Letters to the Editor
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The Democrats' Runaway Classist Train
I have been so utterly frustrated over the past few weeks with the "racist" low-blows delivered to mostly rural, mostly blue-collar, working class "whites" - by so-called educated people -that it has been hard to read and comment without being overwhelmed by my own disgust at what the Democratic Party is doing and has done to itself.
It seems like an out-of-control train, propelled forward only by physics, no longer with a destination, just blazing ahead on a pre-laid track that has long passed "slow" or "stop" - interested only in its own movement, regardless of whether there are tracks to propel it.
The Democratic Party is and never has been driven by one group's agenda. It is the "poor people's party", at its heart, that has made the Democratic Party the voice of reason and compassion in our lives. What I see today are not Democratic Party ideals. Hell, they aren't even ideals of civilized people, these days.
It has become a classist party that would rather part ways with anybody who isn't a member of the "creative class", who isn't a college graduate, who doesn't live in urban meccas, who doesn't earn $50,000 a year or more, who isn't African American, who isn't 45-years old or younger, or who doesn't tow some invisible line that has been laid down somewhere, unbeknownst to many of us who are (were) at one time members of a far more Big Tent Party than it is now.
I don't even recognize this Democratic Party anymore. It's become one that seems to be fine with disenfranchising millions of people (and no, I'm not talking about FL & MI voters right now, but that is part of the problem), 'dissing anybody who steps out of line and does not "tow" the correct line or hold the same values or beliefs or attitudes.
It's a sad thing to witness: a "debate" about whether working class "whites" - or any working class, for that matter - are or should be part of the Big Tent Party. Given this attitude, I wonder just how long it will take before the Big Tent Party completely morphs into Republican-lite - because that seems to be where it's headed. Add the toxic right-wing smears, tactics and talking points that Democrats are using to bring down another Democrat - simply to satisfy one agenda - and it seems to have lost its soul.
For anybody who wants "facts" instead of spin, hype and lies about the "characteristics" of the so-called "racist" white voters, try reading some analysis of tonight's Oregon & Kentucky primaries. Two different states, two sets of voters - both white - but with huge income disparities (Southeast vs. PacNW). Guess which "whites" have better incomes?
The same findings are probably true of other working class voters who have supported Clinton: mostly lower-income, working class people. By comparison, whites who support Obama are predominantly middle-class+ (with a couple of notable exceptions in Iowa and Nebraska - neither of which will be "blue" in November), and live in areas that have for the most part been untainted and untouched by the devastating job losses suffered in NE Industrial regions; and untouched by generation after generation after generation of poverty, neglect and despair - which is what many, many whites (and African Americans) face in the Deep South and Appalachia).
One other fact: Obama's losses to this group aren't new and they aren't aberrations. He has been losing these voters to Clinton since New Hampshire, with the two notable exceptions above.
Finally: Today's Kentucky vote showed that only about 2/10 voters said "race" was a factor in their decision - actually similar to earlier primaries. Yes, this is still high, but it certainly isn't the broad-brush racism that many, including a lot of posters here on Salon, have screamed about for so many weeks in an effort to keep the narrative going.
If anything, this is more a meme of the media (and, to a lesser extent, the Republicans). Still, I'm not sure which is worse: peddling the falsehoods or buying them hook, line and sinker the wasy so many "educated" people have done.
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From Joan Walsh
ljwalker53, I share your pain over people just writing off such a big chunk of the party -- and yes, also writing off people who need the Democratic party. There's always been a strain of elitism among college-town lefty Democrats (I should know; I used to be one), and of course among Nader voters (and yes, some Obama zealots are Nader voters.) The thing is, they've never been on what is almost certainly the winning side. And the sneering sore winner syndrome could change the equation and toss them over to the losing side, hurting Obama and the Democrats. Which is why I care so much about these questions of tone.
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I'm not Appalachian, but I grew up below the poverty line
It occurs to me that we have a terrible cultural addiction to labeling others, and then we substitute that label for the more difficult task of developing an understanding based upon facts & compassion rather than the opinions spouted by those who "seem" to be in the know. If you listen to the experts & pundits long enough, taken the sound bites that pass for actual information, you will begin to notice that these folks spout ideas that are the same or so similar that it passes for a consensus of opinion when it probably didn't involve much research or soul searching at all. Most of them don't really know anything about poverty or the places where poverty is an issue.
Poverty is a grinding experience and living "above" the poverty line just a bit is only marginally better. Being in debt to the point of living check to check is nearly the same experience with better food for all the stress it inflicts on the middle class. I guess what I am getting at here is that we are all in the same boat and we need to recognize one another and pull together.
In the past year and a half I have been called a misogynist for not agreeing with women or for not voting for Hillary. I didn't know having a different idea was a valid ground for such a label.
I was one of the children of poverty people like to talk about, as if they aren't "in the room." My family got food stamps when I was a child. We got welfare checks and social security checks when my father died, which was more than we got before he died. I changed schools 27 times before I dropped out of high school in my senior year. When I was 25 I took the GED exam and began putting myself through university, making the honor roll, and I think I would be remiss to forget saying that somehow it was easier for me because I was white, just a little bit easier, but it was just enough to get me through to the point where I believed enough in myself that I kept going. I knew despair, I was born to it, but I didn't give in to it. I was aware that I was better off than some, since if I walked into a room no one made any assumptions about me based upon how I looked or the color of my skin.
Of my five siblings, I am the only one to gain a degree. Two are high school dropouts. I tried to encourage them, but like blue dot, they thought I was weird or somehow exceptional and didn't see the possibility that life could be more for them too. They didn't see that they had the same starch in their backbones that I do. Some turned to drinking and drugs. Some worked really hard and made a life for themselves, some drifted away never to be heard from again, but all the way around, their lives were harder than mine. When I was a kid, I heard people call us white trash. They are my family and I love them wherever they are. When despair starts early in life, it is hard to lift oneself out of the mire it grows in, it seems like the way life will always be.
When we know something about how hard it is to be that poor, we know that it isn't a quick job to change those minds. It demands more than a couple of weeks. It takes proof and the building of trust. If we believe all our lives that life is hard, that it rarely ever gets better, that we just have to do our best to hang on and that it is only after death that we will somehow come to a just reward, the idea that any help is going to come...well I don't think Obama had time to turn the tide on that thinking. Still, as a 57 year old woman, I have seen my family turn mostly away from racism and not entirely away from sexism. And that gives me hope that other people can change as well.
Finally, I want to suggest that just because Appalachia wasn't as heavily campaigned as some other places, it doesn't mean it isn't on the agenda for 1/20/09. There will be more time to actually make lasting change after the election and the will of the people will behind our new President. Barack Obama knows about poverty. Issues or poverty were the center of his work as a community organizer and motivated him in choosing public service over corporate law. Appalachia and the other places where poverty hides will not be forgotten. Here's something I found on the LA Times political blog Tuesday night:
He ended his short talk with on an unusual personal note, speaking of growing up as one of the few black youths in Hawaii. “I was looked at as something of an outsider," Obama recalled. "So I know what it’s like to be on the outside. I know what it's like to not always be respected or be ignored.
“A lot of the times you feel like you've been forgotten, like African Americans have been forgotten or other groups in this country feel forgotten,” Obama told the crowd.
“I want you to know: I will never forget you….That’s the commitment we’re making to you and now that I’m a member of the family, you know I won't break my commitment to my brothers and sisters.”