Thursday's headlines....
... in the Detroit News say a lot about the American electorate:
STATE LOSES MORE JOBS: Factory rolls are down 6,000 while tourism sector takes hit, edging jobless rate to 6.8%
KMART'S EX-CEO TO GET $94M: Payout to departing exec comes as chain cuts workers, payroll
AS GAS PRICES SOAR, DRIVERS CHANGE LIVES: Motorists consider hybrid vehicles, cancel vacation plans to accommodate skyrocketing costs
NEWS POLL: BUSH LEADS IN MICHIGAN.
Let's see. The economy is in the tank, corporate executives are looting companies while running them into the ground, prices for vital commodities are soaring out of reach. Why, clearly what this country needs is... more of the same! "Thank you sir, may I please have another?"
It's eerily reminiscent of the situation described in this book, in which Baffler veteran Thomas Frank seeks to explain why midwestern voters routinely express unquestioning, lemming-like support of a party that just as routinely victimizes them economically.
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Carlos @ 10:51AM | 2004-10-22| permalink
To me it's reassuring rather than depressing that some people are willing to vote on a matter of principle even when it hurts them in the pocketbook--and that the Democrats are willing to stick to their principles (though false) even when it hurts them at the voting booth.
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Felix @ 3:47PM | 2004-10-22| permalink
Just what principle is it that leads people with real jobs to vote for more corporate embezzlement, or in favor of exporting their own jobs to Honduras, or for federally-subsidized importation of Third-World indentured servants to replace themselves in their own jobs? Or to fanatically support the perpetual-copyright demands of the Hollywood media moguls, or the ongoing fiasco in Iraq -- a bloody disaster for Iraqis and US servicemen, but a financial bonanza for Cheney, Perle, and their cozy cohort of war profiteers?
Frank's assessment of the Democrats is that they lost their political identity by abandoning the economic interests of the average citizen in favor of pursuing trendy,flavor-of-the-week politically-correct interest groups and, pathetically, trying to cozy up to the Republicans' corporate donors. The Republicans, meanwhile, have successfully merged the financial support of the corporate class with a propaganda drive aimed at uneducated voters and a posture of portraying themselves as "outsiders" and "underdogs" which conveniently lets them blame all problems on that convenient scapegoat, the "liberal elite".
Before you start arguing about the Republicans' self-proclaimed status as the Party of God, consider whether their actions, examined apart from their propaganda, bear any relation to the teachings of Christ. Who would Jesus Bomb? Who would Jesus embezzle from? Whose job would Jesus outsource to a Thrid-World slave-labor camp?
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Carlos @ 4:44PM | 2004-10-22| permalink
What I had in mind are principled objections many Republican voters have to planks in the Democratic platform like abortion rights, gay marriage, affirmative action, secularized education, etc. Note that in my post I nowhere argued that the G.O.P. was God's party. I'm just saying it's good to know that the Marxist view according to which economic considerations drive everyone's political behavior seems falsified by the voting statistics you brought up.
Personally I'd be excited to see a viable Democratic candidate who was a social conservative, but I ain't holding my breath.
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Pablo @ 11:05AM | 2004-10-24| permalink
Felix,
One theory which explains why some people are conservative is "System Justification." In short, you have to believe in the cause even more AFTER you've "suffered" rather than believe that you've suffered because the cause has failed you. Hence, parents of lost soldiers are far more likely to support a war even more rather than contemplate the possibility that they lost a son for no good reason.
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Felix @ 10:04PM | 2004-10-25| permalink
Pablo, doesn't Eric Hoffer discuss this somewhere in "The True Believer"? He might call it something else, but I seem to recall reading something like that.
Carlos, one need not be a Marxist to recognize that that the Republican party is basically doing a bait-and-switch in which purportedly "moral" causes are used to whip up voter support for a party that doesn't really give a fig about those causes, but cares very much indeed about benefiting its corporate and aristocratic sponsors. Vote for a ban on abortion; get more jobs outsourced to the Third World. Vote for an end to Internet smut; get perpetual copyrights that benefit the Hollywood industry. Vote for "family values"; get overseas wars based on dubious and fraudulent assertions that "just happen" to enrich companies owned and operated by party bigwigs. The list could go on.....
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Carlos @ 11:47AM | 2004-10-28| permalink
Listen to Thomas Frank on NPR. He's witty. A Republican responds.
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