Reply #140: Yes, a lot of people do feel abandoned by the Democrats. [View All]

[QC]

I'd be sitting on a nice little pile of cash right now if I had a buck for every time some Regular Joe has told me that "the Democrats couldn't care less about people like me." I never have a good reply to that one because it is, to a great degree, true. Consider how the stereotypes fly whenever the subject of working-class voters comes up around here and how threads dealing with class issues generally drop like rocks. The American Left has become too thoroughly bourgeois to give much thought to people who change oil at Jiffy Lube or diapers at the nursing home.

I agree with those who say that employers are to blame for the problem, not the workers themselves, but I am disturbed by the tendency of some here (always the same three or four people) to respond to concerns about immigration by rushing in, trailing clouds not of glory but of self-righteous indignation, and decreeing that anyone who thinks there's a problem is a racist classist xenophobe. It's a shitty way to treat people who fear for their families' livelihoods, and it's a supremely bad political strategy, because it does nothing but confirm the GOP talking about about "liberal elitists." Some seem to forget--if they ever knew at all--that the same concerns that motivate some to immigrate move others who are already here to fear immigration. In both cases it's people's natural desire to provide for themselves and their families.

Thanks so much for your kind remarks--I really do appreciate them. As I said earlier, my point here was to describe how things look to those who are barely making it and falling further behind. I'm glad you can see that. And no, I haven't read Shepler's book. I'll add it to my long list of books I'm trying to get to--unfortunately, teaching six writing classes leaves little time for my own reading.