Samuel Wurzelbacher, better known as Joe the Plumber, died on Monday and for Tuesday’s Inside Politics on CNN, the assembled panel recalled his confrontation with Barack Obama in 2008 on taxes by labeling it the beginning of “grievance politics” for white working class men while lamenting that Democrats have not been able to connect with such voters despite the passing of the infrastructure bill.
Senior political analyst Nia Malika-Henderson recalled, “this was a time when John McCain and Republicans more broadly, they were trying to really attract white working-class voters, right?”
Henderson postulated that, “this was kind of the emergence, I think, of what we see now, the sort of grievance politics, the white identity politics and this idea that white working-class, particularly men I think, are, sort of, the victims of Democratic policies and you see Republican candidates really going after them.”
Only CNN could think that high taxes are racially-based grievance issue fueled by identity politics. Nevertheless, host Dana Bash turned to Politico national investigative correspondent Heidi Przybyla, “we covered the McCain campaign back in 2008. Joe the Plumber wasn't just talked about at that debate. He was on the trail. A lot.”
After some crosstalk, Przybyla tried to make the argument that Republicans, especially Donald Trump, have not meant Wurzelbacher’s concerns:
I think it was really the seed I think of branding opportunity in the Republican Party that Donald Trump fully realized in the forgotten man. What needs to happen now from Biden's perspective is he needs a Joe the Plumber because Joe confronted Barack Obama about taxes there but what's happened since then is that when Trump got in one of his first policies was to cut taxes in a way that primarily benefited corporate stock buybacks.
Przybyla also mourned that Wurzelbacher’s segment of the population isn’t rewarding Democrats, “whereas Joe Biden's done this policy of like hardhat proposals like infrastructure. And yet somehow the Democratic Party really struggles with this segment of the population that really believes that they're aggrieved and that the economic policies of the Democratic Party has hurt them for the worse when in fact you have this huge accomplishment, for instance with infrastructure that's just a lost opportunity.”
In some respects CNN’s coverage of Wurzelbacher’s death is not that different from how the media covered his emergence in 2008. ABC thought it was scandalous that Joe, or Joseph, was actually his middle name while CNN itself mocked him as Sam the Non-Plumber and dinged the McCain campaign for not having “vet the guy,” which is odd considering how the media fell in love with Obama, who actually became president.
This segment was sponsored by Safelite.
Here is a transcript for the August 29 show:
CNN Inside Politics with Dana Bash
6/29/2023
12:53 PM ET
DANA BASH: Our panel is back with us. You were at that debate, weren't you?
NIA MALIKA-HENDERSON: Yeah. I was at that debate. And listen, this was a time when John McCain and Republicans more broadly, they were trying to really attract white working-class voters, right? And if you think about the way Barack Obama did in that 2008 election, it's always a high water mark for Democratic presidential candidates. He won Ohio. He won Indiana for goodness sake which is really hard to believe and hard fathom given where we are now.
But this was kind of the emergence, I think, of what we see now, the sort of grievance politics, the white identity politics and this idea that white working-class, particularly men I think, are, sort of, the victims of Democratic policies and you see Republican candidates really going after them.
BASH: And Heidi, we covered the McCain campaign back in 2008. Joe the Plumber wasn't just talked about at that debate. He was on the trail. A lot.
[crosstalk]
HENDERSON: With Sarah Palin.
BASH: And Sarah Palin.
HEIDI PRZYBYLA: I think it was really the seed I think of branding opportunity in the Republican Party that Donald Trump fully realized in the forgotten man.
BASH: Yup.
PRZYBYLA: What needs to happen now from Biden's perspective is he needs a Joe the Plumber because Joe confronted Barack Obama about taxes there but what's happened since then is that when Trump got in one of his first policies was to cut taxes in a way that primarily benefited corporate stock buybacks whereas Joe Biden's done this policy of like hardhat proposals like infrastructure. And yet somehow the Democratic Party really struggles with this segment of the population that really believes that they're aggrieved and that the economic policies of the Democratic Party has hurt them for the worse when in fact you have this huge accomplishment, for instance with infrastructure that's just a lost opportunity.
