May 24, 2004
Two Americas, Both Getting Screwed.
It's a bit dated (from April's Harper's) but the insights in Thomas Frank's article on the dramatic phenomenon of working-class support for Republicans will not go stale any time soon. Any Democrat with a desire to understand why the last thirty years have seen social policy vastly overshadow economics in the decision-making process of the average Middle American voter must read this (in all its plain-text, illegally-reproduced glory). He runs down the "myths of Red America," explicating just how the farmers and laborers who helped put Bush II into office have been convinced to shoot themselves in the foot again and again, and like it.
Explaining why he and his neighbors voted for George Bush, [a small-town Pennsylvania man] said: "These people are tired of moral decay. They're tired of everything being wonderful on Wall Street and terrible on Main Street." Let me repeat that: They're voting REPUBLICAN in order to GET EVEN WITH WALL STREET.
I won't go so far as to say the entire Republican ascendance is based on a bait-and-switch, as the people taking the bait obviously care comparatively little about the switch. But as Frank goes on to point out, a remarkable point of consistency in the Republican agenda has been their failure to deliver on the moral reforms that they promise: abortion, affirmative action, gay marriage - these are currents that the Reds have been unable to reverse, but their supporters continue to give them one more chance, even as they get hammered by the economic policies that had little or nothing to do with motivating their votes.
Edit: I completely failed to make the connection that this is the same Thomas Frank who edits the Baffler and wrote The Conquest of Cool, a book on which I have written at some length.
Yeah, I hated getting hammered by that tax cut. Man, someone stop that crazy Bush guy.
Oh, did you enjoy your $300? I'm sure your grandchildren will be glad to hear all about that new washer/dryer you got back in '02 when they're being sent down into the mines to help pay off the deficit. It'll really take the edge off the fact that they're forced to support you after your retirement goes kaput in a harebraned Social Security privatization scheme, followed by a stock market collapse brought on by loose standards of corporate governance. And I'm sure the smell of camphor wofting from your aging frame will be easy for them to tolerate, as grateful as they'll be for the relatively cool breeze of your windy tale-telling when the thermometer hits a consistent 105 farenheit after years of insistence that global warming is "just a theory."
But see, back in '02 we got this tax cut, y'see . . .
Sleep, All that from a $300 tax-cut? Yikes!
Seriously though, without reading the article, it is entirely true that many in the GOP don't want issues like abortion to be dealt with b/c A) they don't really care about it and B) keeping it on the table means they can continue to use it at election time.
Scott and I have discussed how the lower class often votes against its economic interests in favor of cultural ones. I think the reason ties in pretty well with the post I just made about media bias. Some issues are just far more important than others to people, so those are the ones they're more interested in. Add that to the fact that most Americans and especially those in the lower class tend to be ignorant about economic policy details and it only makes sense that cultural values win out.
Actually, in my summary I failed to mention the other, perhaps more interesting aspect of the situation - the really fascinating stuff is in the willful confusion Republicans have sowed about who is an elite and who is "one of the boys." Economic clout has been firmly disengaged from social position - what matters now in establishing whether you're batting for the little guy or no isn't whether your policies favor the wealthiest 1%, or even whether you belong to that 1%, but whether you're "authentic." Frank is actually dissapointingly brief in this, probably because it's difficult to avoid portraying those who fall into Dubya's "aw shucks" trap as a gang of cro-magnons without opposable thumbs. But then again, maybe that's just where'I'd be predisposed to take it.