Posted on 07/16/2024 1:16:42 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
The selection of J.D. Vance on Monday as Donald Trump’s running mate is a direct result of the political media’s failure to understand class in America. For his 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” Vance was venerated by many journalists and book critics as a powerful voice representing long-overlooked Americans. But he’s no working-class hero.
Vance portrayed this group — 35% of Americans, by the way — as tragic victims of alcoholism, drug abuse, laziness and their own self-destructive moral failings. Journalists ran with that, bringing their own stereotypes to depict the working class as angry, uneducated white men driven by economic insecurity and racist nostalgia to support Trump’s retrogressive campaign.
This distortion, in turn, widened a real divide by alienating many Americans, fueling support for Trump and even veneration of Vance.
Lauded by David Brooks as the interpreter of some mythical “working-class honor code” that could illuminate the motivations of the core Trump voter, Vance was praised in reviews in the New York Times, the Washington Post and a host of other publications, and he became the go-to guy on the working-class perspective. CNN hired him as a political pundit.
This was no better than the “parachute journalism” of upper-middle-class reporters who would visit an Appalachian tavern for one afternoon and then presume to tell the nation what the working class was thinking.
So who actually is the working class? Consistent data has shown that, in the words of the Center for American Progress, “Black, Hispanic, and other workers of color make up 45 percent of the working class, while non-Hispanic white workers comprise the remaining 55 percent. Nearly half of the working class is women, and 8 percent have disabilities.” Media portrayals that equate this group with uneducated white men elide most of the...
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
The author of this tripe is angry because Vance wasn’t born a poor black child like Steve Martin? How cute.
I know a people in Tennessee and there are areas that are reflected in Vance’s book.
Where did you grow up? I grew up in Hamilton.
A small (tiny) point.
This writer cannot even imagine that there is a class of “Working Americans” who actually work.
When imagining journalism peer looking to understand “Working Class Americans” the author of the piece imagines a visit to an “Appalachian Tavern” (a rare breed indeed, dry counties, drinkers who fight, other substances than alcohol, preference for drinking off the back of a pickup) rather than a Tractor Supply or a small diner.
These chumps have no idea how to even find the Americans they write about, much less characterize their experience of their thinking.
Correct. But all part of the Democrat anti industrial scheme. Carter wrecked our steel industry, intiated downsizing of American cars, got interest rates up to nearly 20 percent and the industry in the midwest started to shut down. I was there. Jobs were going overseas. Clinton continued this and NAFTA was the kiss of death.
One of my co-workers is an aspiring rapper, but a good guy — creative, hard worker, family guy.
He disdains rappers (of any variety) that seem to have never had to get up at 4 AM to make it to a hot, noisy factory like ours.
I believe the stats that say that about half the working class are people of color. Most of the people on the shop floor are young and-or minority.
JD is well aware this is coming. He is a good guy and he and Trump are close.
All the usual suspects are screaming now.
No, it's been around at least as long as there were industrial workers.
yes, she’s jealous - he sells book, she can’t.
her entire column is a con job. what she doesn’t realize is the Trump and Vance are Jacksonians. They have adopted the original platform of Andrew Jackson, who founded the D party, in support of the common man. She can’t accept that the D party is now the party of elitists.
Yes sir, deservedly so. Much anguish ahead....
And last but not least, the democrats have supported and enabled the invasion on our southern border by 15+ million illegal aliens.
And so it goes. The hits keep on coming from the garbage pail.
My kinda lady!
They must have an AI that churns out this nonsense.
In other words, the media can't legitimately criticize it, so they are left making about complete hogwash and trying to change the subject.
Some of my relatives in SW Virginia escaped the life that Vance described in Hillbilly Elegy and many didn’t. My family did, I was fortunate, but for many of my aunts, uncles and cousins life was often self-inflicted agony. The book resonated strongly with me.
Being a native Angelino who read the LA times for years the Times hasn’t been worth reading since the 80s. It isnt worth using as in a bird cage to catch the birds poop!
What's the saying? How Cali goes, so the country goes.
This comment is known to the state of California to cause cancer in liberals
Sick burn.
Well done!
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.