As I write this, the federal government of the United States has been shut down due to unreasonable demands from a relatively small group of Republicans, the so-called Tea Party Republicans. They are holding the rest of the lawmakers hostage by demanding that a law they don't like, a much needed law that is going to provide healthcare to millions of currently uninsured Americans, be decimated before they agree to keeping the government open. For the same reason, they are apparently prepared to threaten the nation with default, which would be catastrophic for America and the world.
I think I understand what's motivating Tea Party activists. It is easy to call them racists, yahoos, and reactionaries, but this misses the point. True 79% of them are white and over 60% are male; if there is racism involved in the movement--and I do think there is some of that--it is not the driving force. Much more important is the fact that Tea Party activists are older, more educated and much more wealthy than average Americans. What is motivating the Tea Party is the desire to keep more of the money that they've earned for themselves. They think that government is increasingly in the business of redistributing wealth, which, Ayn-Rand-like, they view as a moral outrage. They are fighting to preserve all the privileges of their class, and view the rest of Americans with disdain. I understand that. They're rich and they want things to stay that way. This is the way most of the wealthy have behaved throughout history. Normal immoral, perhaps, but normal nevertheless.
What is truly counter-intuitive is the overwhelming support they get from working class whites. How can the latter support the former? That is the subject of this essay.
A good example of the problem is the demographics of Owsley County, Kentucky. It is just about the poorest county in the nation. It is 98% white; over 50% are below the poverty level. The majority receives food stamps. They are also 81% Republican. Their Republican representative does everything in his power to make things worse for them--voting against raising the minimum wage, voting to significantly reduce money for food stamps while increasing subsidies for agro-businesses, etc. The representative, Hal Rogers, has received abysmal evaluations from civil rights groups--7% on civil rights, 0% on gay rights, and 0% on senior issues. He is adamantly against the Affordable Care Act, even though many of his constituents are uninsured.
How is it that the residents of this county can elect someone who is doing all he can to increase their distress?
It is not only Owsley County. Of the 254 counties where food stamp usage has doubled, 213 voted for Mitt Romney. Why do poor whites have such poor judgment?
Two-thirds of the those living in poverty live in red states, where working-class and impoverished whites continue to elect those who disdain them. A glaring example: most of the Republican governors of these states are refusing to receive federal money to expand medical assistance to the abject poor, that is, those who are "too rich: to qualify for medical assistance under current state laws and too poor to qualify for subsidized insurance under Obamacare., This would be at no cost to the states for three years, then only ten percent of the cost after that. This refusal of Republican governors to aid those in their states who are in dire need reveals how extreme and callous they are. Yet the white downtrodden continue to support those who tread them down. I ask again: why do poor whites have such poor judgement? Regarding Democrats, they are biting the hands that help feed them; regarding Republicans, they are feeding the hands that punch them where it really hurts. How can this be?
Although race is not the main motivational force of tea party activists, it is primary here. There is not a single impoverished county in the United States that has an African-American majority which has elected a Republican. They, and working-class Hispanics, know who is representing their interests. Why are working class whites so willing to vote for those who treat them with contempt? The reason, I think, white rage. Rage is illogical, emotional and often devastating. How else can we account for the recent ludicrous statement of a Tea Party Republican which asserts that the Affordable Care Act is a worse assault on freedom than the Fugitive Slave Act--the heinous law which required that slaves that escaped to the North be returned to their "owners"? It is one of many examples of politicians pandering to white anger and discontent.
I do not advocate characterizing the white working class as racist, stupid, or a bunch of hillbillies. They are mostly decent people like everyone else. I want to help explain the rage which is making them act irrationally, and what can be done about it. Needless to say, understanding their rage does not mean that their anger is justified. I see three reasons for white rage, which I will now briefly discuss.
1. The Decline of the White Working Class
In the late 1940s, over 80% of white workers lacked a college degree; now it is about 30%. After the war, manufacturing jobs were readily available for all whites who were willing to work. Those jobs are now mostly gone. The many whites who obtained higher education over the past decades became professionals and left working-class neighborhoods--many of these now compose the Tea Party! Income increased rapidly for the white working class after the war, but now it is stagnant. The rich are getting ridiculously richer, the poor and the working class are getting poorer. Current inequality in the U.S.borders on the obscene. Unemployment abounds. The white working class is now the most pessimistic of all. A full 75% believe it's much harder to succeed these days; only 60% of African-Americans share this view. The white working class had been successful participants of the American dream; the dream has burst. The difficulty many have in obtaining a living wage is the principal fuel for white rage,
2. The Decline of the White Working Class Male
They saw themselves as breadwinners. They have become increasingly marginalized. Many women are financially independent or at least work to help support their families. This is of course a good thing, but can indeed be stressful to all family members. Increasing numbers of white children, especially in the lower classes, are born out of wedlock. Fathers are becoming, especially in the lower classes, much less essential. A leading group of single mothers, for instance, believes that having a father in a family is good, but by no means essential. It used to be essential. What do you do when you feel humiliated by not being able to find work, or adequate work? What do you do when you feel increasingly useless and marginalized? You get angry, sometimes very angry.
3. White Racism
There is no doubt that racism is behind a good deal of animus against our president and against the Democratic Party. White workers saw themselves as frontiersman needing no help from anyone. Despite previous government assistance--in the obtaining of mortgages, for instance--white workers tended to believe they achieved success all on their own. Government assistance was believed to be for the lazy and shiftless--and you know what these terms are code words for. White workers saw themselves as the most successful working class in history, and indeed it was. Other groups were deemed inferior; it wasn't oppression, according to them, that made blacks poor, but blackness itself. When a white worker was doing poorly, at least he could look in the mirror and say, "At least I'm not black!" The world order has changed. Blacks are now proving themselves to be every bit as capable as whites in all things, Believing yourself to be the king of creation and finding yourself working at Dairy Queen can make you very irate.
In sum, many whites, working class and non-, feel that the culture has turned against them. Waves of immigration are changing the demographics of the United States, and not in their favor. They feel that the government favors minorities and has repudiated what they believe to be the white values of hard work, self-reliance and independence. Their God-fearing culture is being repudiated, they believe, by a liberal government's march toward godlessness, exemplified by such abominations as abortion, gay marriage, globilization, etc. If society were a building, they think they deserve the top floor, which they have, as it were, occupied for generations. Now they feel they are being pushed toward an open window on that top floor by forces beyond their control. They look out the window and see an abyss. The forces of evil, represented by--horror of horrors! a black president, are out to destroy them. They are ready to fight for their lives.
If you were a member of the white working class and believed such things, you would probably be very angry. Your rage would prevent you from acting rationally. You would fall into the hands of white politicians who seem every bit as angry as you. You wouldn't vote your interests, you would vote your skin.
THE SOLUTION
The solution for the crisis is easy to state and difficult to realize: the white working class must change its identity from color to class. Its members have much more in common with black and Hispanic workers than they do with white oligarchs. Things will change only when they realize that the baracks and bidens of this world, whatever their color, are on their side, while they mits and mitches of this world, whatever their color, are working against them.. This necessary transformation will not be easy, since racism in our still very segregated society remains entrenched. It is, however, the only solution. In the meantime, justice will be thwarted by white rage.
I think I understand what's motivating Tea Party activists. It is easy to call them racists, yahoos, and reactionaries, but this misses the point. True 79% of them are white and over 60% are male; if there is racism involved in the movement--and I do think there is some of that--it is not the driving force. Much more important is the fact that Tea Party activists are older, more educated and much more wealthy than average Americans. What is motivating the Tea Party is the desire to keep more of the money that they've earned for themselves. They think that government is increasingly in the business of redistributing wealth, which, Ayn-Rand-like, they view as a moral outrage. They are fighting to preserve all the privileges of their class, and view the rest of Americans with disdain. I understand that. They're rich and they want things to stay that way. This is the way most of the wealthy have behaved throughout history. Normal immoral, perhaps, but normal nevertheless.
What is truly counter-intuitive is the overwhelming support they get from working class whites. How can the latter support the former? That is the subject of this essay.
A good example of the problem is the demographics of Owsley County, Kentucky. It is just about the poorest county in the nation. It is 98% white; over 50% are below the poverty level. The majority receives food stamps. They are also 81% Republican. Their Republican representative does everything in his power to make things worse for them--voting against raising the minimum wage, voting to significantly reduce money for food stamps while increasing subsidies for agro-businesses, etc. The representative, Hal Rogers, has received abysmal evaluations from civil rights groups--7% on civil rights, 0% on gay rights, and 0% on senior issues. He is adamantly against the Affordable Care Act, even though many of his constituents are uninsured.
How is it that the residents of this county can elect someone who is doing all he can to increase their distress?
It is not only Owsley County. Of the 254 counties where food stamp usage has doubled, 213 voted for Mitt Romney. Why do poor whites have such poor judgment?
Two-thirds of the those living in poverty live in red states, where working-class and impoverished whites continue to elect those who disdain them. A glaring example: most of the Republican governors of these states are refusing to receive federal money to expand medical assistance to the abject poor, that is, those who are "too rich: to qualify for medical assistance under current state laws and too poor to qualify for subsidized insurance under Obamacare., This would be at no cost to the states for three years, then only ten percent of the cost after that. This refusal of Republican governors to aid those in their states who are in dire need reveals how extreme and callous they are. Yet the white downtrodden continue to support those who tread them down. I ask again: why do poor whites have such poor judgement? Regarding Democrats, they are biting the hands that help feed them; regarding Republicans, they are feeding the hands that punch them where it really hurts. How can this be?
Although race is not the main motivational force of tea party activists, it is primary here. There is not a single impoverished county in the United States that has an African-American majority which has elected a Republican. They, and working-class Hispanics, know who is representing their interests. Why are working class whites so willing to vote for those who treat them with contempt? The reason, I think, white rage. Rage is illogical, emotional and often devastating. How else can we account for the recent ludicrous statement of a Tea Party Republican which asserts that the Affordable Care Act is a worse assault on freedom than the Fugitive Slave Act--the heinous law which required that slaves that escaped to the North be returned to their "owners"? It is one of many examples of politicians pandering to white anger and discontent.
I do not advocate characterizing the white working class as racist, stupid, or a bunch of hillbillies. They are mostly decent people like everyone else. I want to help explain the rage which is making them act irrationally, and what can be done about it. Needless to say, understanding their rage does not mean that their anger is justified. I see three reasons for white rage, which I will now briefly discuss.
1. The Decline of the White Working Class
In the late 1940s, over 80% of white workers lacked a college degree; now it is about 30%. After the war, manufacturing jobs were readily available for all whites who were willing to work. Those jobs are now mostly gone. The many whites who obtained higher education over the past decades became professionals and left working-class neighborhoods--many of these now compose the Tea Party! Income increased rapidly for the white working class after the war, but now it is stagnant. The rich are getting ridiculously richer, the poor and the working class are getting poorer. Current inequality in the U.S.borders on the obscene. Unemployment abounds. The white working class is now the most pessimistic of all. A full 75% believe it's much harder to succeed these days; only 60% of African-Americans share this view. The white working class had been successful participants of the American dream; the dream has burst. The difficulty many have in obtaining a living wage is the principal fuel for white rage,
2. The Decline of the White Working Class Male
They saw themselves as breadwinners. They have become increasingly marginalized. Many women are financially independent or at least work to help support their families. This is of course a good thing, but can indeed be stressful to all family members. Increasing numbers of white children, especially in the lower classes, are born out of wedlock. Fathers are becoming, especially in the lower classes, much less essential. A leading group of single mothers, for instance, believes that having a father in a family is good, but by no means essential. It used to be essential. What do you do when you feel humiliated by not being able to find work, or adequate work? What do you do when you feel increasingly useless and marginalized? You get angry, sometimes very angry.
3. White Racism
There is no doubt that racism is behind a good deal of animus against our president and against the Democratic Party. White workers saw themselves as frontiersman needing no help from anyone. Despite previous government assistance--in the obtaining of mortgages, for instance--white workers tended to believe they achieved success all on their own. Government assistance was believed to be for the lazy and shiftless--and you know what these terms are code words for. White workers saw themselves as the most successful working class in history, and indeed it was. Other groups were deemed inferior; it wasn't oppression, according to them, that made blacks poor, but blackness itself. When a white worker was doing poorly, at least he could look in the mirror and say, "At least I'm not black!" The world order has changed. Blacks are now proving themselves to be every bit as capable as whites in all things, Believing yourself to be the king of creation and finding yourself working at Dairy Queen can make you very irate.
In sum, many whites, working class and non-, feel that the culture has turned against them. Waves of immigration are changing the demographics of the United States, and not in their favor. They feel that the government favors minorities and has repudiated what they believe to be the white values of hard work, self-reliance and independence. Their God-fearing culture is being repudiated, they believe, by a liberal government's march toward godlessness, exemplified by such abominations as abortion, gay marriage, globilization, etc. If society were a building, they think they deserve the top floor, which they have, as it were, occupied for generations. Now they feel they are being pushed toward an open window on that top floor by forces beyond their control. They look out the window and see an abyss. The forces of evil, represented by--horror of horrors! a black president, are out to destroy them. They are ready to fight for their lives.
If you were a member of the white working class and believed such things, you would probably be very angry. Your rage would prevent you from acting rationally. You would fall into the hands of white politicians who seem every bit as angry as you. You wouldn't vote your interests, you would vote your skin.
THE SOLUTION
The solution for the crisis is easy to state and difficult to realize: the white working class must change its identity from color to class. Its members have much more in common with black and Hispanic workers than they do with white oligarchs. Things will change only when they realize that the baracks and bidens of this world, whatever their color, are on their side, while they mits and mitches of this world, whatever their color, are working against them.. This necessary transformation will not be easy, since racism in our still very segregated society remains entrenched. It is, however, the only solution. In the meantime, justice will be thwarted by white rage.
