Posted on 01/22/2016 6:07:21 AM PST by Citizen Zed
Why did the white working class abandon the Democrats?
The conventional answer is Republicans skillfully played the race card.
In the wake of the Civil Rights Act, segregationists like Alabama Governor George C. Wallace led southern whites out of the Democratic Party.
Later, Republicans charged Democrats with coddling black "welfare queens," being soft on black crime ("Willie Horton", and trying to give jobs to less-qualified blacks over more-qualified whites (the battle over affirmative action).
The bigotry now spewing forth from Donald Trump and several of his Republican rivals is an extension of this old race card, now applied to Mexicans and Muslims -- with much the same effect on the white working class voters, who don't trust Democrats to be as "tough."
(Excerpt) Read more at m.truthdig.com ...
+1
I hate to tell Robert but its more like most Americans are not raging commies. LOL!
The author of this has absolutely no relevance in this whatsoever.
Ayn Rand might say that the day is coming when, if you’re Caucasian, you’ll have to provide acceptable proof that you’re not a racist to be able to vote. But only if you are a Caucasian.
Poor whites bear the brunt of racist liberal policies.
Blacks and others get a free ride. Poor whites are screwed by affirmative action and “equal opportunity” laws that put them dead last.
Robert, does everything look larger than life from down there?
It’s because the Democrats have employed racism against whites while the country has faltered. Now whites are thinking they should have more pride in themselves and vote against these people who constantly put them down and threaten to destroy everyone’s freedom.
A black student from an upper middle class family will get more college financial aid than a poor white.
“Republicans skillfully”
Oxymoron.
Racism.
They keep using that word. I do not think it means what they think it means.
The working class is tired of being forgotten — consider these excerpts from The Forgotten Man by William Graham Sumner from 1883:
When we come to the proposed measures of relief for the evils which have caught public attention that we reach the real subject which deserves our attention. As soon as A observes something which seems to him to be wrong, from which X is suffering, A talks it over with B, and A and B then propose to get a law passed to remedy the evil and help X. Their law always proposes to determine what C shall do for X or, in the better case, what A, B and C shall do for X. As for A and B, who get a law to make themselves do for X what they are willing to do for him, we have nothing to say except that they might better have done it without any law, but what I want to do is to look up C. I want to show you what manner of man he is. I call him the Forgotten Man. Perhaps the appellation is not strictly correct. He is the man who never is thought of. He is the victim of the reformer, social speculator and philanthropist, and I hope to show you before I get through that he deserves your notice both for his character and for the many burdens which are laid upon him.
Now who is the Forgotten Man? He is the simple, honest laborer, ready to earn his living by productive work. We pass him by because he is independent, self-supporting, and asks no favors. He does not appeal to the emotions or excite the sentiments. He only wants to make a contract and fulfill it, with respect on both sides and favor on neither side. He must get his living out of the capital of the country. The larger the capital is, the better living he can get. Every particle of capital which is wasted on the vicious, the idle, and the shiftless is so much taken from the capital available to reward the independent and productive laborer. But we stand with our backs to the independent and productive laborer all the time. We do not remember him because he makes no clamor; but I appeal to you whether he is not the man who ought to be remembered first of all, and whether, on any sound social theory, we ought not to protect him against the burdens of the goodfornothing. In these last years I have read hundreds of articles and heard scores of sermons and speeches which were really glorifications of the good-for-nothing, as if these were the charge of society, recommended by right reason to it scare and protection, We are addressed all the time as if those who are respectable were to blame because some are not so, and as if there were an obligation on the part of those who have done their duty towards those who have not done their duty. Every man is bound to take care of himself and his family and to do his share in the work of society. It is totally false that one who has done so is bound to bear the care and charge of those who are wretched because they have not done so.
Such is the Forgotten Man. He works, he votes, generally he prays— but he always pays—yes, above all, he pays. He does not want an office; his name never gets into the newspaper except when he gets married or dies. He keeps production going on. He contributes to the strength of parties. He is flattered before election. He is strongly patriotic. He is wanted, whenever, in his little circle, there is work to be done or counsel to be given. He may grumble some occasionally to his wife and family, but he does not frequent the grocery or talk politics at the tavern. Consequently, he is forgotten. He is a commonplace man. He gives no trouble. He excites no admiration. He is not in any way a hero (like a popular orator); or a problem (like tramps and outcasts); nor notorious (like criminals); nor an object of sentiment (like the poor and weak); nor a burden (like paupers and loafers); nor an object out of which social capital may be made (like the beneficiaries of church and state charities); nor an object for charitable aid and protection (like animals treated with cruelty); nor the object of a job (like the ignorant and illiterate); nor one over whom sentimental economists and statesmen can parade their fine sentiments (like inefficient workmen and shiftless artisans). Therefore, he is forgotten. All the burdens fall on him, or on her, for it is time to remember that the Forgotten Man is not seldom a woman.
Yes, and the sooner blacks realize Democrat party “leaders” don’t care for them either, the sooner that constituency will be able to achieve true prosperity and success.
Watch out for those door knobs, Robert.
I remember the visual of the Clinton cabinet. Politics aside, they looked like a carnival side show. Add the politics back in and it was a train wreck.
Should ask the author if he is pro-abortion or thinks highly of Margret Sanger....
Thank you for this "forgotten" piece of wisdom. I have another to share from Ralph Waldo Emerson that is somewhat along the same vein:
Give no bounties: make equal laws: secure life and property, and you need not give alms. Open the doors of opportunity to talent and virtue, and they will do themselves justice, and property will not be in bad hands. In a free and just commonwealth, property rushes from the idle and imbecile, to the industrious, brave, and persevering.
|
People get tired of being called angry white men, bigots, homophobes, racist and sexist. Since most of these guys pay all the bills - like a besieged parent - why should they be fed up and abandon the Dems?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.