When I was in high school in the early 2000s, my dad and I commuted together. He would drop me off at school and pick me up after sports, on the way back to our quiet neighborhood just outside of Philadelphia. In the morning, we (and by we, I mean him) often listened to sports radio. The audience for these shows was almost exclusively male listeners, mostly but not all white and mostly without college degrees, calling in to complain about what the Philadelphia Eagles had done wrong the previous Sunday.

The callers spoke in blunt, profanity-laden and politically incorrect language. Sighs, hisses, and tones laden with implicit meaning were as much a part of their communication as the words themselves. They spoke the way my father – who grew up working class but became a university professor – spoke at home (but not at work). They talked like my uncles, most of whom didn’t go to college, talked everywhere.

They spoke as if the kids at my progressive, college-preparatory high school were both explicitly and implicitly trained never to speak. Nonetheless, at that time, residents of my elite high school and sports radio listeners reliably voted for Democrats.

Twenty years later, most sports broadcasters, along with many of their wives, sons, daughters, and a growing number (and increasingly multiracial) percentage of their colleagues and neighbors – are reliable members of Donald Trump’s Republican coalition.

What happened?

To some of my college-educated Democratic colleagues, it stands to reason that racism and misogyny fueled Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris in 2024. But as others recognizeThis this makes no sense. College-educated white voters are the only demographic whose percentage of votes for Trump did not increase in 2024 compared to 2020. Every other group shifted toward Trump.

As many have done already observedthe movement towards Trump is as much as anything a move away from Democrats. What puzzles many of my college-educated Democratic colleagues is why anyone would want to or even be able to move away from the Democrats in 2024, given the current situation. widely recognized dangers of the proposed alternative.

I argue that much of the divide between these college-educated Democrats and everyone else has to do with a growing gap in how we use language.

Most college-educated Democrats do a lot of what I’ll call “textual analysis as a lifestyle.” The words spoken by others tend to mean a lot to us.

For example, when Harris’ Democratic National Convention featured many explicit (and eloquent!) expressions of patriotism, empathy for families trying to make ends meet, military might, and freedom, most Democrats graduated from the The university took her at her non-extremist word – and assumed others would too.

But this emphasis on words alone is not the way language is used by the working class – that is, by most Americans.

Harris’s language was too hollow, too impersonal, too primitive and forceful, and too devoid of warmth to connect with normal people, who derive as much from how something is said as from what is said. is said. In short, a lot formerly democrats did not believe the vice president the way they had believed Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

Trump, on the other hand, talks like the guys on sports radio. He skillfully uses gesticulations, tone, epithets, and facial expressions to convey meaning. This is how everyone talks among family and friends – everyone, of course, except the small group of predominantly white and particularly insular college graduates who make up the ruling class of the Democratic Party and the mainstream media. audience today.

Which brings us to something deeper, and even harder to swallow for many of my college-educated Democratic colleagues.

Much of the worldview to which the Democratic Party is now beholden rests on a basis that, functionally, is uniquely linguistic. In this worldview, the numbers on a balance sheet tell us whether inflation has been resolved. People can claim pronouns and “gender identities” that make old-fashioned dichotomies like “man” and “woman” irrelevant. Human dignity is irreconcilable with the very idea that immigration may be “illegal” at all. Democracy is dead when a president commits crimes and gets away with it. Language that does not respect people’s understanding of themselves amounts to violence.

It is the prerogative of some college-educated Democrats to live their lives with their language and thinking limited by these assumptions. But for most Americans, reality doesn’t conform to language. In fact, it’s the opposite. For them, eggs are too expensive because the price hasn’t gone down in my grocery store, no matter what the economic experts say. Boys are men and girls are women, and this does not change depending on the their interests or what they call themselves. Illegal immigration is a problem because without borders we have no country, and without a country we find ourselves defenseless in a clearly harsh and brutal world.

Democracy? Already dead, I suppose. Many presidents, including sitting oneto have crimes committed; welcome to world history, welcome to American history and welcome, above all, to democracy.

And the words are no violencebecause words just aren’t that important. If the language of normal Americans offends college-educated Democrats, the problem is not primarily their language, but that too many college-educated Democrats have no real problems.

America still needs the Democratic Party. After all, if you want to witness the decentralization and decadence brought about by unopposed one-party rule, just look at our deep blue cities. Ultimately, a deep red country would fare no better. Unchecked power corrupts, regardless of party.

But to serve America, Democrats must come to their senses. It begins with a broad recognition that – like it or not – there are in fact truths so primitive that they cannot be refuted by words. If the Democrats fail to recognize this, they will expose themselves to bombing every time.

So turn off NPR, ladies and gentlemen (yes, that covers everyone) and try some sports radio.

Elizabeth Grace Matthew writes about books, education and culture, including on the substack.

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports and streaming videos, visit The Hill.