Let the facts speak for themselves. Barack Obama told it mostly correctly last week when he said that workers in many towns in America were angry and bitter. For coming closer to telling the unfiltered truth than most politicians, he was lambasted by his political opponents. That he put religious faith in the mix was admittedly an exaggeration and therefore an error. But it shouldn't draw attention from the facts and it is yet another example of how much surer his sense of what has happened to America is that the views of his opponents, Democrat or Republican.
Consider, for example, how male workers with no more than a high school education are doing? They have been clobbered by the economy for a long time, not just in the 2000s.
Here's a brief table put together by Nikos Papanikolaou and me at the New School (the Schwartz Center for Economic Analysis). These are the wages or salaries of the typical, or median, male high school worker, by age group. They come from Census Bureau data.
Males:High School
(12th grade/diploma)
Year 25-34 35-44 45-541979 $36,865 $42,358 $44,102
2005 $30,000 $37,550 $39,000
The typical male in the age group 25-to-34 made nearly $37,000 in 1979; the typical male in that age group in 2005 (about the same as in 2008) makes only $30,000. The typical 35-to-44 year-old made 42,300 in 1979, the typical male in that age group today makes 37,550 today. Finally, the typical high school male worker aged 45 to 54 made $44,102 in 1979; the typical male today in that age group makes $39,000. All this despite the Clinton boom, which didn't last long enough to compensate for the long stagnation of earnings that preceded it.
Thus, as others have noted using different data, a typical man with no more than a high school education made much less than his father did thirty years ago.
Bitter? You bet. Once the large majority made gains over time in America. No longer. And it's probably worse in Pennsylvania, with its many lost manufacturing jobs.
College educated workers did much better, right? Yes, there's a sizable gap. But their incomes rose slowly by any standard as well since the late 1960s. In fact, since 1969, there have been long stretches of time in which the incomes of typical college workers did not rise or even fell.
Below is a table to peruse. One example. The typical college worker aged 45-54 made less in 2005 than the typical college worker of that age in 1979. Check the table to see how often such long-term stagnation or even outright declines occurred for the college educated in the past forty years or so.
College
(Four years/degree)
Year 25-34 35-44 45-541969 $45,634 $54,760 $52,479
1979 $40,489 $54,816 $64,783
1989 $44,925 $54,731 $66,105
2000 $45,342 $58,945 $63,480
2005 $47,000 $63,000 $64,000
Of course, workers are bitter and angry. That may not explain the rise of evangelicism, though my strong guess is that it is an important factor -- and that is not a put-down of religion.
But it certainly helps explain why workers turned against government and why some like tax cuts more than social spending.
Bitter? Angry? Yes. Let's not tell them they're not, or that they have no reason to be. That's truly condescending.
The problem isn't that Barack told the truth about people's being angry over their economic disenfranchisement. It's that he dissed their CULTURE.
Rural white Americans hunt...and fish...and go to church. It's not a bitterness thing...any more than going to church is a bitterness thing for urban blacks.
Barack made a bad mistake here. His best move would be to do what he does best: confront it directly, admit it was wrong to conflate feelings of anger and resentment over economic disenfranchisement with cultural touchstones...and then take the conversation to a new level.
That's exactly what he did when he so brilliantly addressed the words of Rev. Wright. That's what he should do now.
You don't need to convince ME of anything. I'm voting for Barack if I get the chance. But he's got to unscramble his scrambled communication to get all those marginal voters - independents, persuadable republicans, and Reagan democrats.
It's that simple.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=xkrL0G9wonE
I hate to break it to you but the days of having the most successful economy based on manufacturing and resources in long gone - the third world will kick you butt on this front every time. The world is moving on. Maybe you guys should get with the program....or just be bitter and get left behind
Obama simply pointed out the fact that the republicants have been using such issues as "god, gays, and guns" to get people to vote against their own best interests for YEARS!!
But what he revealed about himself is even worse! He has no intention of changing the paradigm that has so disabled working people in our society. He has no intention of curing the peonage growing like a cancer beneath our very feet. He doesn’t recognize how dangerous that is to our society.
He doesn’t realize that as our education systems fail; our communities also flounder and fail, placing our very way of living in mortal danger. He doesn’t realize the damage done to our economy by “free” trade agreements because he hasn’t had to live with it and his imagination is too limited to understand what they’ve meant to that substantial portion of our population.
If you’ve liked the last seven years, then vote for Obama because he’s not very likely to change anything.
Where did Obama go when he finished law school? He could have gone to any number of law firms but he chose to go into the community to help the poor and middle class to retrain for new jobs when businesses closed down. And you say he doesn't know, doesn't realize... Get real!!
Wrong, you and many other pundits are the ones labelling the working class this manner. It's sad when people will take someone elses words and make them be what they want them to be. I see many failed in communication, for if you passed you who ask the person making the statement what they meant instead of making conjecture based on perceived knowledge of what someone is saying or meaning. Oops I forgot he did state what he meant, but of course, you know better. it has fell on a dead ear. Well that's your opinion of how you fell about and see the working class and you want to inject that perception upon others. Yes may work for some, but those who read and understand beyond a sound-bite will understand his meaning. The fact remain that those they trusted to change their plight didn't. Shame on them that now they have to face the for not acting and now have to face the TRUTH!!! THEY DID NOTHING AND DIDN"T CARE!!! That's what they fail to understand.
That's all we need to know about YOUR post.
Whether they have the right to be bitter or not, the fact remains that far too many of these individuals are scapegoating athiests, homosexuals, and immigrants, rather than focusing on the real culprits in the REpublican party who have left them with the sh*t end of the economic stick.
"Condescending?"
Here's some advice: once the people within these working class towns learn to grow up and stop behaving like toddlers, than Obama and others will refrain from addressing them as such.
Like many Americans, I'm not revved up by any of the three media-created candidates that we've been left with . . . I will vote for anyone but McCain . . . but I'm not sure which of the Democratic candidates is the lesser of two evils. Another Clinton (heaven help us all) or a condescending, inexperienced, sweet talking Obama.
I've heard many people in my area say they voted for Bush because "he won't take away our guns," or "He's a god-fearing man, a good Christian." Never mind that his policies have either given them no benefit, or made their life worse. They don't expect any politician to do anything but lie to them about how they're going to make the economy better for them - just like Hillary did here when she was running for Senate.
He's not condescending - he's got it right.
As I was walking into my office today I passed a vehicle in the parking lot with a bumper sticker that read, "In an age of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
For a politician to speak the truth IS revolutionary!!
Obama spoke the truth in an election year and is getting pounded for it. Shame on us.