Letters to the Editor
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Salon is like school on Saturday.....NO CLASS
Several people have pointed out the lack of discussion of class as it intersects with race. I have found the total lack of discussion of class on Salon extremely disconcerting on the basis of journalistic standards and the professed affiliation with Democratic or progressive policy.
One of the major differences between Obama and Hilary is how middle class is defined. Not only Joan but most of the upper middle class posters ignore the vast implications of defining middle class at 75K as opposed to 250K when the median family income is 42K. A couple of posters have tried to argue that because of cost of living that 96K is middle class...that is completely absurd and only betrays a profound ignorance of how most people live.
Along the same lines how about a discussion of country that has 5% of the world's population but 25% of prison population and its relation to the structures and ideology of racism that isn't just about someone being a Klan member
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So white working class voters are racist --whaaa???
One of the commenters -- Jeannette -- said that the problem is that white working-class voters are racist, and Hillary is just aiming to capitalize on it. I'm offended and shocked that Salon would put a star on this letter -- it's mindless, baseless, and insulting. Seriously, there's no reason why people might support Hillary over Obama other than racism? Well, then why did we have primaries at all? Clearly, we should have just anointed Obama the candidate because he's African-American and Edwards and Clinton are white, and clearly we don't want the racists to control the outcome, so why bother voting?
As a Dem, I'm still amazed at how stupid and arrogant the controlling elements in this party are about rural and blue collar whites (and, yes, I'm white, and from WV, a great blue-collar swing state -- so I'm sure that means I'm not allowed to have any opinions because I must be a racist. Never mind that my husband's Black and so will my kids be). I remember Gore's senior policy advisor -- Elaine Kamarck -- saying she was "proud" that Gore lost WV, because it proved that he held to his principles on guns and coal. What a load. If that was the case, then why did Clinton win WV? Why did Carter, for pete's sake? Gore lost WV because he wasn't telling them anything relevant to their lives. He didn't even bother visiting the state until the day before the primary. Gore lost WV because he came off as an elite egghead who didn't bother trying to get to know us. And guess how Obama comes off sometimes? That doesn't fly with country people.
Yes, voters are voting against their own interests. But you know what? That doesn't make them stupid or racist. It means that life is hard, and it's hard to get the straight story on policies and politics when you work all the time and barely scrape by to pay the rent or mortgage and health payments. It's tough. Let's show a little damned respect and not just label them as racists because they don't love Obama as much as most Dems do. White blue collar voters suspect (and it seems somewhat correctly) that the Democratic party has abandoned them, doesn't care about them, and is much more concerned about everyone but them. Bad strategy, folks, since I haven't seen anyone winning elections without them.
Clearly, Obama's going to be the nominee. But unless we, as a party, actually try to understand this category of voters we're calling white blue collar workers, he isn't going to be President.
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No, we don't want to talking about race
Racial integration was carried out by force, because the eggheads knew that it would be voted down by the "unwashed", the very people the Democrats want to rejoin the party now. When I was young and foolish, I was one of them: I got arrested in a group "sitting in" to integrate a public facility in 1964. Blue collar whites never bought it, especially after School Integration trashed the schools to the point where those who could afford it went to private schools. We should just pretend all this never happened, for the good of the Country; Rev. White's fate shows just how little anyone wants to hear anything real about Race. disigny
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Can Democrats learn to talk about race?
If this post is any indication, I rather doubt it.
I don't understand how anyone with more than a rudimentary grasp of English - someone, for instance, who edits an on-line magazine - could read the transcript of the Brazile - Begala spat, and continue to assert that Brazile and by extension the campaign apparatus of Senator Obama are unconcerned about whether they get the votes of older women and working class whites.
Ms Walsh is continuing to take a charitable assessment of Senator Clinton's comments while making at best a distortion on the comments of Ms Brazile. In the case of both Ms Walsh and Senator Clinton, I assume it's a severe combined case of tin-ear and foot-in-mouth syndrome. Senator Clinton, however, has the excuse of extemporaneous speaking as an explanation of her nonsense.
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Code Words That Should Be Dropped
What all Democrats need to do is stop talking about "white working class voters." This sort of dialogue is virtually meaningless to people under 40 anyway. White working class voters is simply code for older less educated whites who have some level of racial intolerance. The Clintons injected this toxic meme into the campaign because they thought it was the best way to come from behind and beat Obama. They were wrong in that, even if it helped, it did not help enough to win. Now they have lost, and the party is left with this vile dialogue. Since the 60s, no Democrat of national importance has used this sort of Nixonian code language to try to secure votes based on the race of his opponent. The Democratic Party is in an excellent position to win in November, and it does not need to get any particular "vote" as defined by pollsters, pundits, or campaign advisers to do so. The Party simply needs to focus on the war and the economy and point out that McCain wants to continue pursuing the Bush administration's extremely unpopular policies on both issues. This will win the election. Using code words to define the electorate socially is just playing into the Republican game plan to distract the electorate from the big issues 70% of them, regardless of race, care about the most. Let's just go for the 70% who hate what the Republicans have done to the country and shut up about race, education, age or gender.