Come, come, now, fellow Democrats -- don't write off someone who is trying to help Obama win the presidency as (of all things) -- a Republican. Some of the comments on my last post eloquently demonstrate the kind of insults that so deeply offend working class voters:
"If I were Obama I'd spend the first debate chowing down on iceberg lettuce with 1000 island dressing. He'll pick up at least a million votes on that one."
"...and wearing a flag pin and wearing some pants that show his crack! "
"Showing his crack! Is this to get the unionized plumbers demographic! LOL!!!"
This kind of talk loses elections. Doesn't it strike you as disrespectful? Class migrants -- people born working class, who enter professional jobs -- often note with surprise that class insults seem to be acceptable in polite company. Some quotes:
"It is striking to me and many other working class academics that faculty who would never utter a racial slur will casually refer to 'trailer trash' or 'white trash.'"
"When I began to teach in the Northeast, I discovered to my surprise that many people -- even some enlightened academics who would staunchly fight the stereotyping of other minorities or 'fringe' cultures in American society -- pretty much accepted the stereotype of the southern redneck as racist, sexist, alcoholic, ignorant, and lazy ... redneck jokes may be the last acceptable ethnic slurs on "polite" society."
"[W]here I live and work, white Southern working-class culture is known only as a caricature."
"[M]any of the professors resented having to teach us [working class college kids]. One of them once described in class the mission of the school as 'teaching the first generation of immigrant children how to eat with a knife and fork.' We knew we were being insulted, but in order to get as far as college we had learned that school was the one place in our experience where we couldn't get in somebody's face, specifically the teacher's. So we took it. A lot of my friends who did not make it to college were those who would not stand for that kind of treatment; they insulted back ..."
All this is crucial context for understanding why the New Deal Coalition died. It's no mystery who left: the white working class. The percentage of white working class voters who identify as Democrats fell from 60% in the mid-1970s to 40% before leveling off in the early 1990s, so that now working class whites are as likely to vote Republican as Democrat. Painters, furniture movers, servers, and sewer repairmen were more likely than managers and professionals to report that they were going to vote for George W. Bush. Bush won among white working class men by landslides: he got roughly two-thirds of their votes in 2000 and again in 2004.
We can deride these voters as uneducated rednecks who like 1000 island dressing, (was this person linking class status with food, or am I missing something?) or we can ask a few questions about how the socially conscious elite is seen by working class voters. Another blog comment:
"There IS a class divide when it comes to food, and some of it is habit and some of it is economic....And class has as much to do with education and propensities as it does with net worth. (Hence, Obama's upbringing was decidedly upper middle class.) I think it is a grave mistake for the democratic party to lose the working class over a latte, but I haven't seen the democratic party being a "real" friend to struggling Americans in my voting lifetime. I don't think the working class has abandoned the Democratic party because they haven't been sufficiently pandered to; I think they've abandoned it because their real economic issues haven't been addressed: opportunity, fairness, and JOBS, JOBS, JOBS. So they vote Republican because the Republicans at least speak to their social values which tend toward the conservative. (Guns, Gays, God.)"
Obama's doing a great job keeping the focus on the economy. Let's not blow it on the cultural front. No more cracks about "plumber's" butt, okay? It's time to recognize this as a class insult, and retire it along with the N word. Both are unworthy of people committed to social justice. Or of people who want to win this election.
(References: Zweig, 2004, p. 166); Tokarczyk & Fay, 1993, p. 293; Tokarczyk & Fay, 1993, p. 3; Dews & Law, 1995, p. 85; Kenworthy et al, 2007; Teixeira & Rogers, 2000, pp. 32-33, 85; Hochschild, 2004; Teixeira & Rogers, 2000, p. 117; Teixeira Blog)
As the daughter of a working class girl whose father was an a coal miner, truck driver, auto body repairman and service manager at car dealership and an upper middle class boy whose father was a retail executive, business owner, hospital board president, and country club member, I have straddled the class divide my entire life.
I live in a small town where everyone goes to the same high school, everyone knows each other and many times are related to each other and yet the disdain with which each of these social class groups views the other is disheartening.
My personal life experience has convinced me that ALL people deserve understanding and respect.
Each has a logical reason for what they do in their life and others should respect that and try to understand it.
Cracks about, uh, plumber crack are not the problem.
I grew up working class and many of my family friends would never vote for Obama and many would never vote for a Dem. . And they're not too worried about being called iceberg lettuce eaters or white trash.
The heart of the problem is a sense, among the "macho" working class culture that Dems just aren't manly enough. To many of them, being a Dem, or being for Dems is like, God forbid, being Gay.
And there's almost nothing more annoying to the plumber crack set than politcal correctness.
In fact, sticking to principles, being tough, and being honest will gain more working class votes than joking about class will lose.
And I predict when they see how tough Obama can be many will come along. (And this new trend of tougher liberals, such as Keith Oberman, is exactly what the party needs. The last thing we need is taking up the be more sensitive advice implied in this article.)
No way , baby - we know who runs this country and it ain't us,it's not a shocker.Enjoy your argula and let us enjoy our wilted lettuce salad.No need to talk down.
Maybe you consider a plumbers crack politically incorrect , but when you spend 8 hrs a day in contracted positions on the ground ,you'd understand why loose pants are a necessity.
Obama for not looking/acting like a guy you would see eating at the salad bar at Applebee's, thus displaying for all the world his "elitism" for not knowing that Applebee's don't have salad bars), and Chris Mathews. These people are nothing but blowhards who try to frame elections and complex issues into cutsey little senarios (vote for the guy you'd like to have a beer with; can someone be elected president who can't bowl well? etc.) more to make things about how clever they are than to actually inform anyone, all the while thinking of themselves as good people for explaining things in a simple enough way for the "average voter" to understand. Talk about condescension! If I offended anyone I am sorry, but I use sarcasm to deal with my incredible frustration with the MSM for their near perfect recond of not talking to anyone about anything that actually matters.