Hmm, I still don't see what's really going on here -- care to elaborate on what part resonated with you?
One part I definitely disagree with is him saying that Obama's victories in North Dakota, Idaho, Kansas, Alabama, Georgia, etc. One thing that this race has proven is that the rules from the last 2 elections do not apply. Dems having been coming out in bigger numbers than Repubs, and Obama got more votes than the winning Republican in every state except Utah and Arizona. I think he could win those red states, and that doesn't conform to his view of the working-class.
There may be something else going on w/ Obama's failure to reach the working-class. Maybe they are lower-information voters, and are likely to go with what they know. Maybe the success of the 90's and Clinton's association with it trumps everything else.
Right- I should've definitely been more specific. This is what resonated with me:
"I fear that too many young whites with bright prospects have no really serious intention of redressing the growing inequities which the neoliberal world that employs them is spawning, not just between themselves and poor blacks on the Southside but, these days, between blacks and blacks, and women and women, let alone between cool young whites like themselves and the declasse, lumpy white and Latino workers all around them."
And this as well:
"Unlike some of his supporters, Obama took his Columbia College core humanities curriculum seriously enough to go down and out in Chicago after Harvard Law School and to wrest a fine book from out of his entrails. Even more important, he felt and thought his way through and out of a lot of racial displacements and deceits, with a personal and public courage most of us whites can admire but will never be called upon to emulate and demonstrate, as he has."
In terms of the dynamics of voting, you have a faaaaaar better handle on the process than I do, and I totally defer to you. In terms of what I can speak about, I'm wary on the one hand of romanticizing Obama as an individual, but part of what I like about him is my sense that there's some truth to the second paragraph I cited there. I'm also wary of hollow "movements," just like I'm skeptical (without forfeiting my optimism) about whether the "green consumer" is actually going to have any long term impact.
I think the "low-information voter" hypothesis definitely has something to it. More important to me personally is the sense that I, like many people I know, have no firsthand connection to the working class- there's a potentially narcissistic element to being an elite, white, left Obama supporter, and I would hate for that to be fueling an illusory movement among a small demographic that ostensibly is concerned with but in fact is disconnected entirely from the working class in this country.
I'm not saying that is what's happening- in fact, there's quite a lot of evidence that, at least at this point, that's not what's happening, or at least that's not the only thing happening. Obama's support among African Americans must be coming from a range of economic classes, right? It doesn't sound like working Latinos have swayed this way yet (despite "Yes we can"), but that doesn't mean it won't happen.
I've totally come around to your thoughts on compulsory public service among the youth of this country- couldn't this be a potential way to at least perforate class barriers, for one thing?
Gotcha. One thing I will say is that I did some volunteering for Obama here in Reno, and my precinct captain was working-class. My precinct in general is white and working (or unemployed) class, and Obama beat Clinton 2-1. In Washoe county in general, Obama beat Clinton by 10 points, and Reno is if anything not known for being 1) diverse or 2) being a stronghold of young elite whites. So there's definitely something else going on.
3 Comments:
Hmm, I still don't see what's really going on here -- care to elaborate on what part resonated with you?
One part I definitely disagree with is him saying that Obama's victories in North Dakota, Idaho, Kansas, Alabama, Georgia, etc. One thing that this race has proven is that the rules from the last 2 elections do not apply. Dems having been coming out in bigger numbers than Repubs, and Obama got more votes than the winning Republican in every state except Utah and Arizona. I think he could win those red states, and that doesn't conform to his view of the working-class.
There may be something else going on w/ Obama's failure to reach the working-class. Maybe they are lower-information voters, and are likely to go with what they know. Maybe the success of the 90's and Clinton's association with it trumps everything else.
Right- I should've definitely been more specific. This is what resonated with me:
"I fear that too many young whites with bright prospects have no really serious intention of redressing the growing inequities which the neoliberal world that employs them is spawning, not just between themselves and poor blacks on the Southside but, these days, between blacks and blacks, and women and women, let alone between cool young whites like themselves and the declasse, lumpy white and Latino workers all around them."
And this as well:
"Unlike some of his supporters, Obama took his Columbia College core humanities curriculum seriously enough to go down and out in Chicago after Harvard Law School and to wrest a fine book from out of his entrails. Even more important, he felt and thought his way through and out of a lot of racial displacements and deceits, with a personal and public courage most of us whites can admire but will never be called upon to emulate and demonstrate, as he has."
In terms of the dynamics of voting, you have a faaaaaar better handle on the process than I do, and I totally defer to you. In terms of what I can speak about, I'm wary on the one hand of romanticizing Obama as an individual, but part of what I like about him is my sense that there's some truth to the second paragraph I cited there. I'm also wary of hollow "movements," just like I'm skeptical (without forfeiting my optimism) about whether the "green consumer" is actually going to have any long term impact.
I think the "low-information voter" hypothesis definitely has something to it. More important to me personally is the sense that I, like many people I know, have no firsthand connection to the working class- there's a potentially narcissistic element to being an elite, white, left Obama supporter, and I would hate for that to be fueling an illusory movement among a small demographic that ostensibly is concerned with but in fact is disconnected entirely from the working class in this country.
I'm not saying that is what's happening- in fact, there's quite a lot of evidence that, at least at this point, that's not what's happening, or at least that's not the only thing happening. Obama's support among African Americans must be coming from a range of economic classes, right? It doesn't sound like working Latinos have swayed this way yet (despite "Yes we can"), but that doesn't mean it won't happen.
I've totally come around to your thoughts on compulsory public service among the youth of this country- couldn't this be a potential way to at least perforate class barriers, for one thing?
Title amended.
Gotcha. One thing I will say is that I did some volunteering for Obama here in Reno, and my precinct captain was working-class. My precinct in general is white and working (or unemployed) class, and Obama beat Clinton 2-1. In Washoe county in general, Obama beat Clinton by 10 points, and Reno is if anything not known for being 1) diverse or 2) being a stronghold of young elite whites. So there's definitely something else going on.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home