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Poor, White, and Republican
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Topic Started: Feb 18 2012, 08:47 PM (553 Views)
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Stoney
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Feb 18 2012, 08:47 PM
Post #1
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This election year, he’s back and getting a lot of attention from sociologists and pundits (Charles Murray’s new book “Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010” sparked the current flurry of commentary). But in 2012 he’s no longer even working class. He’s fallen through the last restraints of decency and industriousness, down into the demoralized and pathological underclass that, in the past, Americans associated with the black poor. There, he lives on disability, is no longer fit for employment nor has any impulse to get a job, is divorced, fathers illegitimate children who grow up to do the same, gets hooked on meth or prescription drugs, does time in prison now and then, and has bad teeth. Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2012/02/poor-white-and-republican.html#ixzz1mjkfMPO9
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Perhaps the biggest political puzzle of our time is why, as the lives of working-class whites have descended from the stability and comfort of “All in the Family” to the chaos and despair of “Gran Torino” and “Winter’s Bone,” these same Americans have voted more and more reliably Republican. Sunday’s Times had a fascinating and disturbing lead story about the pattern of government dependency around the country. A map showing areas of greatest reliance on public benefits corresponds with weird exactness to the map of red America: the South, Appalachia, and rural areas in general. In addition, reliance on the safety net has more than doubled in the past four decades. During the same period, median incomes in America have stagnated or declined. Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2012/02/poor-white-and-republican.html#ixzz1mjl0em8z
A little surprising.
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Brewster
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Feb 18 2012, 10:46 PM
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More than a little, Stoney.
It would be fascinating to learn the thought process going on...
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Chris
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Feb 18 2012, 10:54 PM
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Hardly surprising. It's the inevitable result of social democracy and government dependence. What's surprising is that the New Yorker, an advocate of that, seems critical, if not itself surprised.
The government bubble is bursting.
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Thumper
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Feb 18 2012, 10:58 PM
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The "Republican" part of the dieing issue is death by association with Right Wing moonbat fringes.
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Jim Miller
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Feb 19 2012, 01:01 AM
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This is no business of Canadians.
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Thumper
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Feb 19 2012, 01:03 AM
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Speaking of the poor white man.
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Brewster
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Feb 19 2012, 01:25 AM
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Oh, Jim's not poor, he's living off his government provided pension that the evil teacher's union negotiated for him.
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Mountainrivers
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Feb 19 2012, 01:29 AM
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- Stoney
- Feb 18 2012, 08:47 PM
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This election year, he’s back and getting a lot of attention from sociologists and pundits (Charles Murray’s new book “Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010” sparked the current flurry of commentary). But in 2012 he’s no longer even working class. He’s fallen through the last restraints of decency and industriousness, down into the demoralized and pathological underclass that, in the past, Americans associated with the black poor. There, he lives on disability, is no longer fit for employment nor has any impulse to get a job, is divorced, fathers illegitimate children who grow up to do the same, gets hooked on meth or prescription drugs, does time in prison now and then, and has bad teeth. Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2012/02/poor-white-and-republican.html#ixzz1mjkfMPO9
- Quote:
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Perhaps the biggest political puzzle of our time is why, as the lives of working-class whites have descended from the stability and comfort of “All in the Family” to the chaos and despair of “Gran Torino” and “Winter’s Bone,” these same Americans have voted more and more reliably Republican. Sunday’s Times had a fascinating and disturbing lead story about the pattern of government dependency around the country. A map showing areas of greatest reliance on public benefits corresponds with weird exactness to the map of red America: the South, Appalachia, and rural areas in general. In addition, reliance on the safety net has more than doubled in the past four decades. During the same period, median incomes in America have stagnated or declined. Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2012/02/poor-white-and-republican.html#ixzz1mjl0em8z
A little surprising. Not surprising at all, I think. The rubes have almost always voted against their own best interests. The big red states are mostly in the South and Midwest, states that turned republican when the dems started voting for civil rights. It's mostly race-based, imo.
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Jim Miller
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Feb 19 2012, 01:35 AM
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My pension is none of your business, tom the peeper.
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Thumper
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Feb 19 2012, 01:40 AM
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- Mountainrivers
- Feb 19 2012, 01:29 AM
- Stoney
- Feb 18 2012, 08:47 PM
- Quote:
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This election year, he’s back and getting a lot of attention from sociologists and pundits (Charles Murray’s new book “Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010” sparked the current flurry of commentary). But in 2012 he’s no longer even working class. He’s fallen through the last restraints of decency and industriousness, down into the demoralized and pathological underclass that, in the past, Americans associated with the black poor. There, he lives on disability, is no longer fit for employment nor has any impulse to get a job, is divorced, fathers illegitimate children who grow up to do the same, gets hooked on meth or prescription drugs, does time in prison now and then, and has bad teeth. Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2012/02/poor-white-and-republican.html#ixzz1mjkfMPO9
- Quote:
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Perhaps the biggest political puzzle of our time is why, as the lives of working-class whites have descended from the stability and comfort of “All in the Family” to the chaos and despair of “Gran Torino” and “Winter’s Bone,” these same Americans have voted more and more reliably Republican. Sunday’s Times had a fascinating and disturbing lead story about the pattern of government dependency around the country. A map showing areas of greatest reliance on public benefits corresponds with weird exactness to the map of red America: the South, Appalachia, and rural areas in general. In addition, reliance on the safety net has more than doubled in the past four decades. During the same period, median incomes in America have stagnated or declined. Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2012/02/poor-white-and-republican.html#ixzz1mjl0em8z
A little surprising.
Not surprising at all, I think. The rubes have almost always voted against their own best interests. The big red states are mostly in the South and Midwest, states that turned republican when the dems started voting for civil rights. It's mostly race-based, imo. You bet it's race based. Racism appeals to the instincts of these folks.
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