This year the blue collar worker has achieved iconic status. The subtext is race and there is something about being white, working class, and male that means being quintessentially American. Perhaps it marks a subconscious return to the days when only white male property owners were allowed to vote. Oddly, we haven’t heard much about the black working class or the Hispanic working class. Don’t they vote too? What about working women?

Moreover, a recent report in the Washington Post shows Obama leading McCain among white working voters. (The report also reveals a distinct lack of confidence for either candidate on the part of the poor.) So what’s the story?

Today on GRITtv we’d like to get beyond the labels and to the bottom of the working-class vote. At a time when the Republican Party is deeply vulnerable and the economy particularly weak the Democrats should have a clear advantage. Add to that an unpopular foreign war and it would seem that a New New Deal is in order. Yet a considerable doubt seems to persist that the Democrats can secure the working-class vote or, for that matter, that the Dems are capable of mustering a New Deal, let alone an economic program that meaningfully differs from their Republican counterparts.

Our panel today includes Eric Foner, professor of History at Columbia University, Bill Henning, Vice President of the Communications Workers of America Local 1180, and Esther Kaplan Investigative Editor at The Nation Institute—and you! The show starts at Noon and we’ll be taking your calls and questions. You can phone in at 866-466-2961 or Email your questions to laura@grittv.org. You can also comment right here on our discussion board. Let us know what you think.