He got elected twice. And Obama got elected twice. I'm tired of hearing how poorly the white workers of middle America have been treated. Their grievances don't add up to justifying their deplorable behavior and attitude. Black people, as a voting block and as a demographic, don't go around weeping and whining like these white crybabies, and the blacks were ENSLAVED for 400 years. And then semi enslaved for another hundred years. And keep getting gunned down in the streets. And women were left out of the equation of democracy by the constitution and had to fight to just be allowed to participate, and have just had their personal rights ripped away after only really having them for 50 years. These bellyaching whites are just a bunch of Rambos who believe they could have beat the Vietnamese if they weren't hamstrung. They are clinging to a manifest destiny view of history that tells them they are entitled to be on top and have dominion over everything and everybody.
Yup. We must not forget Reagan era of selfishness and "christianity". Ever since Reagan the economics have turned so badly against the average American who have blindly gone along with every policy since.
Exactly! These ‘disenfranchised’ white males have never known who the real enemy is. Ronald Reagan and the Republican Party played the race card with them and they fell for it hook, line and sinker. This ‘race card’ strategy was used to convince them that ‘those others’ were responsible for their economic woes. Sadly, it has stuck ever since. So many of them didn’t realize then and still don’t to this day that the Reagan administration was responsible for many of their economic troubles. Reagan was a racist, a xenophobe and a chauvinist. Because these working white males shared those views, they were willing to vote against themselves. Over 60 years ago, the Republican Party laid the groundwork for what we have today. It’s high time these ‘would be’ alpha males realize they can’t turn back the clock.
@Joseph. I call it Reciprocal Hegemony. The right wing leaders (so called) can only articulate their racist, misogynist, xenophobic views because these views already exist among their constituents. It's not the leaders creating the social order; rather it is the demagogic strategy of exploiting people who hold those values and views. That's one good reason we need to get out the vote. There are many more people who hold generally democratic and humane views that there are of those racist, misogynist, xenophobic people. More voters better represents the majority in this country.
You can't expect these men to change for the much better. Change is difficult for the best men, men who are highly educated, with well-developed ethics, say, the top ten percent of men.
We live in the bell-shaped curve: a society with the full gamut of personality types. You can't expect or demand that a low-achiever become a paragon of virtue. He can't jump out of his skin. And most have no compelling reason to want to, because his attitudes are the community's.
While I disagree with the thrust of your argument, I do agree that racism, bigotry, misogyny are endemic in American society. It was racism among many Democrats in Congress that prevented Obama from getting key legislation passed in the first two years, along with a whole bunch of pro-Corporate America. Neither party is 'pure' in this. But at least the majority of Democrats, both voters and politicians are "for the people, of the people, by the people" which is more than I can say for the current crop of republicans..
I can accept that. Neither party is perfect, but in comparison, the Democrats look like better angels than do the Republicans. It's sad, really, that the Republicans refuse to do a more traditional internal soul-searching, following an election loss, to help them become a better party and able to win elections fairly. They simply refuse to do any work to improve their own chances. This leave us all worse off with only one party that is rational and reasonable.
They've long gone away from coming up with ideas to improve the lot of Americans & persuading them of their ideas to just lying about their opposition, suppressing voters & cheating in elections. They can't win legitimately except in the most bigoted regions of the country.
It’s hard to do much when the opposition drags its feet and refuses to negotiate in good faith. Tell me, what do you want them to do? They passed a number of bills in the house that died on McConnells desk when he would not allow a floor vote. Now, even with the House, Senate, and WH, that minority stalls all legislation because they insist on 60 votes, requiring ten Republicans to side with the Dems. Then McConnell uses his leverage to prevent ten (hell, prevent any) of the GOP members to vote with the Dems. How do you counter that? If you want change, then give the Dems a solid majority in the house and a solid 60 member majority in the senate. Then things will move.
There are a handful of corporate Democrats in Congress (aka DINOs) who are obstructionists for their own selfish gain. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are two glaring examples. However, the ‘false equivalency’ line (aka ‘Both sides are equally guilty) doesn’t apply here. In today's Congress, the vast majority of Republicans (sometimes all of them) engage in obstruction for the sole purpose of ‘owning the libs’. Even if it means shafting their own constituents. How can one expect the Democrats to accomplish what’s needed for the people when there are way too many rotten apples standing in the way out of ideological spite? Most people know which Party is most responsible for the gridlock in Congress. Even if too many simply don’t want to openly acknowledge it.
Well, yes, Clinton was elected twice, and it was Republicans/Reagan's fault. They only harped on tax cuts for the upper crust (which would pay for themselves when the rich reinvested in the businesses and workforce - which, surprisingly, they NEVER DID) and cuts in discretionary spending that many Americans rely on to help make ends meet. Obama was elected twice because he was able to get better health care options, pulled our butts out recession started by bad GOP economic policies and also reduced the debt. The middle class, that group that stormed the Capitol in 2021, was much better off under Democratic administrations than it had been under any GOP admin. Newt Gingrich taught the GOP how to use inflammatory rhetoric to paint a picture of gross unfairness about minorities and immigrants and the Jews who side with them, taking American jobs and money out of their pockets. But the truth is, the GOP and its wealthy donors were the ones refashioning government to give themselves more of the fruits of American labor (really picking the pockets of America's workforce), increasing prices to pad their already huge profits and demonizing any attempt to gain more equitable compensation for the workforce's labor. The GOP is a strong party because, even though they have fewer members (roughly 30% vs about 35% for Democrats), they have been more successful at keeping those numbers engaged and active in voting. The Democrats seem unable to create a narrative that inspires its own voters to get out and vote, at least until 2020.
The economy sucked up most of the oxygen, followed by the continuing war in Afghanistan and the hunt Bin Laden. Congress is a a large aircraft carried that just can't turn on a dime. Everything takes time to negotiate and when the opposition party (even as a minority) refuses to budge, it is even a harder slog. If the GOP wins a majority in either (or God Forbid!) both houses, we will see nothing done for America, but a lot of crap done TO America by the no-policy-only-revenge tactics that the GOP has already promised.
As you & everybody else politically engaged well knows, it is corporate Democrats that always block necessary progressive legislation when Democrats have the numbers. Republicans do what we know they're going to do: vote unanimously against legislation proposed by Democrats regardless of its benefits to the American people, even to their own constituents, but there always seem to be certain Democrats beholden to corporate donors who sabotage progressive legislation that the rest of Democrats & majority of Americans want.
Right on, Jaime, There are too many of these corporate loving (which is really love of their own power) in both the House of Representatives, and the Senate. I wish the DNC would quit supporting these people, but I'm beginning to believe the DNC is locked up by Corporate
Robin, I wouldn't say people just went along with the crap Reagan started related to our economy. Most people were so busy just trying to survive with their families under the new economic structure that they had little time to fight and the people they elected to congress, whom they/we believed would help, were bought out by the rich and famous and did as little as possible to help. ?Then there was the increasing level of lying that confused the people who do not think much about economics or politics and we sank into a hole that we are trying to dig our way out of, but we only have toy shovels to work with. Then, when a president surrounds himself with the most ignorant but ruthless and cruel advisors, things will not get better. That is what Bush Jr. and Donald Trump did. They found all kinds of ways to drag us down even further. When Democrats come into office even with plans to improve things, they have to clean up the mess of the previous administration first then face the crippling blows of a Republican party that wants to do nothing but rule and give themselves tax breaks. The American people to a great extent don't actually see what is going on because they hear a little about it, say "everyone does it," then turn to their kitten and puppy videos. One can't blame them totally. It looks pretty bad. Maybe those kitten and puppy watchers could take a little time to listen to what their candidates are actually saying, check out to see if it is the truth, and think about what their candidates' proposals or beliefs will do to them and their family as well as to others in this country related to rights and improvements or probable inactions. Say, ten minutes a day should do it. Then, commit to vote in every election.
I am 53 years old and I do blame the people that went along with it. From Reagan to Clinton to Trump. Clinton was a center right Democrat that grew up with a mindset of racism and he helped corporations including our for profit prison system. But because he was a Democrat people thought he was better than a Reagan. No he wasn't. He helped kill American jobs and I really can't think of anything good that came out of his presidency. Also he was responsible in part for the housing bubble.
I haven't seen a politician other than Bernie really want to help the American people. I don't trust any Catholic in office to help women and access to abortion. Left or right. Biden could be doing so much more but he's not. And don't even get me started on his record. He talks a good game and yes I would take him any day over a GOP clown in this era but he's no better. This country has gone so far right that people think anything remotely center right is left. That's how bad it's gone. Corporations have been writing everything that helps them and only them for decades. Everyone on both sides has been lining their pockets and will do nothing. Robert and Bernie are the few speaking out against this corporate takeover of our nation. Why? Because they aren't getting paid for the how it is system.
Americans need to stop being food gluttons (just travel outside the US to see how obese our nation is) and thinking material objects are what life is about. I know it's hard to survive on the measly wages because I have been alive long enough to know how things were and also well traveled and know that things can be better because they are for other citizens in other nations.
Socialism is NOT Communism. Nor does socialism demand Nationalization of all industry as someone else suggested. Socialism is a system that accepts Adam Smith's view of well regulated capitalism and the GOOD of all people in the nation. We already have some forms of socialism, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act. BTW, the largest expenditure in welfare in this country today is Corporate, not people
Thank you. I do not believe Bernie is a true socialist. I think he is moderate and would like to see the US adopt more reasonable policies like most European countries have in the West, especially the nordic countries. Those models seem to work for its citizens. No country is perfect but if the US continues on the path of greed we will go back to having a system that only works for the extremely wealthy. Most Americans are struggling more than we should be and the wealthy class is exploiting us. What has happened here is unacceptable to say the least.
Bernie is a democratic socialist (or maybe it's a social democrat -- I get them mixed up, but some say there's a substantial difference between the two), much like they have in Europe, which has much superior social & health policy.
@Ruth. Yes, as you say. A lot of that for sure. But it is dangerous to think "people to a great extent don't actually see what is going on..." As I suggested in the part about Reciprocal Hegemony, the Republicans couldn't get away with a lot of the stuff they say and do if the people didn't actually hold those values and beliefs. In your case, for example, you are educated and you hold mainstream democratic, civilized values and beliefs. Those Presidents you mentioned can't sway you with their BS. Only people holding those racist, misogynist, xenophobic, hyper-religious values and beliefs are the ones who can be "Played" and tricked into voting against their own best economic and social interests. It is interesting to me, too, that the Republican base is a coalition - not every person needs to hold every one of those values and beliefs. Lots of "single-issue" people are willing to overlook the parts that don't actually attract them personally, and the Republicans are good at messaging, and "signaling" along the lines of those single issues and thus they build their coalition. I think a real meaningful political strategy for Democrats would be to peel away one or more of those cohorts, just enough to win over a couple of States (Electoral College) or a couple of Senators.
I agree Benjamin. A good example of the single issue are those who embrace Herschel Walker, he was a good - not great quarterback, certainly not of the Dan Marino, Joe Montana class. But the MAGA maggots were willing to overlook his skin color as he is sufficiently unintelligent to embrace anything trump tells him. Whether he'll get away with his "anti-abortion" talk while paying for one of his many female groupies' abortion, could just be the severing blow.
I don't follow football, but I thought Walker was a running back (halfback?, possibly fullback), the top college running back of his time, Heisman Trophy winner, & 1 of the top NFL running backs of all time, so give him credit where credit is due.
Problem is he apparently was hit in the head too many times, suffered too many concussions, which explain his bizarre behavior & less than intelligent demeanor (knowing nothing of where he stood intellectually before all those blows to the head). He should never be running as nominee for US senator, but the GOP is exploiting Walker & his fame & wide appeal. And he isn't much different from the whole array of candidates in the Republican Party for whom intellectual & moral probity is considered a defect, not a qualification.
My bad, you're right, he was a running back. His concussions might explain some of his stupidity, but I suspect his clinging to the trumpster is more to get back into the limelight he misses.
The vast majority of my co-workers, like you mentioned, believe "everybody does it" and there is no difference between the parties, and don't watch news, except what is trending on social media. I agree at least 10 minutes a day should be spent on watching the news. The problem is that slanted, lie filled, context-less, commentary laden news channels (radio and television) seem to be prevalent.
Agreed Alan, there are few newsmen (and women) that I trust, which is why I wish people would do a little research - or at the very least question themselves on what a candidate actually delivered, not what they say they 'will deliver'
The problem is, Ruth, most of those people have been taught ti "feel" not think. So kittens and puppies feed this need, politics requires thinking. That reliance on feeling, is how my mother tried to raise us, fortunately it only stuck with my youngest brother. I, and my brother 2 years younger than me, preferred thinking.
average "White" American.... others have made gains in many areas and the right wing exploits this by saying White people lose whenever Black and other non Whites gain.
I'm not seeing those gains in this country that you speak of for non whites. Corporations and policies that only help the 1% don't discriminate. The average American doesn't travel and from what I have seen non whites around the world have been doing just as well in many countries for decades. Maybe the white Americans you speak of need to travel to realize that they are not living better than many non whites in other countries and they are not special. I'm not sure how any poor white person in this country can think they are living better than the average Japanese or non white European. Even poor people in Europe, Australia, Canada, or Japan live better than the poor whites in America. And have for decades. Americans think they are better than everyone when they are only better than a third world country at this point.
We are a very parochial people--I know people in my own (relatively small) New England state who haven't a clue what lies at the other end of their county--let alone the other end of the state. And the rest of the country/continent/world???
It might as well not exist. Travel--especially international travel (NOT on a cruise ship)--is a great perspective changer for most folks.*
*Excepting those folks who would complain, loudly--in a foreign city--that "no one" is speaking English.
Unreported by the national media we have another , more deadly cultural battle here in Baghdad By the Sea.
"Cops say a Trump supporter attacked Biden fans in Miami. Does an impartial jury exist? " Actually the headline is BS. There is a video.
Apparently, love of Cuba drove the defendant to kill over a Biden flag on a jet ski. I told you yesterday that a Republican Representative from a majority Democratic district successfully used the allegation that "socialists" cost her parents their life in Cuba and she "will defend to the death to make sure the United States does not become socialist." in the 2020 election
"Triggered, police say, by a Joe Biden flag on a Jet Ski, Eduardo Acosta allegedly went ballistic and attacked two men, firing at them from his own personal watercraft as they fled on the water and then chasing them down and threatening them at gunpoint — all while repeating a conspiracy that Biden supporters are child molesters. Two years later, Acosta, 39, is fighting charges that include two counts of premeditated attempted murder with a weapon, two counts of aggravated assault with a weapon and robbery with a weapon. His trial began this week as attorneys attempted to select a jury."
I'm sure he is banking on "jury nullification" and that he can pick jurors who are fellow cultists. Miami has a history as the capital of jury nullification.
Selection is virtually impossible. Picking a jury will last maybe a week "On Tuesday, one potential juror said she could try to cope through the case’s allusions to violence, despite having a person close to her brutally murdered in recent years. But she couldn’t put aside the politics." “It’s not that I think Biden is awesome, but Trump represents everything that I... have a disdain for,” said the woman. “I think he’s a vile human being.” She was promptly dismissed. One by one, other jurors followed with similarly intimate stories on how the last four years in politics had impacted their ability to be objective."
Once upon a time, up to 1980, Americans actually were #1 in the world in most measures of prosperity & well-being. That has gone by the wayside since America's steady decline due to increasing disparity in wealth & power accompanied by erosion of democracy as government focus has been increasingly on helping out giant multinational corporations & billionaires over the poor & middle class.
William B. Wow! You encapsulated so much of what I have been thinking for decades. I refer to that group of men you described, as "whiny white guys (WWGs)." I can hear them a mile away complaining about everything and that whatever negative thing happens to them is someone else's fault. I can see Trump being a focal point of this white whining because they think his bluster, insulting, lying, fraud, and so much more as somehow being strong instead of just childish and illegal. It really is pathetic when as you correctly point out that other groups have been through a whole lot more for a whole lot longer. I guess when privilege that one does not even acknowledge having, is not giving a man everything he thinks he deserves, he will turn to Republicans who are a party of people trying to claim things they don't deserve, like election victories they don't actually have the votes for, tax breaks that would work better for poorer folks in their communities, media platforms that extol warped ideas of manhood to get power, and lying used as a strategy to get their own people to the polls and to disgust others enough to keep them from the polls. So, WWGs of the nation, stop whining, it makes you sound like toddlers. Start thinking about people other than yourself and those you think you should be able to control. You'll probably be less miserable and will definitely make other people around you less miserable.
You make valid points, William. That said, I believe that Prof Reich set out not to defend white grievance, but to explain it, which we absolutely must do if we're going to deal with it. Like it or not - and I don't - the existence of white grievance is a factual reality, and we must deal with reality in order to have any effect on it at all.
If we're honest, Obey wasn't wrong. You used to be able to graduate from high school, get a decent job, and provide for a family. Then, society shifted, and people without college degrees were by-and-large left behind. White people who once could see a path to a good life, home ownership, maybe even a decent retirement saw that slip completely away within a scant few decades. And if we're honest, the Democrats haven't done much of anything to help them other than tell them that they need to get a college education. I don't blame them at all. It's a natural reaction to become disgruntled when the comfortable future you saw for yourself is taken away by powers you have little to no control over. Your comments here are the reason why Democrats will continue to lose elections. Yeah, it's easy to say, "Why should we help them, when we could help other groups who have had an even worse time historically?" However, if we want Democrats to win, we need to bring those people into the fold rather than alienating them. That starts with empathy, which is completely lacking from pretty much everything you said. Sure, it's easy to point at people in the Midwest and South and call them rubes, tied to their guns and religion, lacking in intelligence, and everything else. But those people are voters, they're your fellow Americans, and they deserve your empathy just like any other citizen. After all, that's the only way we're really going to bring this country back together. It all starts with understanding the grievances of the other, acknowledging them, and working together to fix them. How about we say, "Yeah. You got a shit deal over the past few decades. Jobs disappeared, opportunity disappeared, it sucks. How do you think we can fix that?" Seems to me this is a much more constructive way to handle this problem than, "Screw you. You had it good and now you don't. Cry me a river while I go help anyone but you..."
You mean the people that vote against everything that would help their situation and blame everyone but themselves? The people that claim to believe in "pull yourself up by your bootstraps"? The funny thing is I do have empathy for them. I have compassion for them because I know how corporate American and almost every industry has poisoned them. From bad food and lifestyle choices to medications. But for one second they won't see that because they are too sick to stop watching Fox News. At some point you have to let them physically die off because there is no changing them. Many were alive during Jim Crow and refuse to change.
I, for one, believe that Fox news, and most "conservative" media has learned, if unconsciously, how to take the nascent discomfort with change and with unfamiliar people instinctively harbored by most of us, exacerbated it, turned it into full-blown racism and xenophobia, then caused people to become addicted to a continuous diet of outrage provided by that same media. They quite effectively warp the personalities and perspectives of vulnerable people. These people then lose touch with reality. When this happens with addictive drugs, we outlaw or carefully control them. We need to start doing the same with "conservative" media. If we don't, we might as well make every type of addictive drug legal, too, because the destructive results will be the same. It really is quite ridiculous that we have allowed Rupert Murdoch to take over and dominate the hearts, minds, and souls of so many of our friends and neighbors.
Nailed it. They have done this in Australia and the UK as well. Rupert Murdoch needs to be held accountable for this but he won’t be. Money talks and corporations own the US government. It works in their favor.
I think I read his US citizenship was expedited by the Reagan administration. But he has proven to be an enemy of the American people & Fox a subversive organization that has wrought untold harm to American democracy & stability.
Dang, the ❤️ link isn't working. Again. (Ok, now it did, grrr).
GREAT comment.
Imo you can add to that the gross destruction of education and educational standards in the US. My sister went to her 25th h.s. Reunion in 1990; someone asked a long-time teacher what he thought was the major change between their class and current students -- his answer was "The lack of critical thinking skills." That was 32 years ago. How many more young people have failed to receive that important training? We're into the 3rd generation.
Wealth may not "trickle down" the way RR and other Conservatives want us to believe (despite 35 years of evidence to the contrary), but ignorance sure has.
You are correct A Ray Eck (wreck?) You used to be able to go from high school to a decent job. But what really happened was not political per se. One, the digital age (not people) took away a lot of repetitive jobs (assembly lines for instance can now be run by robots 24/7 with no salary or benefits). The real culprits were local politicians and school boards. College education is not the answer - want proof - ask the graduating classes from any college or university - too many are working in menial low paying jobs, like fast food that used to be held by kids still in high school. They supplemented their allowances with part time jobs. What we needed was training in high schools (not colleges) that prepared a workforce ready to fit in, computer repair, data entry, coding, programming, auto repair, plumbing, heating, air conditioning, carpentry, the list is endless. This is followed by other stupidities. What is the industry with the greatest need for people? Healthcare. Do you know that with a Nationwide shortage of trained nurses, we can't fill those positions because we don't have enough open slots for training them - the wait is two to three years just to get into a program. And medical field technicians, respiratory, sonogram, X-ray to name a few are in the same status - not enough openings. Then we get to the costs of this training. Every school administrator (At least in the private sector seems to feel a need to be a millionaire) A few industries (IBM, Toyota are just two I know of), opened apprenticeships to train high school graduates for well paying jobs in their respective industry but when I worked for IBM only 8 corporations in total had these programs, not nearly enough openings for the need. I could go on and on, but I won't bore you. Suffice to say there were a lot of different resources that failed the greater American public. Greed, in my opinion, was the worst of all, followed by the selfishness of the me first generation ushered in in the 1980's
NAFTA and botched healthcare reform. You don't have to be a crybaby to realize what an enormous impact they have had on modern America.
Regarding NAFTA, Adam Smith was wrong about one thing: free trade, no tariffs, are not always a good thing. The exception is where you have free trade with a dirt poor country on your border. Ross Perot was actually right. The only entities that benefited from NAFTA were Wall Street and the six wealthiest families in Spain.
As for healthcare "reform" - courtesy of HRC - what a mess. The US already enjoyed the greatest healthcare in the world, for 10% of GDP. Every employed person was insured, and a factory worker had healthcare equal to a CEO. The patients were happy, the doctors were happy. Now what do we have? One of the worst systems in the world - for 20% of GDP.
As far as retail goes, hiring part time employees so that they don’t have to provide benefits, has been the norm for quite a long time. It’s unfortunate that so many people are unable to reach the American Dream.
Yes and no, Not all workers had benefits, Unionized workers and government employees (including military) yes, BUT, workers employed by small businesses, retail, fast food, etc. got ZERO benefits, not even vacation time, holiday pay or sick leave, let alone health care. And these people outnumbered those in unions or government employ. These were the people that were helped by the affordable care act, and were the ones Hillary sought to assist. The bad thing that happened were the for profit insurance companies that saw health insurance as a way to make a huge profit for very little output.
On top of all that, the GOP has turned minorities and "Radical Feminists" into the enemies. BLM, the Squad, Muslims, Antifa, Immigrants, LGBTQ+, etc. are all trying to take away their "rights" and "freedom", and most of all their guns. So they vote for the most hateful and crazy candidates they can find, and still don't get it.
As the slogan says "Equal rights for others does not mean less rights for you. It's not pie!"
Bravo! Unfortunately, I do have white skin, but since I am also a scientist by education, I do not recognize skin color as a real difference in human beings. Thank you for your reference to "manifest destiny". I haven't thought about that for years, but you're right, that was a rallying call for white, male, protestants only and was highly touted during the 19th and at l.east half the 20th centuries.
Right?! They have dragged us down so hard that our public school system is in tatters and the snake oil salesmen are laughing all the way to the bank. I wish we could do tests on their brains and discount them as voters based on the results.
Obey was right; when the Democratic Party abandoned the working class for neoliberalism, it pushed the white, male working class into Trump's open arms.
That doesn't mean we should go back to gay-bashing and force women to stay barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen any more than that the racism fostered by working-class white male insecurity means we should relegalize slavery.
During the Civil Rights Movement, I saw a poor, white, Southern sharecropper interviewed on the TV news as to why he wanted to maintain segregation. He said, "If you're too poor to have a dog to kick around, you gotta have something." As long as the the US is structured hierarchically in such a way that those near the bottom of the hierarchy will accept and even welcome being exploited and abused as long as they have someone "below" them as their "dog to kick around," the ideals of democracy-- liberté, égalité, fraternité, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness--will remain fantasies used primarily to manipulate and exploit those at or near the bottom but incapable of becoming reality.
White males, especially working-class white males, are in trouble and are giving up (women outnumber them in post-secondary education; they figure highly in the statistics of "deaths of desperation") because they have been taught for generations that they are entitled to a dog to kick around purely by virtue of being white and having a penis (why else accept jobs that barely pay enough to support their families and that wear them out physically before they reach retirement?). That isn't enough to grant them privilege anymore, and they don't know how to cope or to compete in a society based on competitive hierarchy.
"Toxic masculinity" is most toxic to men. Like feminist women, they have to learn that patriarchy is their enemy, not their friend, and to ignore it. Like POC, they have to learn that white supremacy is just another way to exploit them and is therefore their enemy and abandon it. They (and not just white working-class males) must learn that the idea that the US is a "classless society" is a lie, that the rich and laissez faire capitalism are their enemies (and that, no, they are not going to become billionaires anytime soon), that wealth does not trickle downwards.
The grievances of white working-class males are valid--American society has exploited and abandoned them--but the solutions the right feeds them are guaranteed to keep them in that condition.
Maureen, I like many of your observations. I agree that privileged white men are struggling right now. They have decided that if they can't have it all either it is the fault of others: women and people of color, of course or it is that they are deliberately being put down because they are white and male. As you indicate, that is not a good way to live. It makes those men victims of the oligarchs, the white supremacists (of which they may be a part), religious leaders, and many politicians. It is going to be hard to rescue these child-men because they have so little respect for everyone who could help them. That's part of the reason they are so stuck. Toxic masculinity is truly poisonous to men as well as everyone else. You can hear it in the videos of the January 6th insurrection. Their shouting, posturing, violence used against the police and in the attempt to take over our government were destructive behaviors on behalf of political entities who care nothing for them except as those guys can be used for political gains that will never help the insurrectionists who were in the Capitol that day. It is interesting that now, white working-class men may have to strive as hard and endure as much as the other groups, the dogs they would still like to be able to kick around. It is going to be hard for them. I am not sure what we can do beyond everything we can to protect our democracy and help where we can while either the toxic masculinity drains out or those scared white men grow up.
I agree. We also must work on improving how boys are raised. Plenty of studies show that the abused imitate their abusers--whether it be children who were abused who grow up to be abusers or societies that were colonized or otherwise abused who replicate the abuse they were subjected to on others once they are free.
We have to find ways to help them see that perpetuating the cycle of abuse does not empower them; it just victimizes them further and hurts them even more.
Problem is, Ruth, the working class (blue collar) are NOT privileged white men and haven't been for eons. But, they used to be respected, by their wives, their children, and their immediate society. Then, post WW2, their wives frequently earned more than they did, their children wanted more, and since they no longer had 'spare cash' to donate to churches and politicians, they lost their place in society. They are pitiable. They need to get a grip on their lives and learn to pursue another occupation. But drugs and 'white lightning' aren't profitable in their society. And they need both help and guidance (which aren't available) to pull them out. The trumpster with his lying theatrics was able to convince them he cared (and they haven't the wits to understand they were all lies). What we need is someone of both integrity, honesty, and theatrics to help steer them into suitable careers. Know anyone?
But they believe that they are entitled to privilege, which is why they are so angry. Pity only makes them angrier. I totally agree that they need both help and guidance (which aren't available) to pull them out. If we wish democracy to survive, we must find ways to provide that help and guidance--preferably in some way that makes them feel like this help and guidance is a privilege to which they are entitled, not "help," which would make them feel even more victimized, I fear.
We shouldn't forget that the Democrats, knowing what Neoliberal economics were doing to the working class, attempted to put in place programs to retrain and in other ways help the folk affected by the resulting economic shifts. The Republicans blocked them and shut them down at every turn.
I totally agree. The GQP had more use for them victimized and angry than empowered--that's why the GQP is now waging war on education--to make sure they stay victimized and angry.
Start most boys in school a year later than most girls. Most boys aren't school ready as soon as most girls. They'll do better.
Perhaps sex-segregate some classes (like reading: boys are usually reading-ready later than girls) so boys don't get rewarded for doing what they can easily see girls' doing better. Kids aren't stupid, and this can give boys the idea that they are entitled to rewards just for being male.
Improve K - 12 education focusing on developing cognitive skills rather than memorization.
De-emphasize the importance of competitive male team sports in high school and university as they reward male strength over the kinds of mental skills that will be useful to them if they don't go on to professional sports (which isn't an option for most). I'm not saying to eliminate them--mens sana in corpore sano, after all--but don't make sports more important than academics. Furthermore, I know that competitive male teams sports teach mental and social skills than can be useful outside of professional sports, which can be a good argument for not eliminating them; however, they still shouldn't be more important than academics or than similar competitive female team sports.
Prepare boys, especially working-class boys, better for what post-secondary education entails. I recently read of a study that asked high schools kids about what they expected of university: the majority of the girls expected hard work; the majority of the boys expected Animal House (the movie) hijinks and fun. Part of the study involved creating male support systems for males that improved their university performance. I wouldn't be surprised if the same should be done for non-academic community college programs.
BTW:: both male and female working-class kids should be better prepared for what to expect from post-secondary education, including their rights. As a university professor who was the first member of my family to go to university, there's an awful lot I wish I'd known when I started but didn't. On the other hand, I had a fellow grad student both of whose parents were university faculty--she was really well-prepared for the requirements and politics of university and went through in record time.
Make post-secondary school free and provide economic support for students (male of female) who still need help with living expenses.
I hate to say it, but capitalism as we know it doesn't work for the average Joe. The promised trickle down has been vacuumed upwards. When the steel mills and coal mines were booming in Southwestern, Pennsylvania, people worked hard, made a decent wage, and had dignity.
Now, not so much. Those jobs are now in the 3rd world. Some of the most brilliant men and women that I've ever met came out of that working class. Not everyone is made to go to college or wear a suit and tie. But being a laborer or a craftsman is looked down upon as being inferior by many people in society, because they use their muscles and hands to earn a living. They get dirty and actually sweat. But that makes them no less intelligent or deserving of respect. In fact,society would grind to a hault without these laborers. This applies across the board to "those people". Substitute any oppressed group that you wish. The results are the same.
When it comes to the very poor, "Why don't they just die and save us all the trouble of having them around".
Three phrases come to mind. "When you oppress someone, you create the weapon of your own destruction". "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore" and "Let them eat cake". These are ominous times for the "Haves". The "Have Nots" are pissed and they are well armed.
I totally agree. Capitalism has be regulated and properly taxed to provide for those who cannot work, and the workers at all levels need strong unions to make capitalism work for everyone.
Of course. But forget the culture war portion. If the flannel shirts had kept their jobs, or found 'future' skills, we wouldn't be talking about this today. Much worse, Howard Dean went on a crusade about this a few years later (we have to get the guys with the pickup trucks back,) and they ridiculed him intentionally, quite viciously, and laughed him out of the party. Your ex-bosses, + Obama, Summers, Geithner et al. sucking at the teat of the great and powerful technocrats, because, you know, they know what's best for us, don't they? As a convinced lefty, it's my sad duty to point out that the 21st C. limousine liberal bourgeoisie isn't much more competent than Kerensky was a century ago. And don't get me started on shooting ourselves in the foot (what Russ Feingold did to himself, what the party did to Al Franken...) or the repeal of the Telecommunications Act. I wasn't going to stoop so low as to compare all of the above to Ramsay MacDonald in the 20s, but I've changed my mind.
Totally, totally, totally — Telling white men who are struggling to support a household and look forward to some kind of retirement that they aren’t better than other groups who are struggling is not the point AT ALL. Telling them they share the stage with POC and LGBTQ+, and all other disenfranchised demographics IS the point — and I think they’d be fine with it, if they weren’t ECONOMICALLY ABANDONED AND DEMOGRAPHICALLY ISOLATED from other groups in the struggle. Clinton brought everything around to centrism, and left unions in the shape Reagan and HW put them in, turned away from labor [NOT white labor - LABOR], threw Black communities under the bus by labeling THEIR young men “thugs,” did nothing substantive about immigration but allowed NAFTA to decimate Mexican farmers without taking any steps to deal with our cross-border relationships … Oh, geez, do I have to go on… It’s not white men who are complaining. It’s White men, Black men, Brown men, working women, household workers, childcare workers, store clerks, landscapers, farm hands, ex-cons … shall I go on? … who have been left in the dust. LEFT IN THE DUST. White labor class men have a lot of company there, and picking on them as the problem with why Dems lost certain demographics is filtering reality. They are part of who Dems lost, but not the whole picture. Focusing on them just continues the trend we are in of fragmenting ourselves instead of seeing ourselves as a community of many flavors. Dems go on and on about “equal rights,” but they are fighting for the right to be equally crapped on, and they’re fighting for the right to be crapped on in our isolated silos. Dems celebrating a vibrant economy — even budget surpluses — need to take a good look and see if some of that is showing up in the basic labor sector as improved quality of life and leisure and family stability. Is it? Did it? I don’t think so.
Maybe we need to stop analyzing our electorate in bits and pieces and try to see it a a culture and community — if it is is NOT a culture and a community, try to figure out how to make it one.
[And put some effort into making their lives ACTUALLY better, not just the GDP that rewards wealth with more wealth.]
You have explained the situation beautifully. We need a wealth tax, as Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Joe Biden have suggested. But with the Manchins and Sinemas in Congress we don't stand a chance. What the DNC needs to do - desperately - is to recruit new, younger people to represent the party in all 50 states. Instead of financing Republicans they "think" can be beaten. Not all the 'old line' needs to be abandoned. We do have some really good Democrats in Congress, but we need more, who are not under the thrall of big money.
Precisely. I have little use for the “Clinton” wing of Wall Street specialists. I think there’s hope, but there needs to be the will, and recognition of where the real problem lies. The world has been changing, and if we don’t want to be dragged into the autocratic meat grinder, we need some clarity, someone who can speak clearly and succinctly about what actually works for people and what is a smoke screen, and the chutzpah to go out there and make changes!
Clearly, as Ruth Sheets has written on this thread, getting the white, male, and Christian to come to grips with NOT being God’s gift to the world and In Charge of Everything is a task. But we don’t spend enough time reaching out and trying to make common cause. The R’s make a lot of hay with criticism of white maleness. Yes, it’s gonna be a tough road to become one community of people working together for the betterment of all. We had better get on it.
If your state happens to be one with spiraling property prices then you're likely to have no sympathy for those flannel shirt folks: high prices mean a high tax burden - and, resultantly, a feeling of entitlement with respect to public services (which makes a 90's Clinton style of consensus more difficult). Is it 'the roots of Trumpism' - or just the stress of stagnant median incomes & hyper-partisanship...?
I am a New York transplant in LA, which, more than NYC or SF - which have both been expensive for a very long time - has spiralled upwards vertiginously since '15 or so. I am not happy about it. But my angst is nothing compared to anyone in rural KY, TN, KS, etc. So many in these places eke out a living that shouldn't be called a living. And the pandemic drove their property prices up too - but they've been dirt poor for a generation.
Yes, raising the federal minimum wage is a good start - but remember that the "tax reform" undertaken in 2017 also made those spiraling state taxes non-deductible (disproportionately impacting "coastal" families).
Ennio Galiani. Consider the Chips Act! Infrastructure. We sold the goose that laid the golden egg -- manufacture. You point the gun in the wrong direction. The Biden administration has the right idea.
99% of those right wing cultists in rural KY, TN, KS, etc vote against their own economic interests.
[to Daniel Solomon] Please don't read rancour in my reply, but you've entirely missed my point. I like Biden as much as the next guy, and, given the alternatives, I would marry him. My comment was intended a. In response to RRs short piece b. As an indirect illustration of my belief that if we, as Democrats - note the capital d - don't own up to our part in this modern, unsustainable conflagration, we'll never find a way out.
Yes Rishi, you are right about the tax cuts of 2017. They were meant to punish the coasts, you know the ones that support the middle of the country (the "real" Americans) and the south. It makes no sense, but, alas, Republicans find ways to cheat, lie, get even, often without thinking about the consequences. Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana each have 2 Senators like New York, Pennsylvania, and California, but have enormous poverty and depend on those larger three to make things work for even the wealthiest in their states. Those states' racism also gets in the way too as it keeps money brought into the state from helping communities of color which could ultimately bring the state up from its deep poverty and backwardness. White, Black, and other groups in the poor states often end up voting for people who not only don't care about them one wit, but actually work against them when it comes to stabilizing communities, providing good jobs (unless a corporation wants nearly slave labor, they will not locate in one of the poor states because no one will want to move there and they don't want those hicks working for them). How can Democrats make even the smallest inroads in such a situation? I do not know.
Ruth Sheets — I put a “like” on this to mean “agree.” I don’t like it. I agree, though. One thing I realize when talking to people, though — It’s far easier to craft a simple lie and tell it and tell it than to correct the misunderstandings that underpin that lie. Getting the story straight mean more conversation. More explanation. More nuance.
It’s so much easier to sell a lie.
That’s a sad truth, so the question rises again — How can Democrats make inroads in such a situation? [They need to be on the side of the people and not the stock market, but after that … how?]
YES — And they are in THE SAME BOAT as other demographics that are struggling, paying taxes, and watching their futures and their childrens’ futures slide down the tubes. They deserve so much better, ALONG WITH everyone else. I hate this silo-ing of people by ideas, by politics, and even by victim-hood. Find community, people, and PRACTICE it in the Democratic Party. I’m not a Democrat. They make me too angry. But I vote that way, because Republicans are in league with the Forces of The End of Everything, and they make me scared.
So nice to hear about a Democrat that wasn’t tone deaf. During the last presidential election I was listening to a dialogue between a female Latin organizer on the West Coast and a male Latin organizer in Texas. West coast kept using the term Latinx,and Texas kept saying Latino. Whatever the subject matter was supposed to be, they were really saying “ we are going to cut your nuts off”,,”No you’re not”,,”yes we are”,,no!,,yes!.. oh my God make it stop. They are supposed to be on the same team?
 Concerning Democratic support of every imaginable sexual identity and practice: Many who have a live and let live attitude at some point humbly request “get the funk out of my face”. Too much to ask?
If people with a “live and let live” attitude were the ones that marginalized communities were talking to, I’d have an element of sympathy. But they’re not. We don’t have “people with every imaginable sexual identity and practice” out there looking for a modicum of validation and civility. But we do have several. And maybe it’s just too damned bad if people who believe in “live and let live” are tired of hearing about them. Because there aren’t enough “live and let live” people in the country, and LGBTQ+ still has a long row to hoe before they are safe to “live” in the world unattacked.
So, yeah, it is too much to ask. If you don’t want to hear about it, don’t listen. But they need to keep struggling for their right to be left alone. [Women were told to get out of your face just a couple or three generations ago, too, but there has been a lot to struggle for on the topic of gender, and the recent Roe decision proves it. I no longer have even the small amount of bodily autonomy I had a year ago. Maybe I should have stayed in people’s faces a little longer.]
Professor, Upon reading your narrative, my thoughts turned to November and to two Democrats in particular—John Fetterman and Tim Ryan—both of whom are extraordinarily effective in addressing the frustrations and aspirations of white working class voters. No doubt we’re all aware of these voters who, for decades, have been the victims of modernity’s unevenly distributed opportunity and prosperity, due largely to shifts in manufacturing from high- to low-wage countries and also to rapid technological changes that increasingly have rewarded higher educated workers over the less skilled.
I sense that Fetterman and Ryan, in large part, could be demonstrating that a piece of the way forward for defeating Trumpism entails addressing both the widening oppressive redistributions and the needs of those who have lost jobs and are struggling with a changing economy.
All politics are local. My wife had an American studies textbook that looked at factors why candidates prevail. Tallest candidates usually win. Most macho candidates usually win.
I grew up in Pennsyltucky, went to school in Ohio. Was a member of the Pa Bar. I am still in touch with people from both daily. Economics are secondary. In the vernacular, Ryan and Fetterman can kick ass. But they need a Roe blue wave. Women outnumber white working class male voters.
Regarding a larger Roe blue wave, although women outnumber men, some women still believe the propaganda assuring them that women are too dumb to make important decisions, so they vote for whatever their prominent man supports.
Daniel, While I appreciate your reply, I would note that I portrayed Fetterman and Ryan as representing a “piece” of the way forward for defeating Trumpism. Frankly, I see Fetterman as the stronger candidate because I view him as addressing the interests of a broad range of people situated between extremes.
As for “[e]conomics” and “a Roe blue wave,” my point is that it’s not either-or; it’s both.
99% of MAGA vote contrary to their own economic interests.
My point is one size does not fit all'
It's local. I know Ryan -- he comes from 20 miles from where I grew up. His constituency, Youngstown, Mahoning and Trumbull counties, is far more diverse and far more liberal than most of the rest of Ohio. He took on Jim Traficant, the Mafia, and the voters remember it. He opposed Nancy Pelosi for the speaker's position. Statewide the Republican Party has criminal problems -- the trials aren't until next year. The DNC has not supported him. He is actively catering to Republicans. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/21/us/larry-householder-ohio-speaker-arrested.html
Fetterman has a different constituency. He is the incumbent Lieutenant Governor. He has problems in Philadelphia, which might as well be in another country from Pennsyltucky. Pa is not a blue state. The legislature has been as reactionary as Alabama. The DNC reluctantly supports Fetterman. More people on the state Democratic committee come from eastern Pa and rural areas than from "stiller" country. Both papers in Pittsburgh, where Fetterman has his strength oppose him.
Daniel, Clearly, I value your local perspective that, admittedly, I lack. Nonetheless, when the American people in poll after poll report that the economy and inflation are the two major issues, Dems need to make it clear to working families throughout this country, many of whom are prepared to vote Republican, that they are voting for a Party which, on every single major economic issue, runs contrary to their interests. Additionally, I would note our target audience are “persuadables,” not MAGA.
As a final point, I would underscore, that while abortion care, let alone democracy, must remain on the front burner, paraphrasing Bernie Sanders, it would be political malpractice were Democrats not to take the fight on the economy to Republicans, but, instead,“allow[ed] Republican lies and distortions to go unanswered.”
About that American studies textbook, once at a party at NYC's mayor's mansion I suddenly noticed that the height distribution was peculiar. Starting with the mayor, the men predominantly were tall or—hello, RR—short. No messing with Mr In-Between.
Yeah, sure, guys in Iowa in the 60s used to tell me I was outa control and needed to be more feminine. And sure they worried that “men aren’t needed any more, except as sperm donors,” as women and minority demographics could do the same jobs and in vitro fertilization came about.
So, instead of saying “get over it,” show them how they are still needed, in a different way. Not as the bosses, not as the superior guys. They aren’t terrific because they are better than someone under them. They are terrific because we can all be terrific, respecting and lifting each other up.
If we constantly structure our cultures by who we can kick around, we are asking for what we’re getting.
When all that fear and resentment showed up in white men, the R’s exploited it. Did the Dems just criticize it? Did they do something to create the New Community Mentality that we need?
Pat, In response to your penultimate paragraph, I would note, despite a Republican Party whose position on virtually every single issue impacting working families runs counter to their interests, poll after poll, nonetheless, report that people believe Republicans would do a better job for them than Democrats. Frankly, I hold Democratic leadership largely accountable for allowing Republican lies and distortions regarding the state of the economy to go unanswered.
Signing off with a partial list of Democratic initiatives that received zero support from Republicans, I would note the $15 per hour minimum wage, paid family and medical leave, universal health care, the child tax credit, affordable child care, investments in housing, in eldercare, in climate, and more.
THIS is the ongoing and most frustrating characteristic of Democrats, those at the top of the party and those who have the public’s ear — it makes me wonder if they even care about holding power. They let this situation prevail. When they hold the votes, they do a lot of good things [could do more; could have better foreign policies], but they let Republicans walk all over them time and again.
I don’t get it. But we voters and citizens get tromped on in the process.
Pat, My sense is that Democrats bank on making life increasingly better for working families as their path forward for winning elections. I might add, had the Dems been able, under reconciliation, to pass Biden’s full transformative agenda in lieu of the skinny Inflation Reduction Act (the only legislation Manchin and Sinema would support), Dems would have been far better positioned going into midterms.
Regrettably, when Dems need to go on the offensive, as they do now, taking the fight to Republicans, who are phonies who care only about tax cuts and judges, as I stated, Dems are prone to allowing Republican lies and distortions to go unanswered.
Obey was right. Loss of self. It's also a medical problem. Loss of identity may follow all sorts of change; changes in the workplace, loss of a job or profession, loss of a role that once defined us, as a child, as a parent, as a spouse. This leaves a gap, an abyss, an empty space. An identity crisis may cause feelings of frustration, being stuck, or lacking meaningful progression. Furthermore, an identity crisis can influence feelings of depression or anxiety, making people feel unsatisfied with themselves and their lives.
That can be a reason why so many cultists are male . Fox, Tucker Carlson have used it to build their viewership. Trump and the Republicans demagogue this to some people who have a predisposition due to a racist collective subconscious,
According to Healthline, treatment: How to work toward it:
-Practice acceptance. Learning to accept what comes — as it comes — can help you achieve self-actualization. ...
-Live spontaneously. ...
-Get comfortable with your own company. ...
-Appreciate the small things in life. ...
-Live authentically. ...
-Develop compassion. ...
-Talk to a therapist.
Of course this regimen is offered by a therapist -- not a political scientist. IMHO the prognosis is pretty obvious. There is little "science" to political science. A biology teacher once said that social science is to science as masturbation is to fornication.
Fundamentally 70% of the voting public are women and minorities, who are the true objects of the venom, Convince THEM that they can save us --- in some cases from ourselves. IMHO what the cult needs is classical Greek medicine - catharsis.
Indeed, the counties in Ohio that Hillary Clinton didn't win in 2016 featured sub-optimal health outcomes (which hasn't been helped by waves of public health crisis, i.e. first methamphetamine, subsequently Oxycodone, and most recently Fentanyl); the harm that had been done to those same communities couldn't have helped suppress a collective nativist sentiment.
PS: The movie 'Chir-Raq' is a modern day telling of the Lysistrata story (it was released in 2016)...
Rishi, I really do feel for the distress of those counties you mentioned. Drugs have not helped, and it will take a huge effort from outside and inside the state to even start the process of recovery for those communities. That does not mean we shouldn't try and start putting serious funds into helping, even if it means to put scary centers where people can use their drugs safely until they get help. I had the good fortune to be one of the townswomen in "Lysistrata" in college. I have thought often that we women should use Lysistrata's whole town strategy to stop some of the toxic male behavior. Somehow we don't. I still think we should do it all over the country to protest our Supreme Court. The women and men related to every anti-woman representative in any legislature in our country should refuse sex and any amorous contact with those people. Then folks in the larger community should do it to every anti-woman, anti-abortion person everywhere. It will be hard of course, because a lot of men believe sex is their right. We need to find ways to tell them visually and physically that they are wrong. If a man takes what the woman or man is not willing to give, they should be charged with rape. It could get a lot of attention. I have not seen the movie you mentioned yet.
@Daniel. Generally agree with you. But Lysistrata is fiction (admittedly old, classical fiction). Statistically women might be less alienated than their men, but there are as many women among the far right as there are men. Need to watch out for a kind of reverse misogyny, thinking that women are somehow "better" than men. Among the men that you would want to suffer the withholding of sex, their women folk are the least likely women to oppose their mens' opinions!
Women are no better than, but are different from men. Women of all socioeconomic classes can get pregnant, and they take their wombs with them into voting booths. One word: Kansas.
Thanks, Benjamin R. Stockton. You get it, and that's satisfying. As for Lysistrata, you'll get no argument from me, although irl attempts to resurrect that form of resistance make the news occasionally.
Hi Daniel. I agree with your prognosis but it is the suggestions for how to manage an identify crisis that generally does not work for the white men who are in crisis. They want to believe it is everyone else's fault, their suffering they see as different from everyone else's. They have a really difficult time asking for help. They have been raised for generations to believe they should be in charge, even their religions tell them they should be yet the current situation does not allow them to unless they go off the deep end into some kind of militia or equivalent or drugs to dull the pain. Republicans have latched onto this group because Democrats can't give them a cure and Republicans can give them a target that lets them forget they ever wanted a cure, which most didn't. I don't know how to help these men see that those who are victimizing them are the very ones they are looking up to. Trump has not the slightest clue what their life is like or even wants to know. He does know from years of using and abusing workers how many thhink and how to get them to do what he wants by pushing the right buttons. This is one of Trump's worst talents, using people, then throwing them away when they decide they don't want to be used anymore or he decides they are no longer useful. The used generally don't get it until they find themselves betrayed. We the people need to find ways to reach the forlorn white men who have lost their way wrapped in their belief in a warped sense of manhood and its destructive nature. They need to be given chances to see that work can be meaningful no matter what kind if it brings value to life and brings in a decent living wage. That is a major challenge for the Democrats. We probably can't reach all the pick-up truck crowd, but we might be able to reach their children with a realistic hope that we can improve their future. Then we have to make good on that promise.
What a thoughtful and clear vision, and compassionate, while remaining so reality based. Yes, identifying a problem is necessary before it can be solved. This draws the problem to a T. Grateful to see it said so well.
Marjorie Taylor Green is telling Blue Collar Men that they are being emasculated by electric vehicles. These guys seem to be emasculated if you sneeze at them wrong. It sounds more like a personal problem ... During the Clinton era I think you can point right to homophobia and fear of the rise of women's independence.
Also, funny how they loved neo-liberalism under Reagan, but were emasculated by it under Clinton. Give me a break. They are being manipulated by this narrative, not creating it. The proof will be in the pudding. Dems have brought manufacturing and unions back to America in two short years. If that is what it is really about, Dems should win by a landslide next month.
But I suspect not. The loss of white, male privilege and power, not jobs, is the issue. And they are already showing us who is still boss with the control of women's reproduction.
Hit’s a nerve... causing a twitch... driving a knee jerk response... cutting your nose off to spite your face. Why do men stay on this track - it leads to more of the same backwards thinking that caused the problem in the first place... white male privilege.
A much deeper conversation than an economics forum chat box, for sure. I look to my son's generation. It seems that young men have figured out a way to feel good about themselves in this new social fabric. They are happy to work in partnership with women, they are not threatened by men who love men, and they don't need to feel superior to people of different skin colors. He doesn't own a gun or a pick up truck, and doesn't think that makes him less of a man. Men can work this out together, if they want to.
Marx warned us to distrust the social democrats and trades unionists as much as we distrust the financiers. The social democrats think there is a "third way", a way between. Clinton and Blair similar. Blair is now a smug multi-millionaire detested by the British Left. The lesson is you have to replace capitalist ideology with a different kind of social contract. (The word "socialist" is not allowed and in any case is already besmudged.) Something like "People should not work for capital; capital should work for the people." Capital is, after all, only the sum product of generations of labour. It does not belong to the cashiers who simply take it from the till.
'What did Blair ever do for us? Nothing. Apart from…
National Minimum Wage, Low Pay Commission, Human Rights Act . More than doubled the number of apprenticeships .Tripled NHS spending 4 new medical schools 42,400 extra teachers 212,000 more support staff Scrapped section 28
But apart from that… nothing.. except…
Civil partnerships. Doubled overseas aid . Sure Start . Lifted 900,000 pensioners out of poverty. Good Friday Agreement. Tax credits. Equality and Human Rights Commission. Number of people waiting 6 months for an operation reduced from 284,000 to almost zero. 44,000 more doctors 89,000 more nurses
Yeah well all that for sure, but what else?
Free eye tests for over 60s 16,000 more police officers. Extended the opening hours of over 75% of GP practices. Free Prescriptions for cancer patients. Free part-time nursery place for every three & four year-old Freedom of Information. Paid annual leave to 28 days per year Removed almost all hereditary peers. Paternity leave doubled. Doubled the spend per pupil in schools
And…?
Increased the value of child benefit by over 26%. Food Standards Agency. Equalities Act. Increased university places. Restored democracy to Sierra Leone. Crossrail . Rural development programme . Education Maintenance Allowance . Free bus passes for over 60s Devolution to Scotland, Wales & London
And then what?
Banned cluster bombs. £20 billion improvements to social housing Longest period of sustained low inflation since the 1960s. Heart disease deaths down by 150,000 . Cancer deaths down by 50,000 . Removed the minimum donations limit from gift aid . Reduced NHS waiting lists by over 500,000 . NHS waiting times fell to a maximum of 18 weeks (lowest ever levels). Cut long-term youth unemployment by 75%. Doubled the number of registered childcare spaces
But apart from that?
Disability Rights Commission. Free school milk & fruit. Raised legal age of buying cigarettes to 18. Banned tobacco advertising in magazines newspapers and billboards. Free entry to galleries and museums . Giving 18 year olds right to stand for election . National Coroners Service. Autism Act . £2 billion New Deal for Communities Programme . Electoral Commission
What else though?
Halved the number of our nuclear weapons. Free TV licences for over 75s. EU Social Chapter. Free breast cancer screening. Record low A&E waiting times . Reintroduced hospital matrons. Hunting Act. Banned testing of cosmetics on animals. Created Department of International Development. Reduced class sizes.
But apart from all that stuff what did Blair ever do for us?
93,000 more 11-year-olds achieving numeracy each year. 10 years of continuous economic growth. NHS Direct. Healthier school meals. Access to life saving drugs for HIV and AIDS. Equalised age of consent. Smoking ban. Crime down 45% since 1995. Wrote off 100% of debt owed by the poorest countries.
Oh and he won, and won, and won.'
MrRolight
[Original comment that appeared in The Guardian earlier this year.]
Note that his reform of the HOuse of Lords left it open to Boris Johnson's abuse; note his failure to modernise other venerable British-imperial institutions like the 'public' schools and the honours system. Failed to rectify the electoral system. We should learn from this: if you do not refashion the state, your achievements may be a temporary respite which the next right-wing government will undo. See the actions of Cameron, Johnson, Truss.
The removal of the hereditary peers, (Lords) was only what Asquith threatened to do in reverse. The remainder of Blair's legacy remains intact; what subsequent Tories have done is down to them, not him. Since renouncing Blair Labour has sunk itself.
I am 78. The only real Marxists I ever met were prisoners from the 272nd Vietnamese Regiment in Viet Nam. The Soviet Union was a totalitarian dictatorship. Merely lip service to Marx. On the world stage China acts like any capitalist imperial power. Even the Cuban "communists" aren't really Marxists.
Before Marx were stuff like the beatitudes and the constitutions of our commonwealth states. Lincoln did not invoke Marx when he freed the slaves and gave free land under the Homestead Act.
[Of course, no one took the indigenous tribes on that land into consideration, but that’s another demographic that needs to be IN the community, not surrounded and left out — another conversation for another day?]
I am aware of the wide and substantial differences as between our two countries; we have retained Habeas Corpus, the bed rock of western governance, for example. Mr/Dr Clark mentioned Blair so I responded. That is all.
What have the republicans done for working people?? Why would any middle class person vote for a Republican who only give tax breaks to billionaires and corporations?
... because it's a binary choice - and the the folks who are perceived responsible are the folks trying to help (and, correspondingly, the folks thought to be failing or otherwise not good enough); in short: passions stressed beyond the breaking point!
Because their choice of "conservative" media sources has warped their personalities and perspectives, left them out of touch with reality, and makes blessedly well sure that they see the well educated and Democrats as the root of all their problems, and never, ever consider the possibility that the richest of the rich are massively ripping them off (those people are to be worshiped and admired simply because they are rich). The ideas "pushed" by "conservative" media are every bit as addictive as narcotics to vulnerable people. Why aren't THOSE "pushers" in jail?
Yeah. I have hoisted a Point Beer in a Stevens Point, Wisconsin, tavern. Worked at WSPT briefly and almost starved to death. I remember Obey.
What does anyone expect when greedy business owners lay off American workers and hire slaves in Third World nations? Ya think the people who lost those jobs are going to be happy? This does not affect just a few blue collars. This affects our entire nation. Remember what Yamamoto said when the Japanese were celebrating their sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. He said, "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve." He was not talking about the American military. He was talking about our manufacturing strength ... the strength we no longer have due to the greed of business owners. Lenin is quoted as saying, "“When it comes time to hang the capitalists, they will vie with each other for the rope contract.” Other quotes ..."A capitalist will sell you the rope with which you can hang him." We need to put our blue collar folks back to work ... at a living wage.
We also need to educate those blue collar workers that, if you want a decent job with benefits, you need to only buy things that are produced by other people making a decent wage and receiving benefits. If the only thing you look at is the price, you're pricing yourself right out of your job. (Of course limiting CEO salaries would help a lot, as well.)
I’m riding in the Buick (or whatever American car) with you in the Parade. Professor, you paint a picture of the times. Especially this line, “ Emasculation! Blue-collar men already lost one testicle before Clinton. Now they’re both gone. And they blame us.” Even today, for some men, (repubs?) women still belong in the kitchen baking cookies, recreating a Betty Crocker world. Lucky we got the Vote. We must continue to work for equality and human rights. The USA is so not finished.
Aside from the occasional obvious policy glitches, Democrats are not good at controling the narrative, and are adept foot shooters… while Republicans (easier as they all sing the same off key song) run circles around effectively projecting their myths. True the Roe vs Wade repeal is firing up folks but it’s not the only issue. If Democrats could explain the many wonderful things accomplished while paying more attention to workers issue, there would be more support from the voters,
Well, Rs are also immeasurably aided by the rightwingnut media amplification & echo chambers of Rupert Murdoch's frighteningly effective global media empire. The D's have no equivalent to broadcast the accomplishments of the Dems into 90 million households. Dems, talking facts and policy has not--unfortunately--caught fire with those households who are used to getting all riled up with the rage-inducing tirades and fact-free monologues of Rupert's minions.
When the Clinton Administration signed NAFTA and took no heed to the wage discrepancies of Mexico and the U.S. they gave up on the ideals of the New Deal and the Roosevelt Administration.
NAFTA and all its false promises destroyed all of those gains and alienated the base from Our Party. Now, despite the Progressives, the Party has become entrenched in fighting off Fascist Ideology, created because of those grave errors. If we could turn back the clock, negotiations for comparative wages would have saved the Party and avoided the mess we are now facing.
I agree. Certainly that is true for my North Georgia home county. Violence in the 1920s turned mill workers off organized labor, and they never managed to unionize. The schools and mills integrated racially, but not the churches. Along comes Clinton's NAFTA, and most of the mills move abroad. Those workers who failed to either unionize or seek advanced education were stuck scrambling. Then Walmart, CVS and the Dollar Store moved in, killing off most local downtown retail establishments. Things have been marinating ever since, especially with the arrival of the internet, so what was once a Democratic stronghold is now represented by Marjorie Taylor Greene. She feeds off toxic masculinity, racism, homophobia, abortion, and any other resentment she can pick up. Breaks my heart.
Was relieved to see that Hershel Walker finally took a hit in the polls for his unprincipled behavior. Warnock is a fine Senator. And Stacy Abrams would make an excellent governor. Together they might break the back of Georgia's Republican stranglehold.
All those things are absolutely true, then pile on women’s lib, and the perceived conviction that men screwed everything up, and you have a perfect cocktail of dissatisfaction. But that is a government’s job; to move a country forward into progress, even kicking and screaming. What they failed to do was educate and present alternatives. American men had an inflated and unreal perception of themselves as frontiersmen and cowboys. What we failed to do as the world changed around us was to make it cool to be a computer programmer, or a business manager. Re-training, and more importantly, re-setting the legend should have begun in 1890 when the frontier was closed. Clinton, as bad as he was, was as much a victim of the failure to re-build the legend as he was the architect.
Now the Republicans will point to inflation and the border crisis, but the Democrats can run on job creation, the Inflation Reduction Act, the overturning of Roe, and the attempted insurrection which is now a slow rolling one. This midterm election won't be the same as that under former president Clinton.
If you have not done so already Prof. Reich, please write your memoirs. If you have – and I shall look – I know I will have a good book to read during the long dark nights of winter. Reading this post conveyed a complete picture not only of the realities of political power but how that looks at street level including all those nuances of time, place and personality that bridge to gulf between legislation and dry documents and the human.
Former member here, of USW 1010, East Chicago Indiana. ("Tin -Tin", get it?) At its peak Inland Steel alone employed around 30,000. There were bus lines inside the sprawling complex. 24/7 operation, toxic, deadly, war rats, good paying jobs. Lots of immigrants, it helped if you could speak Polish.
I was working and going to night school. I noticed that a lot of our equipment was getting worn out, obsolete. I asked a higher-up I knew about why we weren't replacing some of it.
'Well", he said, "about every twenty years this country goes to war. Then government buys us all new stuff to win the war. After we win the war we buy it from there government for a dollar"
"What if there is no war?"
He shrugged, "After we beat Japan, we bought them all new equipment, latest technology. We can't compete with their cold-rolled. Theirs is way better, fewer defects, cheaper. Auto companies are buying it."
"What happens to us?," I asked.
He shrugged.
I finished college at Indiana University Northwest in Gary and never looked back. I got a job in Chicago trading commodities futures and derivitaves. There is little left of the mills now.
He got elected twice. And Obama got elected twice. I'm tired of hearing how poorly the white workers of middle America have been treated. Their grievances don't add up to justifying their deplorable behavior and attitude. Black people, as a voting block and as a demographic, don't go around weeping and whining like these white crybabies, and the blacks were ENSLAVED for 400 years. And then semi enslaved for another hundred years. And keep getting gunned down in the streets. And women were left out of the equation of democracy by the constitution and had to fight to just be allowed to participate, and have just had their personal rights ripped away after only really having them for 50 years. These bellyaching whites are just a bunch of Rambos who believe they could have beat the Vietnamese if they weren't hamstrung. They are clinging to a manifest destiny view of history that tells them they are entitled to be on top and have dominion over everything and everybody.
Yup. We must not forget Reagan era of selfishness and "christianity". Ever since Reagan the economics have turned so badly against the average American who have blindly gone along with every policy since.
Exactly! These ‘disenfranchised’ white males have never known who the real enemy is. Ronald Reagan and the Republican Party played the race card with them and they fell for it hook, line and sinker. This ‘race card’ strategy was used to convince them that ‘those others’ were responsible for their economic woes. Sadly, it has stuck ever since. So many of them didn’t realize then and still don’t to this day that the Reagan administration was responsible for many of their economic troubles. Reagan was a racist, a xenophobe and a chauvinist. Because these working white males shared those views, they were willing to vote against themselves. Over 60 years ago, the Republican Party laid the groundwork for what we have today. It’s high time these ‘would be’ alpha males realize they can’t turn back the clock.
@Joseph. I call it Reciprocal Hegemony. The right wing leaders (so called) can only articulate their racist, misogynist, xenophobic views because these views already exist among their constituents. It's not the leaders creating the social order; rather it is the demagogic strategy of exploiting people who hold those values and views. That's one good reason we need to get out the vote. There are many more people who hold generally democratic and humane views that there are of those racist, misogynist, xenophobic people. More voters better represents the majority in this country.
You can't expect these men to change for the much better. Change is difficult for the best men, men who are highly educated, with well-developed ethics, say, the top ten percent of men.
We live in the bell-shaped curve: a society with the full gamut of personality types. You can't expect or demand that a low-achiever become a paragon of virtue. He can't jump out of his skin. And most have no compelling reason to want to, because his attitudes are the community's.
Agreed.
You described Reagan to perfection.
While I disagree with the thrust of your argument, I do agree that racism, bigotry, misogyny are endemic in American society. It was racism among many Democrats in Congress that prevented Obama from getting key legislation passed in the first two years, along with a whole bunch of pro-Corporate America. Neither party is 'pure' in this. But at least the majority of Democrats, both voters and politicians are "for the people, of the people, by the people" which is more than I can say for the current crop of republicans..
I can accept that. Neither party is perfect, but in comparison, the Democrats look like better angels than do the Republicans. It's sad, really, that the Republicans refuse to do a more traditional internal soul-searching, following an election loss, to help them become a better party and able to win elections fairly. They simply refuse to do any work to improve their own chances. This leave us all worse off with only one party that is rational and reasonable.
They've long gone away from coming up with ideas to improve the lot of Americans & persuading them of their ideas to just lying about their opposition, suppressing voters & cheating in elections. They can't win legitimately except in the most bigoted regions of the country.
Imo too many cong. Dems talk the talk "for the people, etc.," but don't walk the walk.
It’s hard to do much when the opposition drags its feet and refuses to negotiate in good faith. Tell me, what do you want them to do? They passed a number of bills in the house that died on McConnells desk when he would not allow a floor vote. Now, even with the House, Senate, and WH, that minority stalls all legislation because they insist on 60 votes, requiring ten Republicans to side with the Dems. Then McConnell uses his leverage to prevent ten (hell, prevent any) of the GOP members to vote with the Dems. How do you counter that? If you want change, then give the Dems a solid majority in the house and a solid 60 member majority in the senate. Then things will move.
There are a handful of corporate Democrats in Congress (aka DINOs) who are obstructionists for their own selfish gain. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are two glaring examples. However, the ‘false equivalency’ line (aka ‘Both sides are equally guilty) doesn’t apply here. In today's Congress, the vast majority of Republicans (sometimes all of them) engage in obstruction for the sole purpose of ‘owning the libs’. Even if it means shafting their own constituents. How can one expect the Democrats to accomplish what’s needed for the people when there are way too many rotten apples standing in the way out of ideological spite? Most people know which Party is most responsible for the gridlock in Congress. Even if too many simply don’t want to openly acknowledge it.
Well, yes, Clinton was elected twice, and it was Republicans/Reagan's fault. They only harped on tax cuts for the upper crust (which would pay for themselves when the rich reinvested in the businesses and workforce - which, surprisingly, they NEVER DID) and cuts in discretionary spending that many Americans rely on to help make ends meet. Obama was elected twice because he was able to get better health care options, pulled our butts out recession started by bad GOP economic policies and also reduced the debt. The middle class, that group that stormed the Capitol in 2021, was much better off under Democratic administrations than it had been under any GOP admin. Newt Gingrich taught the GOP how to use inflammatory rhetoric to paint a picture of gross unfairness about minorities and immigrants and the Jews who side with them, taking American jobs and money out of their pockets. But the truth is, the GOP and its wealthy donors were the ones refashioning government to give themselves more of the fruits of American labor (really picking the pockets of America's workforce), increasing prices to pad their already huge profits and demonizing any attempt to gain more equitable compensation for the workforce's labor. The GOP is a strong party because, even though they have fewer members (roughly 30% vs about 35% for Democrats), they have been more successful at keeping those numbers engaged and active in voting. The Democrats seem unable to create a narrative that inspires its own voters to get out and vote, at least until 2020.
The economy sucked up most of the oxygen, followed by the continuing war in Afghanistan and the hunt Bin Laden. Congress is a a large aircraft carried that just can't turn on a dime. Everything takes time to negotiate and when the opposition party (even as a minority) refuses to budge, it is even a harder slog. If the GOP wins a majority in either (or God Forbid!) both houses, we will see nothing done for America, but a lot of crap done TO America by the no-policy-only-revenge tactics that the GOP has already promised.
As you & everybody else politically engaged well knows, it is corporate Democrats that always block necessary progressive legislation when Democrats have the numbers. Republicans do what we know they're going to do: vote unanimously against legislation proposed by Democrats regardless of its benefits to the American people, even to their own constituents, but there always seem to be certain Democrats beholden to corporate donors who sabotage progressive legislation that the rest of Democrats & majority of Americans want.
Right on, Jaime, There are too many of these corporate loving (which is really love of their own power) in both the House of Representatives, and the Senate. I wish the DNC would quit supporting these people, but I'm beginning to believe the DNC is locked up by Corporate
America too.
Robin, I wouldn't say people just went along with the crap Reagan started related to our economy. Most people were so busy just trying to survive with their families under the new economic structure that they had little time to fight and the people they elected to congress, whom they/we believed would help, were bought out by the rich and famous and did as little as possible to help. ?Then there was the increasing level of lying that confused the people who do not think much about economics or politics and we sank into a hole that we are trying to dig our way out of, but we only have toy shovels to work with. Then, when a president surrounds himself with the most ignorant but ruthless and cruel advisors, things will not get better. That is what Bush Jr. and Donald Trump did. They found all kinds of ways to drag us down even further. When Democrats come into office even with plans to improve things, they have to clean up the mess of the previous administration first then face the crippling blows of a Republican party that wants to do nothing but rule and give themselves tax breaks. The American people to a great extent don't actually see what is going on because they hear a little about it, say "everyone does it," then turn to their kitten and puppy videos. One can't blame them totally. It looks pretty bad. Maybe those kitten and puppy watchers could take a little time to listen to what their candidates are actually saying, check out to see if it is the truth, and think about what their candidates' proposals or beliefs will do to them and their family as well as to others in this country related to rights and improvements or probable inactions. Say, ten minutes a day should do it. Then, commit to vote in every election.
I am 53 years old and I do blame the people that went along with it. From Reagan to Clinton to Trump. Clinton was a center right Democrat that grew up with a mindset of racism and he helped corporations including our for profit prison system. But because he was a Democrat people thought he was better than a Reagan. No he wasn't. He helped kill American jobs and I really can't think of anything good that came out of his presidency. Also he was responsible in part for the housing bubble.
I haven't seen a politician other than Bernie really want to help the American people. I don't trust any Catholic in office to help women and access to abortion. Left or right. Biden could be doing so much more but he's not. And don't even get me started on his record. He talks a good game and yes I would take him any day over a GOP clown in this era but he's no better. This country has gone so far right that people think anything remotely center right is left. That's how bad it's gone. Corporations have been writing everything that helps them and only them for decades. Everyone on both sides has been lining their pockets and will do nothing. Robert and Bernie are the few speaking out against this corporate takeover of our nation. Why? Because they aren't getting paid for the how it is system.
Americans need to stop being food gluttons (just travel outside the US to see how obese our nation is) and thinking material objects are what life is about. I know it's hard to survive on the measly wages because I have been alive long enough to know how things were and also well traveled and know that things can be better because they are for other citizens in other nations.
You have read my mind... I could not agree more.
Socialism is NOT Communism. Nor does socialism demand Nationalization of all industry as someone else suggested. Socialism is a system that accepts Adam Smith's view of well regulated capitalism and the GOOD of all people in the nation. We already have some forms of socialism, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act. BTW, the largest expenditure in welfare in this country today is Corporate, not people
Thank you. I do not believe Bernie is a true socialist. I think he is moderate and would like to see the US adopt more reasonable policies like most European countries have in the West, especially the nordic countries. Those models seem to work for its citizens. No country is perfect but if the US continues on the path of greed we will go back to having a system that only works for the extremely wealthy. Most Americans are struggling more than we should be and the wealthy class is exploiting us. What has happened here is unacceptable to say the least.
Bernie is a democratic socialist (or maybe it's a social democrat -- I get them mixed up, but some say there's a substantial difference between the two), much like they have in Europe, which has much superior social & health policy.
@Ruth. Yes, as you say. A lot of that for sure. But it is dangerous to think "people to a great extent don't actually see what is going on..." As I suggested in the part about Reciprocal Hegemony, the Republicans couldn't get away with a lot of the stuff they say and do if the people didn't actually hold those values and beliefs. In your case, for example, you are educated and you hold mainstream democratic, civilized values and beliefs. Those Presidents you mentioned can't sway you with their BS. Only people holding those racist, misogynist, xenophobic, hyper-religious values and beliefs are the ones who can be "Played" and tricked into voting against their own best economic and social interests. It is interesting to me, too, that the Republican base is a coalition - not every person needs to hold every one of those values and beliefs. Lots of "single-issue" people are willing to overlook the parts that don't actually attract them personally, and the Republicans are good at messaging, and "signaling" along the lines of those single issues and thus they build their coalition. I think a real meaningful political strategy for Democrats would be to peel away one or more of those cohorts, just enough to win over a couple of States (Electoral College) or a couple of Senators.
I agree Benjamin. A good example of the single issue are those who embrace Herschel Walker, he was a good - not great quarterback, certainly not of the Dan Marino, Joe Montana class. But the MAGA maggots were willing to overlook his skin color as he is sufficiently unintelligent to embrace anything trump tells him. Whether he'll get away with his "anti-abortion" talk while paying for one of his many female groupies' abortion, could just be the severing blow.
I don't follow football, but I thought Walker was a running back (halfback?, possibly fullback), the top college running back of his time, Heisman Trophy winner, & 1 of the top NFL running backs of all time, so give him credit where credit is due.
Problem is he apparently was hit in the head too many times, suffered too many concussions, which explain his bizarre behavior & less than intelligent demeanor (knowing nothing of where he stood intellectually before all those blows to the head). He should never be running as nominee for US senator, but the GOP is exploiting Walker & his fame & wide appeal. And he isn't much different from the whole array of candidates in the Republican Party for whom intellectual & moral probity is considered a defect, not a qualification.
My bad, you're right, he was a running back. His concussions might explain some of his stupidity, but I suspect his clinging to the trumpster is more to get back into the limelight he misses.
The vast majority of my co-workers, like you mentioned, believe "everybody does it" and there is no difference between the parties, and don't watch news, except what is trending on social media. I agree at least 10 minutes a day should be spent on watching the news. The problem is that slanted, lie filled, context-less, commentary laden news channels (radio and television) seem to be prevalent.
Agreed Alan, there are few newsmen (and women) that I trust, which is why I wish people would do a little research - or at the very least question themselves on what a candidate actually delivered, not what they say they 'will deliver'
The problem is, Ruth, most of those people have been taught ti "feel" not think. So kittens and puppies feed this need, politics requires thinking. That reliance on feeling, is how my mother tried to raise us, fortunately it only stuck with my youngest brother. I, and my brother 2 years younger than me, preferred thinking.
Definitely agree. During the early 80’s, family survival trumped politics for most.
That's probably even truer today.
average "White" American.... others have made gains in many areas and the right wing exploits this by saying White people lose whenever Black and other non Whites gain.
They think it's a zero sum game. They can only win if everyone else loses.
I'm not seeing those gains in this country that you speak of for non whites. Corporations and policies that only help the 1% don't discriminate. The average American doesn't travel and from what I have seen non whites around the world have been doing just as well in many countries for decades. Maybe the white Americans you speak of need to travel to realize that they are not living better than many non whites in other countries and they are not special. I'm not sure how any poor white person in this country can think they are living better than the average Japanese or non white European. Even poor people in Europe, Australia, Canada, or Japan live better than the poor whites in America. And have for decades. Americans think they are better than everyone when they are only better than a third world country at this point.
We are a very parochial people--I know people in my own (relatively small) New England state who haven't a clue what lies at the other end of their county--let alone the other end of the state. And the rest of the country/continent/world???
It might as well not exist. Travel--especially international travel (NOT on a cruise ship)--is a great perspective changer for most folks.*
*Excepting those folks who would complain, loudly--in a foreign city--that "no one" is speaking English.
You're right. All politics is local.
Unreported by the national media we have another , more deadly cultural battle here in Baghdad By the Sea.
"Cops say a Trump supporter attacked Biden fans in Miami. Does an impartial jury exist? " Actually the headline is BS. There is a video.
Apparently, love of Cuba drove the defendant to kill over a Biden flag on a jet ski. I told you yesterday that a Republican Representative from a majority Democratic district successfully used the allegation that "socialists" cost her parents their life in Cuba and she "will defend to the death to make sure the United States does not become socialist." in the 2020 election
"Triggered, police say, by a Joe Biden flag on a Jet Ski, Eduardo Acosta allegedly went ballistic and attacked two men, firing at them from his own personal watercraft as they fled on the water and then chasing them down and threatening them at gunpoint — all while repeating a conspiracy that Biden supporters are child molesters. Two years later, Acosta, 39, is fighting charges that include two counts of premeditated attempted murder with a weapon, two counts of aggravated assault with a weapon and robbery with a weapon. His trial began this week as attorneys attempted to select a jury."
I'm sure he is banking on "jury nullification" and that he can pick jurors who are fellow cultists. Miami has a history as the capital of jury nullification.
Selection is virtually impossible. Picking a jury will last maybe a week "On Tuesday, one potential juror said she could try to cope through the case’s allusions to violence, despite having a person close to her brutally murdered in recent years. But she couldn’t put aside the politics." “It’s not that I think Biden is awesome, but Trump represents everything that I... have a disdain for,” said the woman. “I think he’s a vile human being.” She was promptly dismissed. One by one, other jurors followed with similarly intimate stories on how the last four years in politics had impacted their ability to be objective."
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article267132746.html#storylink=cpy
If I were the judge, I'd ask for entirely new panel because that comment taints the entire process.
If I were the state's attorney, I'd ask for a change of venue,
Makes you wonder if trial by jury is possible anywhere in the 'social media' dependent world?
Truer words were never spoken, T L. So many on this side never lived anyplace like that, have no idea.
Once upon a time, up to 1980, Americans actually were #1 in the world in most measures of prosperity & well-being. That has gone by the wayside since America's steady decline due to increasing disparity in wealth & power accompanied by erosion of democracy as government focus has been increasingly on helping out giant multinational corporations & billionaires over the poor & middle class.
Exactly!!! I watched it happen.
It’s sad that people still bask in the contaminated glow of what is Reagan-ism.
White male grievances have become one of the driving forces in American politics.
Not a problem - J.D. Vance phenomena was debunked a few weeks ago.
= )
William B. Wow! You encapsulated so much of what I have been thinking for decades. I refer to that group of men you described, as "whiny white guys (WWGs)." I can hear them a mile away complaining about everything and that whatever negative thing happens to them is someone else's fault. I can see Trump being a focal point of this white whining because they think his bluster, insulting, lying, fraud, and so much more as somehow being strong instead of just childish and illegal. It really is pathetic when as you correctly point out that other groups have been through a whole lot more for a whole lot longer. I guess when privilege that one does not even acknowledge having, is not giving a man everything he thinks he deserves, he will turn to Republicans who are a party of people trying to claim things they don't deserve, like election victories they don't actually have the votes for, tax breaks that would work better for poorer folks in their communities, media platforms that extol warped ideas of manhood to get power, and lying used as a strategy to get their own people to the polls and to disgust others enough to keep them from the polls. So, WWGs of the nation, stop whining, it makes you sound like toddlers. Start thinking about people other than yourself and those you think you should be able to control. You'll probably be less miserable and will definitely make other people around you less miserable.
Love your response, Ruth
You make valid points, William. That said, I believe that Prof Reich set out not to defend white grievance, but to explain it, which we absolutely must do if we're going to deal with it. Like it or not - and I don't - the existence of white grievance is a factual reality, and we must deal with reality in order to have any effect on it at all.
If we're honest, Obey wasn't wrong. You used to be able to graduate from high school, get a decent job, and provide for a family. Then, society shifted, and people without college degrees were by-and-large left behind. White people who once could see a path to a good life, home ownership, maybe even a decent retirement saw that slip completely away within a scant few decades. And if we're honest, the Democrats haven't done much of anything to help them other than tell them that they need to get a college education. I don't blame them at all. It's a natural reaction to become disgruntled when the comfortable future you saw for yourself is taken away by powers you have little to no control over. Your comments here are the reason why Democrats will continue to lose elections. Yeah, it's easy to say, "Why should we help them, when we could help other groups who have had an even worse time historically?" However, if we want Democrats to win, we need to bring those people into the fold rather than alienating them. That starts with empathy, which is completely lacking from pretty much everything you said. Sure, it's easy to point at people in the Midwest and South and call them rubes, tied to their guns and religion, lacking in intelligence, and everything else. But those people are voters, they're your fellow Americans, and they deserve your empathy just like any other citizen. After all, that's the only way we're really going to bring this country back together. It all starts with understanding the grievances of the other, acknowledging them, and working together to fix them. How about we say, "Yeah. You got a shit deal over the past few decades. Jobs disappeared, opportunity disappeared, it sucks. How do you think we can fix that?" Seems to me this is a much more constructive way to handle this problem than, "Screw you. You had it good and now you don't. Cry me a river while I go help anyone but you..."
You mean the people that vote against everything that would help their situation and blame everyone but themselves? The people that claim to believe in "pull yourself up by your bootstraps"? The funny thing is I do have empathy for them. I have compassion for them because I know how corporate American and almost every industry has poisoned them. From bad food and lifestyle choices to medications. But for one second they won't see that because they are too sick to stop watching Fox News. At some point you have to let them physically die off because there is no changing them. Many were alive during Jim Crow and refuse to change.
I, for one, believe that Fox news, and most "conservative" media has learned, if unconsciously, how to take the nascent discomfort with change and with unfamiliar people instinctively harbored by most of us, exacerbated it, turned it into full-blown racism and xenophobia, then caused people to become addicted to a continuous diet of outrage provided by that same media. They quite effectively warp the personalities and perspectives of vulnerable people. These people then lose touch with reality. When this happens with addictive drugs, we outlaw or carefully control them. We need to start doing the same with "conservative" media. If we don't, we might as well make every type of addictive drug legal, too, because the destructive results will be the same. It really is quite ridiculous that we have allowed Rupert Murdoch to take over and dominate the hearts, minds, and souls of so many of our friends and neighbors.
Nailed it. They have done this in Australia and the UK as well. Rupert Murdoch needs to be held accountable for this but he won’t be. Money talks and corporations own the US government. It works in their favor.
Is Rupert Murdoch a US citizen?
I think I read his US citizenship was expedited by the Reagan administration. But he has proven to be an enemy of the American people & Fox a subversive organization that has wrought untold harm to American democracy & stability.
No he is not but he owns Fox News and The New York Post as well as other media outlets.
Thanks Robin. I did just look it up and he is a naturalized citizen. Australian born.
Dang, the ❤️ link isn't working. Again. (Ok, now it did, grrr).
GREAT comment.
Imo you can add to that the gross destruction of education and educational standards in the US. My sister went to her 25th h.s. Reunion in 1990; someone asked a long-time teacher what he thought was the major change between their class and current students -- his answer was "The lack of critical thinking skills." That was 32 years ago. How many more young people have failed to receive that important training? We're into the 3rd generation.
Wealth may not "trickle down" the way RR and other Conservatives want us to believe (despite 35 years of evidence to the contrary), but ignorance sure has.
You are correct A Ray Eck (wreck?) You used to be able to go from high school to a decent job. But what really happened was not political per se. One, the digital age (not people) took away a lot of repetitive jobs (assembly lines for instance can now be run by robots 24/7 with no salary or benefits). The real culprits were local politicians and school boards. College education is not the answer - want proof - ask the graduating classes from any college or university - too many are working in menial low paying jobs, like fast food that used to be held by kids still in high school. They supplemented their allowances with part time jobs. What we needed was training in high schools (not colleges) that prepared a workforce ready to fit in, computer repair, data entry, coding, programming, auto repair, plumbing, heating, air conditioning, carpentry, the list is endless. This is followed by other stupidities. What is the industry with the greatest need for people? Healthcare. Do you know that with a Nationwide shortage of trained nurses, we can't fill those positions because we don't have enough open slots for training them - the wait is two to three years just to get into a program. And medical field technicians, respiratory, sonogram, X-ray to name a few are in the same status - not enough openings. Then we get to the costs of this training. Every school administrator (At least in the private sector seems to feel a need to be a millionaire) A few industries (IBM, Toyota are just two I know of), opened apprenticeships to train high school graduates for well paying jobs in their respective industry but when I worked for IBM only 8 corporations in total had these programs, not nearly enough openings for the need. I could go on and on, but I won't bore you. Suffice to say there were a lot of different resources that failed the greater American public. Greed, in my opinion, was the worst of all, followed by the selfishness of the me first generation ushered in in the 1980's
NAFTA and botched healthcare reform. You don't have to be a crybaby to realize what an enormous impact they have had on modern America.
Regarding NAFTA, Adam Smith was wrong about one thing: free trade, no tariffs, are not always a good thing. The exception is where you have free trade with a dirt poor country on your border. Ross Perot was actually right. The only entities that benefited from NAFTA were Wall Street and the six wealthiest families in Spain.
As for healthcare "reform" - courtesy of HRC - what a mess. The US already enjoyed the greatest healthcare in the world, for 10% of GDP. Every employed person was insured, and a factory worker had healthcare equal to a CEO. The patients were happy, the doctors were happy. Now what do we have? One of the worst systems in the world - for 20% of GDP.
As far as retail goes, hiring part time employees so that they don’t have to provide benefits, has been the norm for quite a long time. It’s unfortunate that so many people are unable to reach the American Dream.
Yes and no, Not all workers had benefits, Unionized workers and government employees (including military) yes, BUT, workers employed by small businesses, retail, fast food, etc. got ZERO benefits, not even vacation time, holiday pay or sick leave, let alone health care. And these people outnumbered those in unions or government employ. These were the people that were helped by the affordable care act, and were the ones Hillary sought to assist. The bad thing that happened were the for profit insurance companies that saw health insurance as a way to make a huge profit for very little output.
On top of all that, the GOP has turned minorities and "Radical Feminists" into the enemies. BLM, the Squad, Muslims, Antifa, Immigrants, LGBTQ+, etc. are all trying to take away their "rights" and "freedom", and most of all their guns. So they vote for the most hateful and crazy candidates they can find, and still don't get it.
As the slogan says "Equal rights for others does not mean less rights for you. It's not pie!"
They can't turn you into an enemy if you don't let them.
I like your slogan. Keep saying it to "them." I'll start doing it too. 😊
I didn't invent that slogan, I've seen it multiple times on social media. It works.
I know, but you reported it here, so I gave you attribution.
Nailed it.
The white man is NOT superior!
@William Burnett. You go man! But stating the problem is only the first step in finding a solution. What is to be done?
Bravo! Unfortunately, I do have white skin, but since I am also a scientist by education, I do not recognize skin color as a real difference in human beings. Thank you for your reference to "manifest destiny". I haven't thought about that for years, but you're right, that was a rallying call for white, male, protestants only and was highly touted during the 19th and at l.east half the 20th centuries.
Manifest Destiny has been replaced by White Supremacy. Different buzz words, same mentality.
Right?! They have dragged us down so hard that our public school system is in tatters and the snake oil salesmen are laughing all the way to the bank. I wish we could do tests on their brains and discount them as voters based on the results.
It seems to me there should be a set of minimum qualifications, at least mental aptitude & critical thinking, for both candidate & voter.
Obey was right; when the Democratic Party abandoned the working class for neoliberalism, it pushed the white, male working class into Trump's open arms.
That doesn't mean we should go back to gay-bashing and force women to stay barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen any more than that the racism fostered by working-class white male insecurity means we should relegalize slavery.
During the Civil Rights Movement, I saw a poor, white, Southern sharecropper interviewed on the TV news as to why he wanted to maintain segregation. He said, "If you're too poor to have a dog to kick around, you gotta have something." As long as the the US is structured hierarchically in such a way that those near the bottom of the hierarchy will accept and even welcome being exploited and abused as long as they have someone "below" them as their "dog to kick around," the ideals of democracy-- liberté, égalité, fraternité, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness--will remain fantasies used primarily to manipulate and exploit those at or near the bottom but incapable of becoming reality.
White males, especially working-class white males, are in trouble and are giving up (women outnumber them in post-secondary education; they figure highly in the statistics of "deaths of desperation") because they have been taught for generations that they are entitled to a dog to kick around purely by virtue of being white and having a penis (why else accept jobs that barely pay enough to support their families and that wear them out physically before they reach retirement?). That isn't enough to grant them privilege anymore, and they don't know how to cope or to compete in a society based on competitive hierarchy.
"Toxic masculinity" is most toxic to men. Like feminist women, they have to learn that patriarchy is their enemy, not their friend, and to ignore it. Like POC, they have to learn that white supremacy is just another way to exploit them and is therefore their enemy and abandon it. They (and not just white working-class males) must learn that the idea that the US is a "classless society" is a lie, that the rich and laissez faire capitalism are their enemies (and that, no, they are not going to become billionaires anytime soon), that wealth does not trickle downwards.
The grievances of white working-class males are valid--American society has exploited and abandoned them--but the solutions the right feeds them are guaranteed to keep them in that condition.
Well done Maureen. The truth is elegant.
Thank you.
Maureen, I like many of your observations. I agree that privileged white men are struggling right now. They have decided that if they can't have it all either it is the fault of others: women and people of color, of course or it is that they are deliberately being put down because they are white and male. As you indicate, that is not a good way to live. It makes those men victims of the oligarchs, the white supremacists (of which they may be a part), religious leaders, and many politicians. It is going to be hard to rescue these child-men because they have so little respect for everyone who could help them. That's part of the reason they are so stuck. Toxic masculinity is truly poisonous to men as well as everyone else. You can hear it in the videos of the January 6th insurrection. Their shouting, posturing, violence used against the police and in the attempt to take over our government were destructive behaviors on behalf of political entities who care nothing for them except as those guys can be used for political gains that will never help the insurrectionists who were in the Capitol that day. It is interesting that now, white working-class men may have to strive as hard and endure as much as the other groups, the dogs they would still like to be able to kick around. It is going to be hard for them. I am not sure what we can do beyond everything we can to protect our democracy and help where we can while either the toxic masculinity drains out or those scared white men grow up.
I agree. We also must work on improving how boys are raised. Plenty of studies show that the abused imitate their abusers--whether it be children who were abused who grow up to be abusers or societies that were colonized or otherwise abused who replicate the abuse they were subjected to on others once they are free.
We have to find ways to help them see that perpetuating the cycle of abuse does not empower them; it just victimizes them further and hurts them even more.
Problem is, Ruth, the working class (blue collar) are NOT privileged white men and haven't been for eons. But, they used to be respected, by their wives, their children, and their immediate society. Then, post WW2, their wives frequently earned more than they did, their children wanted more, and since they no longer had 'spare cash' to donate to churches and politicians, they lost their place in society. They are pitiable. They need to get a grip on their lives and learn to pursue another occupation. But drugs and 'white lightning' aren't profitable in their society. And they need both help and guidance (which aren't available) to pull them out. The trumpster with his lying theatrics was able to convince them he cared (and they haven't the wits to understand they were all lies). What we need is someone of both integrity, honesty, and theatrics to help steer them into suitable careers. Know anyone?
But they believe that they are entitled to privilege, which is why they are so angry. Pity only makes them angrier. I totally agree that they need both help and guidance (which aren't available) to pull them out. If we wish democracy to survive, we must find ways to provide that help and guidance--preferably in some way that makes them feel like this help and guidance is a privilege to which they are entitled, not "help," which would make them feel even more victimized, I fear.
We shouldn't forget that the Democrats, knowing what Neoliberal economics were doing to the working class, attempted to put in place programs to retrain and in other ways help the folk affected by the resulting economic shifts. The Republicans blocked them and shut them down at every turn.
I totally agree. The GQP had more use for them victimized and angry than empowered--that's why the GQP is now waging war on education--to make sure they stay victimized and angry.
Exceptionally well said! Thank you!
Thank you.
You know that (and said it well), and I know that.
How do we get THEM to know that?
A few suggestions:
Start most boys in school a year later than most girls. Most boys aren't school ready as soon as most girls. They'll do better.
Perhaps sex-segregate some classes (like reading: boys are usually reading-ready later than girls) so boys don't get rewarded for doing what they can easily see girls' doing better. Kids aren't stupid, and this can give boys the idea that they are entitled to rewards just for being male.
Improve K - 12 education focusing on developing cognitive skills rather than memorization.
De-emphasize the importance of competitive male team sports in high school and university as they reward male strength over the kinds of mental skills that will be useful to them if they don't go on to professional sports (which isn't an option for most). I'm not saying to eliminate them--mens sana in corpore sano, after all--but don't make sports more important than academics. Furthermore, I know that competitive male teams sports teach mental and social skills than can be useful outside of professional sports, which can be a good argument for not eliminating them; however, they still shouldn't be more important than academics or than similar competitive female team sports.
Prepare boys, especially working-class boys, better for what post-secondary education entails. I recently read of a study that asked high schools kids about what they expected of university: the majority of the girls expected hard work; the majority of the boys expected Animal House (the movie) hijinks and fun. Part of the study involved creating male support systems for males that improved their university performance. I wouldn't be surprised if the same should be done for non-academic community college programs.
BTW:: both male and female working-class kids should be better prepared for what to expect from post-secondary education, including their rights. As a university professor who was the first member of my family to go to university, there's an awful lot I wish I'd known when I started but didn't. On the other hand, I had a fellow grad student both of whose parents were university faculty--she was really well-prepared for the requirements and politics of university and went through in record time.
Make post-secondary school free and provide economic support for students (male of female) who still need help with living expenses.
Anybody with more ideas?
I hate to say it, but capitalism as we know it doesn't work for the average Joe. The promised trickle down has been vacuumed upwards. When the steel mills and coal mines were booming in Southwestern, Pennsylvania, people worked hard, made a decent wage, and had dignity.
Now, not so much. Those jobs are now in the 3rd world. Some of the most brilliant men and women that I've ever met came out of that working class. Not everyone is made to go to college or wear a suit and tie. But being a laborer or a craftsman is looked down upon as being inferior by many people in society, because they use their muscles and hands to earn a living. They get dirty and actually sweat. But that makes them no less intelligent or deserving of respect. In fact,society would grind to a hault without these laborers. This applies across the board to "those people". Substitute any oppressed group that you wish. The results are the same.
When it comes to the very poor, "Why don't they just die and save us all the trouble of having them around".
Three phrases come to mind. "When you oppress someone, you create the weapon of your own destruction". "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore" and "Let them eat cake". These are ominous times for the "Haves". The "Have Nots" are pissed and they are well armed.
I totally agree. Capitalism has be regulated and properly taxed to provide for those who cannot work, and the workers at all levels need strong unions to make capitalism work for everyone.
Of course. But forget the culture war portion. If the flannel shirts had kept their jobs, or found 'future' skills, we wouldn't be talking about this today. Much worse, Howard Dean went on a crusade about this a few years later (we have to get the guys with the pickup trucks back,) and they ridiculed him intentionally, quite viciously, and laughed him out of the party. Your ex-bosses, + Obama, Summers, Geithner et al. sucking at the teat of the great and powerful technocrats, because, you know, they know what's best for us, don't they? As a convinced lefty, it's my sad duty to point out that the 21st C. limousine liberal bourgeoisie isn't much more competent than Kerensky was a century ago. And don't get me started on shooting ourselves in the foot (what Russ Feingold did to himself, what the party did to Al Franken...) or the repeal of the Telecommunications Act. I wasn't going to stoop so low as to compare all of the above to Ramsay MacDonald in the 20s, but I've changed my mind.
Totally, totally, totally — Telling white men who are struggling to support a household and look forward to some kind of retirement that they aren’t better than other groups who are struggling is not the point AT ALL. Telling them they share the stage with POC and LGBTQ+, and all other disenfranchised demographics IS the point — and I think they’d be fine with it, if they weren’t ECONOMICALLY ABANDONED AND DEMOGRAPHICALLY ISOLATED from other groups in the struggle. Clinton brought everything around to centrism, and left unions in the shape Reagan and HW put them in, turned away from labor [NOT white labor - LABOR], threw Black communities under the bus by labeling THEIR young men “thugs,” did nothing substantive about immigration but allowed NAFTA to decimate Mexican farmers without taking any steps to deal with our cross-border relationships … Oh, geez, do I have to go on… It’s not white men who are complaining. It’s White men, Black men, Brown men, working women, household workers, childcare workers, store clerks, landscapers, farm hands, ex-cons … shall I go on? … who have been left in the dust. LEFT IN THE DUST. White labor class men have a lot of company there, and picking on them as the problem with why Dems lost certain demographics is filtering reality. They are part of who Dems lost, but not the whole picture. Focusing on them just continues the trend we are in of fragmenting ourselves instead of seeing ourselves as a community of many flavors. Dems go on and on about “equal rights,” but they are fighting for the right to be equally crapped on, and they’re fighting for the right to be crapped on in our isolated silos. Dems celebrating a vibrant economy — even budget surpluses — need to take a good look and see if some of that is showing up in the basic labor sector as improved quality of life and leisure and family stability. Is it? Did it? I don’t think so.
Maybe we need to stop analyzing our electorate in bits and pieces and try to see it a a culture and community — if it is is NOT a culture and a community, try to figure out how to make it one.
[And put some effort into making their lives ACTUALLY better, not just the GDP that rewards wealth with more wealth.]
You have explained the situation beautifully. We need a wealth tax, as Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Joe Biden have suggested. But with the Manchins and Sinemas in Congress we don't stand a chance. What the DNC needs to do - desperately - is to recruit new, younger people to represent the party in all 50 states. Instead of financing Republicans they "think" can be beaten. Not all the 'old line' needs to be abandoned. We do have some really good Democrats in Congress, but we need more, who are not under the thrall of big money.
Precisely. I have little use for the “Clinton” wing of Wall Street specialists. I think there’s hope, but there needs to be the will, and recognition of where the real problem lies. The world has been changing, and if we don’t want to be dragged into the autocratic meat grinder, we need some clarity, someone who can speak clearly and succinctly about what actually works for people and what is a smoke screen, and the chutzpah to go out there and make changes!
Clearly, as Ruth Sheets has written on this thread, getting the white, male, and Christian to come to grips with NOT being God’s gift to the world and In Charge of Everything is a task. But we don’t spend enough time reaching out and trying to make common cause. The R’s make a lot of hay with criticism of white maleness. Yes, it’s gonna be a tough road to become one community of people working together for the betterment of all. We had better get on it.
If your state happens to be one with spiraling property prices then you're likely to have no sympathy for those flannel shirt folks: high prices mean a high tax burden - and, resultantly, a feeling of entitlement with respect to public services (which makes a 90's Clinton style of consensus more difficult). Is it 'the roots of Trumpism' - or just the stress of stagnant median incomes & hyper-partisanship...?
I am a New York transplant in LA, which, more than NYC or SF - which have both been expensive for a very long time - has spiralled upwards vertiginously since '15 or so. I am not happy about it. But my angst is nothing compared to anyone in rural KY, TN, KS, etc. So many in these places eke out a living that shouldn't be called a living. And the pandemic drove their property prices up too - but they've been dirt poor for a generation.
Yes, raising the federal minimum wage is a good start - but remember that the "tax reform" undertaken in 2017 also made those spiraling state taxes non-deductible (disproportionately impacting "coastal" families).
Ennio Galiani. Consider the Chips Act! Infrastructure. We sold the goose that laid the golden egg -- manufacture. You point the gun in the wrong direction. The Biden administration has the right idea.
99% of those right wing cultists in rural KY, TN, KS, etc vote against their own economic interests.
[to Daniel Solomon] Please don't read rancour in my reply, but you've entirely missed my point. I like Biden as much as the next guy, and, given the alternatives, I would marry him. My comment was intended a. In response to RRs short piece b. As an indirect illustration of my belief that if we, as Democrats - note the capital d - don't own up to our part in this modern, unsustainable conflagration, we'll never find a way out.
Yes Rishi, you are right about the tax cuts of 2017. They were meant to punish the coasts, you know the ones that support the middle of the country (the "real" Americans) and the south. It makes no sense, but, alas, Republicans find ways to cheat, lie, get even, often without thinking about the consequences. Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana each have 2 Senators like New York, Pennsylvania, and California, but have enormous poverty and depend on those larger three to make things work for even the wealthiest in their states. Those states' racism also gets in the way too as it keeps money brought into the state from helping communities of color which could ultimately bring the state up from its deep poverty and backwardness. White, Black, and other groups in the poor states often end up voting for people who not only don't care about them one wit, but actually work against them when it comes to stabilizing communities, providing good jobs (unless a corporation wants nearly slave labor, they will not locate in one of the poor states because no one will want to move there and they don't want those hicks working for them). How can Democrats make even the smallest inroads in such a situation? I do not know.
Ruth Sheets — I put a “like” on this to mean “agree.” I don’t like it. I agree, though. One thing I realize when talking to people, though — It’s far easier to craft a simple lie and tell it and tell it than to correct the misunderstandings that underpin that lie. Getting the story straight mean more conversation. More explanation. More nuance.
It’s so much easier to sell a lie.
That’s a sad truth, so the question rises again — How can Democrats make inroads in such a situation? [They need to be on the side of the people and not the stock market, but after that … how?]
YES — And they are in THE SAME BOAT as other demographics that are struggling, paying taxes, and watching their futures and their childrens’ futures slide down the tubes. They deserve so much better, ALONG WITH everyone else. I hate this silo-ing of people by ideas, by politics, and even by victim-hood. Find community, people, and PRACTICE it in the Democratic Party. I’m not a Democrat. They make me too angry. But I vote that way, because Republicans are in league with the Forces of The End of Everything, and they make me scared.
How to tell Kentucky about their being raped and plundered by McConnell.
So nice to hear about a Democrat that wasn’t tone deaf. During the last presidential election I was listening to a dialogue between a female Latin organizer on the West Coast and a male Latin organizer in Texas. West coast kept using the term Latinx,and Texas kept saying Latino. Whatever the subject matter was supposed to be, they were really saying “ we are going to cut your nuts off”,,”No you’re not”,,”yes we are”,,no!,,yes!.. oh my God make it stop. They are supposed to be on the same team?
 Concerning Democratic support of every imaginable sexual identity and practice: Many who have a live and let live attitude at some point humbly request “get the funk out of my face”. Too much to ask?

If people with a “live and let live” attitude were the ones that marginalized communities were talking to, I’d have an element of sympathy. But they’re not. We don’t have “people with every imaginable sexual identity and practice” out there looking for a modicum of validation and civility. But we do have several. And maybe it’s just too damned bad if people who believe in “live and let live” are tired of hearing about them. Because there aren’t enough “live and let live” people in the country, and LGBTQ+ still has a long row to hoe before they are safe to “live” in the world unattacked.
So, yeah, it is too much to ask. If you don’t want to hear about it, don’t listen. But they need to keep struggling for their right to be left alone. [Women were told to get out of your face just a couple or three generations ago, too, but there has been a lot to struggle for on the topic of gender, and the recent Roe decision proves it. I no longer have even the small amount of bodily autonomy I had a year ago. Maybe I should have stayed in people’s faces a little longer.]
Yeah. Even surgery radiation and chemo ain't gonna save the patient. We're in a bad place.
Professor, Upon reading your narrative, my thoughts turned to November and to two Democrats in particular—John Fetterman and Tim Ryan—both of whom are extraordinarily effective in addressing the frustrations and aspirations of white working class voters. No doubt we’re all aware of these voters who, for decades, have been the victims of modernity’s unevenly distributed opportunity and prosperity, due largely to shifts in manufacturing from high- to low-wage countries and also to rapid technological changes that increasingly have rewarded higher educated workers over the less skilled.
I sense that Fetterman and Ryan, in large part, could be demonstrating that a piece of the way forward for defeating Trumpism entails addressing both the widening oppressive redistributions and the needs of those who have lost jobs and are struggling with a changing economy.
All politics are local. My wife had an American studies textbook that looked at factors why candidates prevail. Tallest candidates usually win. Most macho candidates usually win.
I grew up in Pennsyltucky, went to school in Ohio. Was a member of the Pa Bar. I am still in touch with people from both daily. Economics are secondary. In the vernacular, Ryan and Fetterman can kick ass. But they need a Roe blue wave. Women outnumber white working class male voters.
Regarding a larger Roe blue wave, although women outnumber men, some women still believe the propaganda assuring them that women are too dumb to make important decisions, so they vote for whatever their prominent man supports.
Statistics in Pa show 70% lean Democratic.
Best ad! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihRX-hXQjgo
quite possible the greatest takedown of all time (unless you count LBJ's takedown of Barry Goldwater decades ago)
Let's keep that ball rolling,Josh Shapiro and John Fetterman,what a team for that state,talk about kickin' a--. PA deserves effective!
Daniel, While I appreciate your reply, I would note that I portrayed Fetterman and Ryan as representing a “piece” of the way forward for defeating Trumpism. Frankly, I see Fetterman as the stronger candidate because I view him as addressing the interests of a broad range of people situated between extremes.
As for “[e]conomics” and “a Roe blue wave,” my point is that it’s not either-or; it’s both.
99% of MAGA vote contrary to their own economic interests.
My point is one size does not fit all'
It's local. I know Ryan -- he comes from 20 miles from where I grew up. His constituency, Youngstown, Mahoning and Trumbull counties, is far more diverse and far more liberal than most of the rest of Ohio. He took on Jim Traficant, the Mafia, and the voters remember it. He opposed Nancy Pelosi for the speaker's position. Statewide the Republican Party has criminal problems -- the trials aren't until next year. The DNC has not supported him. He is actively catering to Republicans. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/21/us/larry-householder-ohio-speaker-arrested.html
Fetterman has a different constituency. He is the incumbent Lieutenant Governor. He has problems in Philadelphia, which might as well be in another country from Pennsyltucky. Pa is not a blue state. The legislature has been as reactionary as Alabama. The DNC reluctantly supports Fetterman. More people on the state Democratic committee come from eastern Pa and rural areas than from "stiller" country. Both papers in Pittsburgh, where Fetterman has his strength oppose him.
Both need that Roevember.
Daniel, Clearly, I value your local perspective that, admittedly, I lack. Nonetheless, when the American people in poll after poll report that the economy and inflation are the two major issues, Dems need to make it clear to working families throughout this country, many of whom are prepared to vote Republican, that they are voting for a Party which, on every single major economic issue, runs contrary to their interests. Additionally, I would note our target audience are “persuadables,” not MAGA.
As a final point, I would underscore, that while abortion care, let alone democracy, must remain on the front burner, paraphrasing Bernie Sanders, it would be political malpractice were Democrats not to take the fight on the economy to Republicans, but, instead,“allow[ed] Republican lies and distortions to go unanswered.”
About that American studies textbook, once at a party at NYC's mayor's mansion I suddenly noticed that the height distribution was peculiar. Starting with the mayor, the men predominantly were tall or—hello, RR—short. No messing with Mr In-Between.
We GOTTA FIND F-ING COMMON CAUSE.
Yeah, sure, guys in Iowa in the 60s used to tell me I was outa control and needed to be more feminine. And sure they worried that “men aren’t needed any more, except as sperm donors,” as women and minority demographics could do the same jobs and in vitro fertilization came about.
So, instead of saying “get over it,” show them how they are still needed, in a different way. Not as the bosses, not as the superior guys. They aren’t terrific because they are better than someone under them. They are terrific because we can all be terrific, respecting and lifting each other up.
If we constantly structure our cultures by who we can kick around, we are asking for what we’re getting.
When all that fear and resentment showed up in white men, the R’s exploited it. Did the Dems just criticize it? Did they do something to create the New Community Mentality that we need?
Apparently, not yet.
Pat, In response to your penultimate paragraph, I would note, despite a Republican Party whose position on virtually every single issue impacting working families runs counter to their interests, poll after poll, nonetheless, report that people believe Republicans would do a better job for them than Democrats. Frankly, I hold Democratic leadership largely accountable for allowing Republican lies and distortions regarding the state of the economy to go unanswered.
Signing off with a partial list of Democratic initiatives that received zero support from Republicans, I would note the $15 per hour minimum wage, paid family and medical leave, universal health care, the child tax credit, affordable child care, investments in housing, in eldercare, in climate, and more.
THIS is the ongoing and most frustrating characteristic of Democrats, those at the top of the party and those who have the public’s ear — it makes me wonder if they even care about holding power. They let this situation prevail. When they hold the votes, they do a lot of good things [could do more; could have better foreign policies], but they let Republicans walk all over them time and again.
I don’t get it. But we voters and citizens get tromped on in the process.
Pat, My sense is that Democrats bank on making life increasingly better for working families as their path forward for winning elections. I might add, had the Dems been able, under reconciliation, to pass Biden’s full transformative agenda in lieu of the skinny Inflation Reduction Act (the only legislation Manchin and Sinema would support), Dems would have been far better positioned going into midterms.
Regrettably, when Dems need to go on the offensive, as they do now, taking the fight to Republicans, who are phonies who care only about tax cuts and judges, as I stated, Dems are prone to allowing Republican lies and distortions to go unanswered.
Obey was right. Loss of self. It's also a medical problem. Loss of identity may follow all sorts of change; changes in the workplace, loss of a job or profession, loss of a role that once defined us, as a child, as a parent, as a spouse. This leaves a gap, an abyss, an empty space. An identity crisis may cause feelings of frustration, being stuck, or lacking meaningful progression. Furthermore, an identity crisis can influence feelings of depression or anxiety, making people feel unsatisfied with themselves and their lives.
That can be a reason why so many cultists are male . Fox, Tucker Carlson have used it to build their viewership. Trump and the Republicans demagogue this to some people who have a predisposition due to a racist collective subconscious,
According to Healthline, treatment: How to work toward it:
-Practice acceptance. Learning to accept what comes — as it comes — can help you achieve self-actualization. ...
-Live spontaneously. ...
-Get comfortable with your own company. ...
-Appreciate the small things in life. ...
-Live authentically. ...
-Develop compassion. ...
-Talk to a therapist.
Of course this regimen is offered by a therapist -- not a political scientist. IMHO the prognosis is pretty obvious. There is little "science" to political science. A biology teacher once said that social science is to science as masturbation is to fornication.
Fundamentally 70% of the voting public are women and minorities, who are the true objects of the venom, Convince THEM that they can save us --- in some cases from ourselves. IMHO what the cult needs is classical Greek medicine - catharsis.
Remember Lysistrata!
Indeed, the counties in Ohio that Hillary Clinton didn't win in 2016 featured sub-optimal health outcomes (which hasn't been helped by waves of public health crisis, i.e. first methamphetamine, subsequently Oxycodone, and most recently Fentanyl); the harm that had been done to those same communities couldn't have helped suppress a collective nativist sentiment.
PS: The movie 'Chir-Raq' is a modern day telling of the Lysistrata story (it was released in 2016)...
Rishi, I really do feel for the distress of those counties you mentioned. Drugs have not helped, and it will take a huge effort from outside and inside the state to even start the process of recovery for those communities. That does not mean we shouldn't try and start putting serious funds into helping, even if it means to put scary centers where people can use their drugs safely until they get help. I had the good fortune to be one of the townswomen in "Lysistrata" in college. I have thought often that we women should use Lysistrata's whole town strategy to stop some of the toxic male behavior. Somehow we don't. I still think we should do it all over the country to protest our Supreme Court. The women and men related to every anti-woman representative in any legislature in our country should refuse sex and any amorous contact with those people. Then folks in the larger community should do it to every anti-woman, anti-abortion person everywhere. It will be hard of course, because a lot of men believe sex is their right. We need to find ways to tell them visually and physically that they are wrong. If a man takes what the woman or man is not willing to give, they should be charged with rape. It could get a lot of attention. I have not seen the movie you mentioned yet.
@Daniel. Generally agree with you. But Lysistrata is fiction (admittedly old, classical fiction). Statistically women might be less alienated than their men, but there are as many women among the far right as there are men. Need to watch out for a kind of reverse misogyny, thinking that women are somehow "better" than men. Among the men that you would want to suffer the withholding of sex, their women folk are the least likely women to oppose their mens' opinions!
Women are no better than, but are different from men. Women of all socioeconomic classes can get pregnant, and they take their wombs with them into voting booths. One word: Kansas.
@difny. Here we are mansplaining women. Sorry! But to put my comment back in context, I was only talking about Lysistrata...
Thanks, Benjamin R. Stockton. You get it, and that's satisfying. As for Lysistrata, you'll get no argument from me, although irl attempts to resurrect that form of resistance make the news occasionally.
Hi Daniel. I agree with your prognosis but it is the suggestions for how to manage an identify crisis that generally does not work for the white men who are in crisis. They want to believe it is everyone else's fault, their suffering they see as different from everyone else's. They have a really difficult time asking for help. They have been raised for generations to believe they should be in charge, even their religions tell them they should be yet the current situation does not allow them to unless they go off the deep end into some kind of militia or equivalent or drugs to dull the pain. Republicans have latched onto this group because Democrats can't give them a cure and Republicans can give them a target that lets them forget they ever wanted a cure, which most didn't. I don't know how to help these men see that those who are victimizing them are the very ones they are looking up to. Trump has not the slightest clue what their life is like or even wants to know. He does know from years of using and abusing workers how many thhink and how to get them to do what he wants by pushing the right buttons. This is one of Trump's worst talents, using people, then throwing them away when they decide they don't want to be used anymore or he decides they are no longer useful. The used generally don't get it until they find themselves betrayed. We the people need to find ways to reach the forlorn white men who have lost their way wrapped in their belief in a warped sense of manhood and its destructive nature. They need to be given chances to see that work can be meaningful no matter what kind if it brings value to life and brings in a decent living wage. That is a major challenge for the Democrats. We probably can't reach all the pick-up truck crowd, but we might be able to reach their children with a realistic hope that we can improve their future. Then we have to make good on that promise.
What a thoughtful and clear vision, and compassionate, while remaining so reality based. Yes, identifying a problem is necessary before it can be solved. This draws the problem to a T. Grateful to see it said so well.
Catharsis. And a little consolidation, too. This fragmenting is working great for the R’s, which is why they foster it.
Marjorie Taylor Green is telling Blue Collar Men that they are being emasculated by electric vehicles. These guys seem to be emasculated if you sneeze at them wrong. It sounds more like a personal problem ... During the Clinton era I think you can point right to homophobia and fear of the rise of women's independence.
Also, funny how they loved neo-liberalism under Reagan, but were emasculated by it under Clinton. Give me a break. They are being manipulated by this narrative, not creating it. The proof will be in the pudding. Dems have brought manufacturing and unions back to America in two short years. If that is what it is really about, Dems should win by a landslide next month.
But I suspect not. The loss of white, male privilege and power, not jobs, is the issue. And they are already showing us who is still boss with the control of women's reproduction.
Hit’s a nerve... causing a twitch... driving a knee jerk response... cutting your nose off to spite your face. Why do men stay on this track - it leads to more of the same backwards thinking that caused the problem in the first place... white male privilege.
A much deeper conversation than an economics forum chat box, for sure. I look to my son's generation. It seems that young men have figured out a way to feel good about themselves in this new social fabric. They are happy to work in partnership with women, they are not threatened by men who love men, and they don't need to feel superior to people of different skin colors. He doesn't own a gun or a pick up truck, and doesn't think that makes him less of a man. Men can work this out together, if they want to.
I wouldn't give ANYONE the 'boss' title.Overturning Roe was a political 'thing' designed to keep Evangelical votes in their mix,sure looks like it.
Marx warned us to distrust the social democrats and trades unionists as much as we distrust the financiers. The social democrats think there is a "third way", a way between. Clinton and Blair similar. Blair is now a smug multi-millionaire detested by the British Left. The lesson is you have to replace capitalist ideology with a different kind of social contract. (The word "socialist" is not allowed and in any case is already besmudged.) Something like "People should not work for capital; capital should work for the people." Capital is, after all, only the sum product of generations of labour. It does not belong to the cashiers who simply take it from the till.
'What did Blair ever do for us? Nothing. Apart from…
National Minimum Wage, Low Pay Commission, Human Rights Act . More than doubled the number of apprenticeships .Tripled NHS spending 4 new medical schools 42,400 extra teachers 212,000 more support staff Scrapped section 28
But apart from that… nothing.. except…
Civil partnerships. Doubled overseas aid . Sure Start . Lifted 900,000 pensioners out of poverty. Good Friday Agreement. Tax credits. Equality and Human Rights Commission. Number of people waiting 6 months for an operation reduced from 284,000 to almost zero. 44,000 more doctors 89,000 more nurses
Yeah well all that for sure, but what else?
Free eye tests for over 60s 16,000 more police officers. Extended the opening hours of over 75% of GP practices. Free Prescriptions for cancer patients. Free part-time nursery place for every three & four year-old Freedom of Information. Paid annual leave to 28 days per year Removed almost all hereditary peers. Paternity leave doubled. Doubled the spend per pupil in schools
And…?
Increased the value of child benefit by over 26%. Food Standards Agency. Equalities Act. Increased university places. Restored democracy to Sierra Leone. Crossrail . Rural development programme . Education Maintenance Allowance . Free bus passes for over 60s Devolution to Scotland, Wales & London
And then what?
Banned cluster bombs. £20 billion improvements to social housing Longest period of sustained low inflation since the 1960s. Heart disease deaths down by 150,000 . Cancer deaths down by 50,000 . Removed the minimum donations limit from gift aid . Reduced NHS waiting lists by over 500,000 . NHS waiting times fell to a maximum of 18 weeks (lowest ever levels). Cut long-term youth unemployment by 75%. Doubled the number of registered childcare spaces
But apart from that?
Disability Rights Commission. Free school milk & fruit. Raised legal age of buying cigarettes to 18. Banned tobacco advertising in magazines newspapers and billboards. Free entry to galleries and museums . Giving 18 year olds right to stand for election . National Coroners Service. Autism Act . £2 billion New Deal for Communities Programme . Electoral Commission
What else though?
Halved the number of our nuclear weapons. Free TV licences for over 75s. EU Social Chapter. Free breast cancer screening. Record low A&E waiting times . Reintroduced hospital matrons. Hunting Act. Banned testing of cosmetics on animals. Created Department of International Development. Reduced class sizes.
But apart from all that stuff what did Blair ever do for us?
93,000 more 11-year-olds achieving numeracy each year. 10 years of continuous economic growth. NHS Direct. Healthier school meals. Access to life saving drugs for HIV and AIDS. Equalised age of consent. Smoking ban. Crime down 45% since 1995. Wrote off 100% of debt owed by the poorest countries.
Oh and he won, and won, and won.'
MrRolight
[Original comment that appeared in The Guardian earlier this year.]
Note that his reform of the HOuse of Lords left it open to Boris Johnson's abuse; note his failure to modernise other venerable British-imperial institutions like the 'public' schools and the honours system. Failed to rectify the electoral system. We should learn from this: if you do not refashion the state, your achievements may be a temporary respite which the next right-wing government will undo. See the actions of Cameron, Johnson, Truss.
The removal of the hereditary peers, (Lords) was only what Asquith threatened to do in reverse. The remainder of Blair's legacy remains intact; what subsequent Tories have done is down to them, not him. Since renouncing Blair Labour has sunk itself.
Kael Marx did not anticipate the rise of the middle class and a consumer economy. The US is not the UK.
In this country, Groucho was more influential.
Do you know that Karl Marx wrote columns for the New York TImes? And even today the NYT publishes much more interesting and appreciative articles about Marx than you will ever find in British newspapers: for example https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/30/opinion/karl-marx-at-200-influence.html.
I am 78. The only real Marxists I ever met were prisoners from the 272nd Vietnamese Regiment in Viet Nam. The Soviet Union was a totalitarian dictatorship. Merely lip service to Marx. On the world stage China acts like any capitalist imperial power. Even the Cuban "communists" aren't really Marxists.
Before Marx were stuff like the beatitudes and the constitutions of our commonwealth states. Lincoln did not invoke Marx when he freed the slaves and gave free land under the Homestead Act.
Great …. Frigging ….. Point!
[Of course, no one took the indigenous tribes on that land into consideration, but that’s another demographic that needs to be IN the community, not surrounded and left out — another conversation for another day?]
But in spirit, I so agree with you!
I am aware of the wide and substantial differences as between our two countries; we have retained Habeas Corpus, the bed rock of western governance, for example. Mr/Dr Clark mentioned Blair so I responded. That is all.
What have the republicans done for working people?? Why would any middle class person vote for a Republican who only give tax breaks to billionaires and corporations?
... because it's a binary choice - and the the folks who are perceived responsible are the folks trying to help (and, correspondingly, the folks thought to be failing or otherwise not good enough); in short: passions stressed beyond the breaking point!
Because their choice of "conservative" media sources has warped their personalities and perspectives, left them out of touch with reality, and makes blessedly well sure that they see the well educated and Democrats as the root of all their problems, and never, ever consider the possibility that the richest of the rich are massively ripping them off (those people are to be worshiped and admired simply because they are rich). The ideas "pushed" by "conservative" media are every bit as addictive as narcotics to vulnerable people. Why aren't THOSE "pushers" in jail?
Yeah. I have hoisted a Point Beer in a Stevens Point, Wisconsin, tavern. Worked at WSPT briefly and almost starved to death. I remember Obey.
What does anyone expect when greedy business owners lay off American workers and hire slaves in Third World nations? Ya think the people who lost those jobs are going to be happy? This does not affect just a few blue collars. This affects our entire nation. Remember what Yamamoto said when the Japanese were celebrating their sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. He said, "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve." He was not talking about the American military. He was talking about our manufacturing strength ... the strength we no longer have due to the greed of business owners. Lenin is quoted as saying, "“When it comes time to hang the capitalists, they will vie with each other for the rope contract.” Other quotes ..."A capitalist will sell you the rope with which you can hang him." We need to put our blue collar folks back to work ... at a living wage.
We also need to educate those blue collar workers that, if you want a decent job with benefits, you need to only buy things that are produced by other people making a decent wage and receiving benefits. If the only thing you look at is the price, you're pricing yourself right out of your job. (Of course limiting CEO salaries would help a lot, as well.)
And tolerate the higher prices of goods that will be the inevitable result, unless we can break-up the monopolies and regulate the corporate sectors.
I’m riding in the Buick (or whatever American car) with you in the Parade. Professor, you paint a picture of the times. Especially this line, “ Emasculation! Blue-collar men already lost one testicle before Clinton. Now they’re both gone. And they blame us.” Even today, for some men, (repubs?) women still belong in the kitchen baking cookies, recreating a Betty Crocker world. Lucky we got the Vote. We must continue to work for equality and human rights. The USA is so not finished.
I don't do Betty Crocker,she sells GMO products!
Aside from the occasional obvious policy glitches, Democrats are not good at controling the narrative, and are adept foot shooters… while Republicans (easier as they all sing the same off key song) run circles around effectively projecting their myths. True the Roe vs Wade repeal is firing up folks but it’s not the only issue. If Democrats could explain the many wonderful things accomplished while paying more attention to workers issue, there would be more support from the voters,
Well, Rs are also immeasurably aided by the rightwingnut media amplification & echo chambers of Rupert Murdoch's frighteningly effective global media empire. The D's have no equivalent to broadcast the accomplishments of the Dems into 90 million households. Dems, talking facts and policy has not--unfortunately--caught fire with those households who are used to getting all riled up with the rage-inducing tirades and fact-free monologues of Rupert's minions.
When the Clinton Administration signed NAFTA and took no heed to the wage discrepancies of Mexico and the U.S. they gave up on the ideals of the New Deal and the Roosevelt Administration.
NAFTA and all its false promises destroyed all of those gains and alienated the base from Our Party. Now, despite the Progressives, the Party has become entrenched in fighting off Fascist Ideology, created because of those grave errors. If we could turn back the clock, negotiations for comparative wages would have saved the Party and avoided the mess we are now facing.
I agree. Certainly that is true for my North Georgia home county. Violence in the 1920s turned mill workers off organized labor, and they never managed to unionize. The schools and mills integrated racially, but not the churches. Along comes Clinton's NAFTA, and most of the mills move abroad. Those workers who failed to either unionize or seek advanced education were stuck scrambling. Then Walmart, CVS and the Dollar Store moved in, killing off most local downtown retail establishments. Things have been marinating ever since, especially with the arrival of the internet, so what was once a Democratic stronghold is now represented by Marjorie Taylor Greene. She feeds off toxic masculinity, racism, homophobia, abortion, and any other resentment she can pick up. Breaks my heart.
Rev.Rafael Warnock needs support in Georgia,he deserves a full term,we Can't give Rethugs a seat.
Was relieved to see that Hershel Walker finally took a hit in the polls for his unprincipled behavior. Warnock is a fine Senator. And Stacy Abrams would make an excellent governor. Together they might break the back of Georgia's Republican stranglehold.
All those things are absolutely true, then pile on women’s lib, and the perceived conviction that men screwed everything up, and you have a perfect cocktail of dissatisfaction. But that is a government’s job; to move a country forward into progress, even kicking and screaming. What they failed to do was educate and present alternatives. American men had an inflated and unreal perception of themselves as frontiersmen and cowboys. What we failed to do as the world changed around us was to make it cool to be a computer programmer, or a business manager. Re-training, and more importantly, re-setting the legend should have begun in 1890 when the frontier was closed. Clinton, as bad as he was, was as much a victim of the failure to re-build the legend as he was the architect.
Now the Republicans will point to inflation and the border crisis, but the Democrats can run on job creation, the Inflation Reduction Act, the overturning of Roe, and the attempted insurrection which is now a slow rolling one. This midterm election won't be the same as that under former president Clinton.
True; back then they only threatened to do something awful & unconstitutional...
If you have not done so already Prof. Reich, please write your memoirs. If you have – and I shall look – I know I will have a good book to read during the long dark nights of winter. Reading this post conveyed a complete picture not only of the realities of political power but how that looks at street level including all those nuances of time, place and personality that bridge to gulf between legislation and dry documents and the human.
Former member here, of USW 1010, East Chicago Indiana. ("Tin -Tin", get it?) At its peak Inland Steel alone employed around 30,000. There were bus lines inside the sprawling complex. 24/7 operation, toxic, deadly, war rats, good paying jobs. Lots of immigrants, it helped if you could speak Polish.
I was working and going to night school. I noticed that a lot of our equipment was getting worn out, obsolete. I asked a higher-up I knew about why we weren't replacing some of it.
'Well", he said, "about every twenty years this country goes to war. Then government buys us all new stuff to win the war. After we win the war we buy it from there government for a dollar"
"What if there is no war?"
He shrugged, "After we beat Japan, we bought them all new equipment, latest technology. We can't compete with their cold-rolled. Theirs is way better, fewer defects, cheaper. Auto companies are buying it."
"What happens to us?," I asked.
He shrugged.
I finished college at Indiana University Northwest in Gary and never looked back. I got a job in Chicago trading commodities futures and derivitaves. There is little left of the mills now.