Hochschild formulates a ?deep story? to explain the worldview of her tea party neighbors. Imagine that you are standing in a line of people that rises up over a hillside. On the other side of the hill is the American Dream. You work hard, sometimes in dangerous work. You lead a moral life, honoring family, country, community and God and make sacrifices, such as serving in the military. You are waiting patiently, but the line is stalling, even moving backward at times. When you look forward, you see people cutting in line. Some of them are new immigrants and people of color.At the head of line, waving in the line-cutters, is Barack Obama and the liberal coastal elites. While calling you a racist, they side with the line-cutters. Heck, they even appear to value the lives of pelicans higher than your life and livelihood in the name of abstract environmentalism.You are not a racist?you have worked all your life along side African-Americans and Latinos. But you resent it when people cut in line. And you don?t like it when liberals insult you because of your Christianity, commitment to marriage, and Southern culture. All this makes you feel like you are a stranger in your own land.What the Tea Party and Donald Trump have to offer is they at least see you. You are not invisible. And they invoke memories of a time when you weren?t a stranger in your own land. They don?t dismiss you as racists and rednecks.When Hillary Clinton calls you a ?deplorable,? you know that?s what the liberal elites secretly say behind closed doors. As Joe Bageant wrote in his marvelous book, Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America?s Class War, most liberals don?t have a clue how to engage with white working class communities. They presume people are too racist, dumb or manipulated by the Koch brothers to vote for their real economic class interests, rather than understand the economic, cultural and identity reasons why people might distrust the Democratic party establishment and liberal agenda.Over three decades of stagnant wages and sluggish growth in rural and small town America have fueled the regressive populist moment. One solution is to get the stalled-out line moving again by raising wages, expanding opportunities, savings, wealth creation, and homeownership. http://thenewpress.com/books/strangers-their-own-land
I am not trying to start an argument and I know this is a GOP, Trump bashing thread, but I thought this was a pretty good analogy. Just because you don't believe in illegal immigration or rioting in the streets doesn't make you a racist. If everybody in the line had the same moral fortitude and desire to achieve there would be no line cutters. It's the "get something for nothing" and the "me alone, screw the rest of you" people that are the problem. And the people that tolerate that behavior and even encourage it are the scourge of the land. I won't even mention our current presidents refusal to follow the immigration law.
What a hate-filled individual you are. You are the reason many former members here no longer feel welcome and don't post anymore. You have done damage due to your opinions that you share way too often. Well done, if you had this in mind.Barb, former member at Mugs
Was talking to my brother yesterday,who moved to NC a few years ago.Not only do many people there see blacks and latinos as the one ones TAKING THEIR JOBS,but also them damn yankees.Always looking to blame someone else for their failures and screwed up life.Hey here's an idea,lay off the meth and prescription medication and maybe you will be able to pass a drug test.
Greg, you're insensitive and you're a bully.
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Topic: How long before it's us? (Read 168544 times)
