E.J. Dionne: What has happened to the working class?

Boston • Two Labor Days into Trump’s presidency, what has happened to the working class?

After Election Day 2016, we heard again and again about how Trump had thrilled those who labor and are heavily burdened, particularly those among them who are white. There was nonstop commentary on just how out of touch citizens in the big and prosperous metropolitan areas had become.

At times, you might have imagined that Trump had been the Marxist candidate running against a creature of Wall Street named Hillary Clinton. Was "Solidarity Forever" about to become the nation's second anthem?

We don't hear so much about the working class anymore. We get way more reporting on "Trump's base," an overlapping…