Monday, July 19, 2004

What's the Matter with Kansas?

Earlier today I was discussing the phenomenon of gay Republicans, and remembering a comic's remark that that's like roaches for Raid. I also marveled that so many factory workers would vote Republican.

There's an old article I have linked on my website about why blue collar workers support Bush, and this evening, I see that Empire Notes' Rahul Mahajan has a commentary on a new book by Thomas Franks, What's the Matter with Kansas?, which discusses the question of why poor people vote Republican.

Mahajan has his own conclusion that goes like this...

[F]or the mainstream of the liberal left, it’s no longer about a vision of how things can be different, just about piecemeal changes in a bad world.

The right, on the other hand, hosts a growing mass movement that more and more clearly understands that it has a world to win.


How funny. The right has co-opted the emotion of the hippy movement of the 60s. And the mainstream left is just exactly in the same fruitless position it has been in for decades. I remember years ago Jerry Brown in the primaries against Bill Clinton, et al., saying that every one of his opponents was talking about going into Washington and tweaking things, when what was needed was a crowbar.

He's still right about that.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.


Take "The Working Class History Test".

And have a look at some more class politics links on my page here.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments are moderated. There may be some delay before your comment is published. It all depends on how much time M has in the day. But please comment!