Liberals Lost Their Connection To The Working Class After Kennedy 

This man explained my college experience. I don't come from anything fancy and I felt like an out of place townie at college. I did well enough grade wise but I had all these idiots telling me about how society and the government oppressed people but these same jack asses wanted nothing to do with me because I commuted and was lower middle class. I never belonged in university.

"Money from trust funds and past crimes " haha wow sums up ivy league

My dad bought a house in 1956 for 13, 500 USD. That was then about 3 times his annual salary, as a factory worker. Small 2 bed room house in the inner city. The same house sold last year for 800,000 USD. So devide by 3, my dad would have to make over 250,000 USD, as a factory worker to get same house today. He wouldn't be making much over 50 000 USD as a unskilled worker. There is no way he could get a loan for that house. And this is an ordinary working man's house.

Strange how, as things change, ever they stay the same

David, everything you produce is a deep reflection of our great american culture. Thank you for the historical context. Much of it should be required viewing in our universities.

Omg this is exactly what I always say about liberals in America. I’m from DC but my extended family always lived in North Carolina, then we moved there when I was in high school. Every liberal I’ve ever known has been rich and lives completely far removed from any of the minorities they wish to “save”. I come from a working class family and my friends were always poor / lived in government housing. The last thing I believe they need is handouts. I saw my friends parents live off their welfare checks, smoke cigarettes with the windows up with their kids, hit their kids. I completely believe that the best thing you can do for impoverished people is motivate them to prosper on their own. But poverty is bigger than all of us. The worst thing is how modern day liberals make it seem so obvious and black and white, when it’s a very nuanced issue.

This is how I sound when I'm most lucid and talking at my best. And then I think "I wish someone heard that"

Listening to this guy makes me miss when NPR was an informative and engaging media outlet....

My grandpa was born and raised in 1940s-50s Dallas and retired from truck driving (i.e. a working class job) after decades. He always used to say that "(he) didn't leave the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party left (him)." Times change.

The complexity of this issue - and our inability as a culture to grasp that complexity - is what has perpetuated the issue to this day.

Mr. Hoffman, your interviews are incredible. They are authentic, raw and personable. I have watched dozens of them. And I learn something new with each one. There is a palpable sincerity in them that I adore. There is something very simple yet powerful about just listening to someone speak and hearing their stories. Thank you for doing this work. It’s needed now more than ever.

David, I dropped out of high school approximately a fourth grade academic aptitude. High School in the 1970s was filled with hard drugs. Despite my mediocre academic skills, I elevated my professional career to executive level through my athletic endeavors in BMX racing and mountain bikes. David your documentaries are absolutely fascinating and so helpful to help me understand American society.

These interviews give a great perspective on the evolution of social trends.

OMG this is today. I thought today was an anomaly.

It’s even more apparent today than ever.

Thank you David. You’re making a difference and adding value to the world.

One thing I observed in my 49 years on this planet; is that both (Dem/Rep) left and right, love to print off more money. Where they differ is where to spend it.

This man just described the genesis of everything I disdain about liberals

Jack was way ahead of his time. Phrases he uses are still being used today, and his ideas still hold true.

He is spot on. I didn’t realize this until recently

The title is weird -- every liberal policy he speaks of was Johnson's, who WAS after Kennedy. The problem for Boston liberals was that Johnson WAS not only working class, but Texan -- for which they could never forgive him.

We are seeing the same thing In Britain. I'm from a working class family I'm still working class as 17 year old and for the first time ever my mum voted for the conservatives infact nationally the working class shifted to the conservatives. Simply the left have collapsed. The working class have had enough.

The way you film these interviews, the dark background and the music, all add up to the great atmosphere. Thanks!

This message still matters now. Thanks for this good interview.

He's speaking of Liberals in the 80's and such but you could be forgiven for thinking he was speaking of modern day ones too

Reminds me of an exchange of dialogue in Martin Scorsese's 'The Aviator' between Howard Hughes and the family of Katherine Hepburn: 'Oh -- we don't speak of money around here, Mr. Hughes.' 'That's because you HAVE it.'

I feel like it applies to the modern establishment democrats, the Hillary vs. Bernie conflict brought that to the front

Stunningly clear and prescient. Thanks so much.

I just love your pieces of history. Thank you.

Funny, same people in this comment section praising this guy were calling him an NPC in the other video. Not to mention the fact that this video is as least 3 decades old and they thought he was talking about Trump.

Thanks for bringing these videos to a new audience. They're great with so much clarity and relevance to today. (auto corrected)

Just now viewing this. I appreciate his blunt demeanor and incisive assessment. 👍 Definitely food for thought. The democratic and republican parties are two wings on the same bird. The way he defined liberals is stellar.

It's partly why Trump and Bernie Sanders went so well with working class people. They spoke to their frustrations with the neoconservatives and the neoliberal duopoly and how indifferent and vain their hold on the government has become. They serve corporate interests first and the public last. Corporations concentrate wealth more and more while the working class gets squeezed and is left with less and less. Kennedy was the last person in earnest to run on passing Universal healthcare and wanting to go after the banks. Everyone since has either folded or worked with the banksters and their criminal friends in wallstreet. These buggers deserve the gallows.

Hey Mr Hoffman I hope this day finds you well. Trustfunds and old crimes. That sounds about right. You have a fantastic channel I'm so glad I found it. I'm learning so much. Many many thanks 💖👍

Thank you David, I like these interviews. They are decent well-spoken people and they give a fascinating insight into the American past. I learn so much from them.

Thank you for your work and publishing all the videos you have. It's a rare opportunity to follow the spirit of the time, culture and understanding

Wow this guy knew the future.

Liberals are not the left. They have conventionally tried to present themselves as a centrist ideology mediating between the arbitrary power of the royalists and elites on the right, and the underclass of workers and radicals on the left. But liberals have alwsys been the paid pawns of power, just as the conservative right has always tried to present itself as a popular option against the bourgeoisie that employs them. These two ideologies function in just the same way, only one thinks that all we need to do to make capitalism bearable is give rights to women and homosexuals so they can be exploited just like everybody else.

This is so relevant for today! I love your interviews and more people need to see them! Very insightful thank you!

My Dad's family comes from Tennessee and my mom's family comes from North Carolina. My Dad's side immigrated here during WW2 and my mom's side came here after The Revolutionary War. Both sides are 100% Blue Democrat. I'm 29 and I'm not aligned with either party. I actually believe modern Democrats do far more damage than modern Republicans, but both sides are gravely flawed. This man speaks the truth that the Democrat Party died with Robert Kennedy and JFK. So many people refuse to believe this and they blindly vote Democrat believing that the party is working class as they are, which is not true at all. People like Obama graduated from Harvard and always had lots of money.

1:48 - yeah, about immaterial stuff, immaterial ideals: money actually does buy happiness and purpose, if you make under a certain amount of money. At these levels, money allows you to put food on the table, pay rent, not live in the hood, pay for your kids' food, education, etc. Love of money isn't inherently bad, it's what you want that money for.

"Their all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same" Malvina Reynolds

Very, very relevant today. Thank you, David.

David, these videos are so dope! Great work bud

David, I hope there are people out there these days who, like you, record and catalog all these wonderful interviews from a cross-section of Americans on a myriad topics. Thank you. Please pass your passion for this on to someone who can carry the baton.

Very interesting POV Thx for the video.

This issue / viewpoint is popping up so much now. Your intervviews are fascinating and pertinent.

thanks great video i hope as latin america everything works very well for your wonderful people

This guy nails it!

I always noticed how all these liberals on tv telling me to vote democrat are well off mostly all millionaires. Huh weird

All the way from New Zealand, thank you this is an amazing insite from the past infact a time capsule

Excellent interview. I was just finishing HS and entering college. This interview was profound and enlightening. Thanks for posting this wonderful gem.

Very relevant today. It seems gender is the #1 issue for the democrats. Jobs and standards of living are somewhere near the bottom.

And Reagan was more than happy to claim the working class.

These videos are fascinating! So much historical context coming out of them.

In Pittsburgh, black unemployment was not an issue when Andrew Carnegie ran the steel industry. Blak and white worked harmoniously together, each making good greens from their grsteful employer. Black unemployment began with labor unions, and bosses who decding who would and who wouldn't work that day. The idea that blacks and unions went together was a political lie.

Suggested correction on your title; the Dems did not "lose" anything! They made a deliberate choice to abandon unions / working class. Not being critical of you personally David but being a former member of the Steel Workers Union I have a respect / distain relationship with the Democratic Party!

And nothing has changed. The problem is even more acute in 2019.

Good video, Mr. Hoffman !

well spoken and well said

Whatever issues our nation had back then, politics has become much more toxic and polarized now.

This guy is right on the money.

Wow that was an awesome interview

Thank you for putting out another banger! It seems you always know when I'm bored and craving something to watch! Until next time...

An eagle has a left wing and a right wing, but one head. It's all a charade for the masses..

Thomas Frank and Chris Hedges touch upon this as well.

This is an incredible time capsule of information.

is observations at the very end are remarkable stays so much about the leadership in America at that time.

"And it showed how moral issues had become paramount to American liberals; they had lost touch with material life." This is a remarkable insight, even if Beatty does go on to qualify it in liberal snob/working class slob terms which I find problematic: there's no reason why a working person without a bachelor's degree couldn't feel personal revulsion at, say, racial oppression in the South in the 1960s, if only because of a little there-but-for-the-grace-of-God twinge. "Morality" as a luxury item, however, is one of modern liberalism's more insidious legacies, precisely because it's discretionary rather than something felt in the gut, and because it's discretionary, a person could just as easily choose to drop it when it becomes inconvenient, e.g., when buying a house, when voting, when calling 911.

"A strand of hope in scenes of pillage and destruction" - Beautiful words. Where are our political commentators who can speak with such level-headed poetry today?

Thanks for sharing!

Again, good job David.

Liberal or Conservative, the Government hasn't represented Working Class people at least since the Kennedy days, and really since FDR.

While I agree with him about the Liberal "Shift" to upper-class sensibilities, I think it was inevitable given Nixon's influence and just the underlying provincial worldview of the working class. The working class has always possessed an urgent pragmatism that resisted expansion and incorporation, especially regarding demography and values--hell, the working class will tell you that their values are what keeps them afloat more than hard work! The Liberals were talking about expanding the range of values and the amount of inclusion--ostensibly to include *everybody* in the benefits of the Civil Rights Movement--and the working class showed that they had little-to-no interest in doing so. They were already flocking to the re-branded Republican Party in droves over social issues they felt were too permissive and lax, and race was just one of them: gender and sexual orientation and religion were among the others. The working class in America has always been very socially conservative, even if they've endorsed liberal political actions and policies. I think the Liberal Shift Beatty is mentioning here was inevitable given how the working class would have reacted to the idea of African-Americans, women, homosexuals, atheists/other, and mixtures of all of those being given equal status in their fields.

Everything truly moves in circles and cycles. What once was, will be again. And so it goes.

Excellent. Thanks.

I have a "racist" uncle, (in terms of the archetype not in actuality) and he's always going off about how Democrats aren't the party of Kennedy anymore. The rest of our family is traditional blue collar liberal catholics, but he turned conservative twenty years ago when he became a born again christian. I myself have had a similar conversion in the past year; Its not that I was niave or idealistic before; but I felt the democratic policy was at least somewhat genuine in its policy choices; while the republicans were more cynical and self serving. I now see the republicans as the rational choice; democrats have been taken over by race hustlers and radicals who want to tear down the system without any regard for what happens next.

They ain't the party of JFK anymore.

Great interview Dave! We are all just flawed human beings in the end aren't we?

I finally found something I can relate to. What a relief.

3:40 is spot on lol now there kids are rushing to live in the city 🌃

I was born in the mid 70's and have no experience of Nixon. I've heard all the stories and was raised as most are to view Nixon as a horrible president. However the current diversion hysteria over Trump makes me wonder now about whether the view toward Nixon was also possibly driven by similar hysteria? Is there any correlation? Or was Nixon truly all they say he was?

Great interview. He's well spoken but awfully jaded.

I Learn More. From Your Work. From How Hitler pitched his view. To the Heavy Metal scene to the old couple. You Have Taught Me so Much. Thank You. For doing. What my past teachers. Couldn't do. Hold my attention. And make me want to learn.

This guy speaks like the stoic philosophers of old. His words shout out through time and his advice still seems to hold true. Goodness.

The working class? I was part of the working smashed.

Watching this in 2020 is eerie.

Your channel is incredible.

I love that David tagged Trump 2020 with this video, I'm finding myself watching his channel just fascinated with the context some of these 30 or 40 year old interviews give to modern concerns.

That title. I live in a working class community. Everyone I know is liberal.

Well said!

Exactly.

Cameras are simple, lighting is easy, but getting someone to sit under the lights in front of the camera and tell their life story with such naked honesty -- that is the hard part. And yet you (and they) do it.

Liberals meaning American Liberals..... In Australia "Liberals" counterpart is called Labor party, Australian Liberals are more like Republican... Having said that, the labor party formerly supporters of the working class, has also lost touch with the working class.

This brings back memories.

Jesus, H! I nearly had to pull over until my amazement passed. This guy is describing the problems the EXACT same problems that the Democratic have to this day, 50 GD years later.

Wow, he is spot on about liberals. This is exactly how they are today.

David, is this man still alive? You need to interview him again. He's brilliant

It’s sobering to connect the dots between the Nixon era and today. Environmental protection and regulation also improved under Nixon, which would be encouraging to see return.

A very on point analysis