>My only point is that working class people are full citizens of a democracy
>that is working very, very poorly. They should stand up and fix it, and
>those of us who believe that should avoid calling them names for their
>"instrumentality" but also not give them a pass from honest analysis.
Rather than "blaming" the masses, I think the uncomfortable truth some of us are dancing around is that the masses are more or less content with things as they are, and neither as dissatisfied nor as rebellious as we'd like. Or if not content, resigned to. We can make a long list of things that are wrong with our democracy, but though lots of us imagine there are great wellsprings of populist sentiment brewing under the surface that just the right political appeal could unleash, that just may not be the case.
Doug