To the Editor:
Re “Join My Bewildered Liberals Book Club,” by Nicholas Kristof (column, Feb. 23):
I had previously read the books recommended by Mr. Kristof in his column. I take from them many of the same lessons he reiterates. I did find, though, his “bewildered liberals” characterization insulting. Many of us are frustrated, certainly, but not bewildered.
As someone who graduated from college, but also worked for three different unions over a 40-year career, I have had firsthand experience with the travails of working men and women. But I part company with Mr. Kristof in laying so much of the blame for President Trump’s rise on misguided, liberal “elites,” who supposedly disdain or dismiss working people.
Working men and women abandoned the labor movement in large numbers over the last four decades in part because their U.S.-based unions were ill equipped to deal with cheap, foreign competition that eliminated so many of their jobs.
That competition was fostered by offshoring promoted by U.S. corporate and political elites from both sides of the aisle. But workers disarmed themselves politically and economically by too often blaming and abandoning unions in the face of that competition, instead of using the leverage that organizing provides to elect and influence more local, state and congressional allies.
Elections have consequences, and until working people vote in their own interests again, aspiring despots like President Trump and Vice President JD Vance will win elections and workers will lose them.
Doug Allen
Truckee, Calif.
To the Editor:
I would add to Nicholas Kristof’s “Bewildered Liberals Book Club” list the sociologist Arlie Hochschild’s two excellent books about why low-income white people feel shamed and abused by liberals: “Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right” (2016), based in rural Louisiana, and “Stolen Pride: Loss, Shame and the Rise of the Right” (2024), focused on Pikeville, Ky.
Her deep nonjudgmental reporting de-caricatures Trump supporters and allows us to see them as people.
Ross Reynolds
Seattle
To the Editor:
I take issue with Nicholas Kristof’s assertion that it is Democrats who are “oblivious” to the working class. It is simply not true.
The Democratic Party has consistently supported trade unions, Medicaid and Medicare, the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), Social Security, food stamp programs (under various labels) and other measures to support and advance the working class, often against concerted Republican opposition.
As for Mr. Kristof’s book club idea: I’m sure these are excellent books we should all read, but they will not help us in our current predicament. The United States has a powerful and well-organized civil society unmatched by any other country. These organizations must come together and act in concert (in the courts but also in the streets). And Democratic Party leaders and their allies must speak out loudly, clearly and often.
Once we’ve taken our country back, there will be plenty of time to read.
Constance A. Nathanson
New York
To the Editor:
Nicholas Kristof’s column imploring Democrats to drop their condescension and actually listen to the complaints of blue-collar voters might have mentioned the real, transparent root of populist anger — more than 40 years of steadily increasing flow of wealth to those least in need, compounded by relentless Republican messaging that stoked the anger of those on the losing end.
Listening to those sadly misled by the G.O.P. will not address their problems. What they actually need is not a sympathetic ear but a rollback of wildly irresponsible tax cuts signed by Presidents Reagan, George W. Bush and Trump that render efforts to help those left behind impotent. The first step in this process is to stop the “carnage” and work with courageous Republicans to increase the federal minimum wage, expand affordable health insurance and block the extension of 2017 tax cuts that serve the already rich.
Eric R. Carey
Arlington, Va.
To the Editor:
Thank you to Nicholas Kristof for so clearly identifying huge blind spots in our Democratic Party’s stance and mission, all of which contributed to our loss last November. So, yes, let’s begin to listen to those who have different perspectives, needs and wants, so we might better understand the underlying issues and respond accordingly. Only then can the United States of America be truly united. As for me, I’m listening now.
Sue Casey
Amherst, Mass.
