A lot of inside the beltway talking heads and journalists have claimed a special understanding of working class Pennsylvania voters lately.
They say they understand working class Pennsylvanians because they come from Pennsylvania themselves. Or because their fathers belonged to a union. Or worked in a factory. Or drank beer. Or owned a gun. Or bowled.
I would submit that if, as a journalist, you have to explain your working class bona fides, then you probably don't have working class bona fides. That if you're commenting on working class voters in the national media, your perspective may be somewhat distorted by all those tax brackets between you and your subject.
Intellectual honesty is a diaphanous thing. And while they're sneering at the candidates for stopping to bowl, or have a beer and a shot in front of the cameras, some journalists have no qualms about reinventing themselves - recalling childhoods misspent on the mean streets of West Chester. Or Levittown. Or some other middle class place.
It all borders on disingenuity. And triggers a question or two:
In selflessly leaving Manhattan or Georgetown to go off into the wilds of Pennsylvania and interpret all things working class for the rest of us, did such people actually tell us what happened?
Or did they subliminally filter their coverage and analysis through a comfortable fiction they created for themselves?
All signs point to analysis through comfortable fiction. When they report from Crawford Texas, they wear cowboy boots that have never been in the proximity of real bovine-generated manure. When they report from Pittsburgh, they wear freshly-starched blue collar values.
They can't help it. Like the high school cool kids they were, they climb into the fashion du jour and anoint themselves arbiters of truth writ large and small.
Yea verily, no one gets to the White House but that they go through this throng.
And still they preen. And posture. And diddle. And while they diddle, real working class America burns.
So, even if these guys did have legitimate working class bona fides, they aren't the people that are relevant to the discussion. There wasn't this widespread debt for people who work that there is now.
Think about the guys who are working class not because of any lack of academic ability or desire but because they had to start working in a factory to help out the family. I'm betting none of these guys were in that situation.
Why? 1992-2000: best economic growth in US History. Half trillion Republican deficit turned into half trillion Clinton surplus. And, btw, 22.7 million new jobs added to the economy that are still with us today.
Do you want "hope" for change from someone who has added zero jobs to the US economy, or "real" change from someone who has already added 22.7 million new jobs.
It is very difficult to penetrate thick skulls, especially in the face of a full scale media, right wing, and left wing attack on Hillary, that has worn on nearly 6 months now. But someone must be wondering why the hell do people keep voting for Hillary. Now you know the answer.
Most "liberals", especially the latte type, do not consider themselves working class. This is self-delusion just as their support of Obama is self-delusion.
There are a couple of simple tests to determine whether you are "working class".
1. Can you quit your job next week, never get another one, and live happily ever after. If the answer is "yes", then you are not in the working class. If the answer is "no", welcome aboard.
2. Do you have at least $10 million in liquid assets, not including your house? i.e. $10M can enable you to have a few hundred K income to pay the bills. If so, then, congratulations, you no longer have to consider yourself a member of the working class.
The key word is "work". i.e. if you have to work (i.e. "have to" not "choose to"), then you are working class.
So, all you so-called "professionals", time to get off your high horse and recognize who you are.
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This entire eleciton has been filtered through the media's verison of truth.
I have no formal education, but I knew what was coming down when Ronald Reagan interfered with the controllers strike. That was the beginning of the end for working class Americans.
I'd like to ask Chris Matthews or anyone else in MSM if they've ever had to add their groceries up by hand before they can go to checkout. How many times have they driven up to the pump and could only afford to put 10 bucks worth of gas in the car? Do they have to use toilet paper instead tissues to blow their nose? Have they ever had to substitute browned bread or cracker crumbs for meat in a meal?
I doubt it. Many of the folks in MSM would actually be ignorant enough to laugh about the instances I've described.
If my comment is posted on HP & a working class person bothers with looking at my comment, they may tell us what is so funny to them about Hillary chasing Crown Royal with beer. I doubt if they will pay attention to my prissy airs.
l lynch
Remember the average American family with 2.3 children. Obviously, it never existed. We talked about it, sliced and diced it, but not even one ever existed. There are families with one or two children, less with three, and even less with four or more.
Unfortunately, we spend too much time listening to those who don't know, and longing for those who do. There are good journalists out there, but it takes time and a lot of effort to find them. I'm glad to have found quite a few here at HuffPo (Jane Smiley, are you listening?)