flies to Denver for work several times per year and says he was happy with PenAirs direct flight to the city.

The next best option is you have to go through Dallas out of Garden City and its just a pain, so this is a lot more convenient, he said.

For Dodge City, which has a large tourism industry, reliable air service is crucial to keep the town accessible for tourists.

If people cant get here to Dodge City, then it affects all aspects of tourism, said Keller.

In their search for a new airline, a major thing the airport is looking for is what flight times theyll be able to offer. Officials say theres a connection between the current flight times and the low ridership numbers.

With the schedule and two afternoon flights, said Keller, if we had morning and afternoon, we would see better numbers than that.

Its a possibility that excites passengers like Priest.

That would be nice, said Priest, because it would be much more convenient to be able to get there in the morning rather than get there the day before, just because of how the flights are. That would be nice if the new one did that, itd be great. Id use it a lot more often probably.

Theres a lot of uncertainty. A new airline will need to balance the needs of two communities.

Were still working with Liberal to find something that will work for both cities, said Keller.

Theres isnt a date set yet for when PenAir will stop serving the region. Anyone who bought a ticket for a flight after a new airline takes over should contact PenAir to ask about refunds.

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Airline leaving Dodge and Liberal - KSN-TV

The Liberal party has elected to stick with its plebiscite policy with a postal vote as a backup rather than moving immediately to a free vote, after a special party room discussion on Monday evening.

Liberals were told at the opening of the party room meeting the cabinet was in favour of resuscitating the governments original plebiscite proposal, followed by a postal vote in the event the plebiscite is rejected by parliament once again.

After a two-hour discussion, only a handful of Liberal MPs, some sources say six, others say eight, raised their hands when Malcolm Turnbull asked people to indicate whether or not they wanted the plebiscite dumped now, and the party to move to a free vote.

No formal vote was taken in the party room on the plebiscite, either the current policy or the postal option.

Only one of the group of Liberal campaigners for marriage equality who have reopened the internally incendiary issue over the winter recess Warren Entsch publicly reserved his position during Monday nights meeting on bringing on a bill to legalise same sex marriage after the Senate had reconsidered the plebiscite.

But while the party room tacitly endorsed the position favoured by the cabinet to reintroduce the plebiscite, then proceed with a postal vote in the event the plebiscite was again knocked back by the parliament a number of concerns were ventilated during the meeting about the postal vote.

Government sources have told Guardian Australia the attorney general, George Brandis, also has reservations about the postal vote option.

The Victorian Liberal MP Russell Broadbent said the government should just maintain its original policy, not the postal vote, and the New South Wales MP Julian Leeser expressed concerns about the postal vote, arguing if the government tried hard enough, it would get the original proposal through.

The former prime minister Tony Abbott and Victorian Liberal Kevin Andrews also said the government should maintain the original plebiscite position.

Abbott said if the government moved off its plebiscite commitment, then voters would again gain the impression the government didnt stand for anything or fight for anything.

The prime minister pushed back against Abbotts intervention, saying the government did plenty and stood for plenty.

Entsch told the ABC on Monday night he was happy to go through the process of seeing the original plebiscite proposal resubmitted to the Senate, but he predicted the crossbench would not budge.

Entsch also argued the postal plebiscite was fraught. If they then put up a plebiscite, a postal plebiscite, they will see the warts and the prickles attached to that.

Conservative MP Craig Kelly said after the meeting the Senate negotiating team should be given wider latitude to attempt to get the original plebiscite policy through the Senate.

Specifically, he suggested the government could compromise by ditching the $15m of public funds for each of the yes and no case in the plebiscite because theres been so much debate it may not be needed, and even consider what the bill would look like.

Marriage equality campaigners have foreshadowed a legal challenge to the postal plebiscite in the event the government proceeds down that path without appropriate underpinning legislation.

In an effort to strong-arm the Senate ahead of the reintroduction of the plebiscite legislation, the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, told reporters after the Liberal party meeting if there were concerns about the legality of the voluntary postal vote, then I would encourage those Senators who are so concerned to consider supporting the governments bill for a compulsory attendance plebiscite.

The government is committed to keep faith with the promise we made at the last election, Cormann said Monday night.

It is now up to others in the Senate, who may have voted against the plebiscite in the past, the full compulsory attendance plebiscite, and make a decision on whether they prefer a compulsory attendance plebiscite or whether they prefer a postal voluntary plebiscite.

Cormann declined to say how much any postal vote would cost.

Some in the government are hopeful that marriage equality groups could swing behind the original plebiscite proposal if the alternative is a postal vote.

Advocates were giving no sign of that on Monday night. Long-time marriage equality advocate Rodney Croome urged Liberals to press ahead with trying to engineer a parliamentary vote.

We urge Liberals who support marriage equality to table marriage equality legislation and cross the floor to vote for it, Croome said.

Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays national spokesperson, Shelley Argent, said: We will lobby the Senate to continue to oppose a plebiscite and we will move to have a postal vote struck down in the high court.

We do not accept, and will never accept, the demeaning terms and conditions the government has attached to marriage equality.

Political parties in the Senate opposed to the plebiscite have given no sign they will budge on their opposition to the governments proposal.

Same sex marriage will be considered again by the joint party room meeting in Canberra on Tuesday, and will continue to play out as a divisive issue for much of the rest of the year.

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Marriage equality: Liberals vote to keep plebiscite with postal vote as backup - The Guardian

John Green

An airline providing subsidized service to Dodge City and Liberal has filed for bankruptcy and notified local and federal officials it will be discontinuing its Kansas services.

Recognizing the airline, Alaska-based PenAir, has struggled almost since it began providing service to the area about 11 months ago, however, Liberal Airport Manager Debbie Giskie sees the change as an opportunity.

I think it was struggling and had some difficulties in the past, Giskie said. This is an opportunity to search for another carrier and try to build up the service.

PenAir filed for Chapter 11 reorganization with the state of Alaska. The filing will not affect scheduled air service operations in Alaska or Boston, the airline reported in a news release.

However, PenAirs Portland, Oregon and Denver, Colorado hubs will begin the process of closing scheduled service over the next 90 days, the release stated.

The Denver hub serves Dodge City and Liberal with twice-daily weekday and once-daily weekend service on a 30-seat turboprop plane.

Through April, Dodge had about 2,800 boardings and Liberal nearly 1,950, according to a previous report in The News about federal Essential Air Service (EAS) subsidies.

The steps we are taking today will allow PenAir to emerge as a stronger airline, while continuing our focus on safe operations, PenAir CEO and Chairman Danny Seybert stated in the news release. We will be working with a restructuring officer to present a reorganization plan that will allow the management team to focus on our employees, safe operations, retiring debt and taking care of our customers.

Because it received EAS subsidies, the airline must get approval from the federal Department of Transportation before it can discontinue the route.

That gives federal officials time to advertise for a new provider, Giskie said.

Besides Dodge City and Liberal, the company also plans to discontinue EAS routes operating between Denver and North Platt, Kearney and Scottsbluff, Nebraska.

Once approved, this transition usually takes 30 to 90 days until a new carrier can be secured in the market, the release noted.

PenAir, founded in 1955 by Orin Seybert in Pilot Point, Alaska, serves eight destinations within Alaska and three routes in the Boston area, including flights to Presque Isle, Maine and Plattsburgh, New York. PenAir has 700 employees.

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Airline plans to discontinue subsidized service to Dodge City, Liberal - The Hutchinson News

Everyone knows that Republicans have political problems, from their failure to repeal Obamacare to President Trumps erratic tweets to his sputtering efforts to make populism a governing philosophy. But what about Democrats? While their problems dont get as much media attention, Democrats are now both the minority party and a toxic brand to much of middle-class America.

Take last Friday, when Governor Jim Justice of West Virginia announced he was becoming a Republican. The Democrats walked away from me, he told a Trump rally in Huntington. Today I tell you as West Virginians, I cant help you any more being a Democrat governor.

I think its a sign of the times, Jose Gonzalez, a 37-year-old project manager at a local steel plant, told the Washington Post at the rally. The Democratic Party used to look out for the downtrodden, but more and more working people are going for Republicans.

Trump certainly broke the mold in 2016. He did better among low-income whites than among upper-income whites the first time a Republican has done that at the presidential level. He won 62 percent of the vote among white voters without a college degree who make less than $30,000 a year. In 2012, Mitt Romney had only won 52 percent of votes in that group. They made the difference in key working-class states that Trump won, carrying them for the GOP for the first time since the 1980s Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. Republicans now control the White House and both houses of Congress and have complete executive and legislative control in 26 states.

Since the November election, Trumps popularity has largely held with those voters. Concerns about his lack of focus have been assuaged by the recent growth in jobs and wages. Democrats have not improved their position in part because of their obsession with leading the resistance against Trump. A Washington Post/Abc News poll published July 19 found that 52 percent of Americans dont believe the Democratic party stands for anything beyond opposing Trump. Even 42 percent of nonwhite voters agree that Trump-bashing is all the party is focused on.

The Bernie Sanders wing of the Democratic party is convinced it has a solution: have the party move left. People are looking for a populism, but a multi-racial populism, Heather McGhee, of the leftist voting-rights group Demos, said on Meet the Press this morning. Theyre looking for candidates who say, Im willing to take on the wealthy and powerful, and also Im not willing to let the wealthy and powerful divide us from each other so that they can have the spoils of our great nation.

But thats not what the polls taken by Democrats themselves are showing. The House Majority PAC last month released an exhaustive survey. McClatchys Alex Roarty summarized the findings as white voters without a college degree still view Trump relatively favorably, their opinion of Democrats is in the dumps, and they reject some of the partys favored economic initiatives.

Asked which party will improve the economy and create jobs, Republicans have a 35-point edge among white working-class Democrats. They have a 19-point edge when it comes to ensuring people are rewarded for their hard work, and a 15-point edge on middle-class tax cuts. Democrats have only a four-point edge on health care, a surprise given the unpopularity of the GOPs failed Senate plan.

The poll and its accompanying focus group found that Democrats are hurt by the perception that they care mostly about upper-income concerns such as free or reduced college tuition, and they look down with thinly veiled contempt on working-class voters. Many of those voters dont think college is a ticket to prosperity, and many prefer blue-collar jobs. In short, when these voters hear people tell them that the answer to their concerns is college, their reaction is to essentially say dont force your version of the American Dream on me, the House Majority PAC concluded.

Indeed, the biggest challenge that liberals will face in trying to win back the voters who have drifted to the GOP is finding a way to conceal their agenda which is now geared toward identity politics, job-killing environmentalism, and expanding the welfare state. We are seeing an ongoing class war by liberal elites against the middle and working classes, Joel Kotkin, a demographer and executive director of the Houston-based Center for Opportunity Urbanism, told me in an interview.

Donald Trump won because he recognized the nature of that class war and appealed to those who were being hurt by it. Democrats arent likely to win back the voters theyve lost until they realize that many of those voters wont even listen to them if there isnt a truce in the class war they see being waged against them.

READ MORE: Whats the Matter with Democrats? The Lefts Hamburger Problem Is Not Going Away The Fusion Party: Democrats and the Progressive Media

John Fund is NROs national-affairs correspondent.

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Liberals' Class Warfare on the Working Class Keeps Trump Afloat - National Review