This defense of cultural leftism is usually twinned with the assertion that problems around issues like crime, immigration and race essentialism are vastly exaggerated by Fox News and the like and are not problems Democrats need concern themselves with. In fact, to put much effort into such concerns would simply be to play into the hands of the right. I have termed this “the Fox News fallacy.”

A less common argument in favor of the “what, me worry?” approach to cultural leftism is one I have more sympathy for. This is the idea that the Democrats’ progressive program, by producing material improvements in the lives of less sympathetic voters, will overcome their cultural suspicions and lead a significant portion of them to embrace the Democrats, thereby breaking the current ceiling in Democratic support.

This has merit as an approach over the medium to long term. But it does not follow that cultural leftism can be ignored as a problem. Cultural views and values have an autonomous life of their own and are not reducible to material circumstances; therefore even if material circumstances of these voters improve somewhat, cultural resistance to a party whose views seem antithetical to their own will likely continue.

But perhaps the biggest problem is a very simple one: time. It will take considerable time to restructure the American economy away from the reigning neoliberal model and deliver substantial, widely-distributed benefits that could change voters’ lives so profoundly that their loyalties would shift.