reach out to the angry white men with policies that address their grievances, and do so with an understanding that what matters to them is not status but simply a chance to make a decent living again.Fuck me, but what's wrong w/ Dionne? He types, for example:
Middle-income men, especially those who are not college graduates, have borne the brunt of economic change bred by globalization and technological transformation. Even before the recession, the decline in the number of well-paid jobs in manufacturing hit the incomes of this group of Americans hard. The trouble in the construction industry since the downturn began has compounded the problem.Does Dionne fail to realize that these dispossessed are low-information voters (assuming that they vote)? Were they not ignorant & short-sighted, they wouldn't be in the position of being victims of capitalism (Advocating for the devil here. — Ed.) but would have "re-invented themselves" & raked it in as real estate weasels during the housing boom, or participated in any number of the scams popular during the Bush Administration. How can they be expected to reason their way out of the conventional wisdom which Dionne confirms?
In fact, many who now feel rage have legitimate reasons for it, even if neither Obama nor big government is the real culprit.Thou shalt have no other culprit before you. Attempts at policies to help middle-age, -brow & -income white guys will be met w/ shouts of "Takin' 'way mah freedumz, morans!" Ironic that those most opposed to the "nanny state" need it most.
Other disconnected thoughts of Mr. Dionne's include an inch or so on something
The deeper problem is that the Nobel will underscore the extent to which Obama is a cosmopolitan figure, much loved in European capitals because he is the change they have been looking for.that doesn't recur until the last paragraph
No doubt some who despise Obama will see the judges in Norway as part of that latte-sipping crowd and will hold their esteem for the president against him. He can't do much about this.Dionne's point being that non-racial Obama hatred (If only the President were a plumber or something, instead of a smarty-pants lawyer.) can be defeated by smashing capitalism, or policying it to death. Not gonna happen. The Admin. won't be won't improving the lot of Joe Six-pack beyond using Joe's tax dollars to bribe bankers to keep the lines of credit that keep the houses of financial cards that employ Joe solvent enough to pay him this wk., & Joe's authentic rage has been whipped into a froth of scum in a stagnant teapot.
Good luck w/ that bi-partisanship there, E. J. Broder.
(This senselessness in the defense of stupidity/conventional wisdom crap is beyond tiresome: It's irksome, tedious & banal. Only bright spot on the horizon is the next go-round of baseball excitement*, which won't occur until Thurs. Some tee vee advertising scheme?)
*We understand this may not apply to everyone. How sorry are your lives?
More Shit (Noted around 0104 13 October 2009): The Maha also notes E. J., & refutes his refutation of Hofstader, while advising Middle American men to shut up & suck it up, sac up & man up. Good advice.
Dionne suggests that we must acknowledge the angry white men have real grievances. Oh, please. What grievances do they have that the rest of us don’t have also? And, more to the point, what problems beset them that they didn’t help bring upon themselves?Our two favorite insults, in red. And a picture of some angry white guys, just to lighten things up.
The fact is, there’s been a big, fat stain of irrational paranoia that runs through American history and which has tripped us up over and over. And there is no placating it. You can give the irrational paranoids everything they want, cater to their every whim, and they will still hate you and blame you for every cloud in the sky. Why? Because it’s part of our culture. And ignorance and stupidity are factors, also.
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