W(h)ither the White Working Class?

What is the ideology of the white working class? Would populist policies get their vote? So ask Kevin Drum and Robert Waldmann.

Here's North Carolina in 1860, from a map of the South that plotted the percentage slave for each county:

Here's North Carolina in 2012:

Here are the counties in North Carolina where white people voted for Obama in the highest percentages in 2012 (with the percentage slave in 1860):

1. Orange (31.1%) (Includes Chapel Hill/UNC)
2. Durham (part of Orange County in 1860) (Includes Duke University)
3. Buncombe (15.4%) (Includes Asheville)
4. Jackson (5.1%)
5. Watauga (2.1%)
6. Madison (3.6%)
7. Chatham (33.2%) (now bedroom community for Chapel Hill and Durham)
8. Swain (carved out of Jackson (5.1%) and Macon (8.8%) Counties)
9. Yancey (4.2%)
10. Haywood (5.4%)

Here are the counties where white people voted for Romney in the highest percentages (with percentage slave in 1860):

1. Lenoir (51.2%)
2. Greene (50.8%)
3. Wayne (38.5%)
4. Washington (40.6%)
5. Jones (60.8%)
6. Robeson (39.0%)
7. Sampson (43.6%)
8. Martin (44.2%)
9. Duplin (46.2%)
10. Bertie (58.6)

The past is never dead. It's not even past.