[lbo-talk] Bartels: Bitter = Frank Thesis = All Wrong

Wojtek Sokolowski swsokolowski at yahoo.com
Thu Apr 17 07:17:23 PDT 2008


--- Michael Pollak <mpollak at panix.com> wrote:


>
> [Or as he sums it up: social issues are the opiate
> of the elites.]
>
>
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/17/opinion/17bartels.html
>

[WS:] This looks to me like another example of docta ignorantia - he counts beans and misses the point. It is not about guns, abortion or religion, it is about us vs. them. "Them" in the populist discourse are "cultural elites" or edcuated smooth talking city slicks whom the plain folk of the land (PFoL)dread (to borrow a memorable quote from HL Mencken.)

The PFoL do not vote or act FOR guns, abortion or religion - they vote and act AGAINST the boogey man whom the crafty populist demagogues successfully paint as "cultural elite." If the PFoL are convinced by right wing populist demagogues that "cultural elites" profess 'goddless secularism' and perfom 'abortions just for the shits and giggles' - the plain folk of the land will embrace 'life' and the Bible as an act of their opposition to the decadence o cultural elites - even though they have not read a single verse from the good book and are more than willing to help thier daughters or girfriends to get rid of unwanted pregnancies.

In other words - the PFoL did not vote for Bush - they voted against Gore or Kerry who were effectively painted by the right wing populist propaganda as "elitist." The purported positions on guns or religion were mere rationalizations.

I met a number of such folk in person e.g. during my travels in rural Pennsylvania - they professed being religious, yet their knowledge of religious doctrine or ethics was close to nil. Their religiosity was a maniferstation of their opposition to "liberal elities" - slick city dwellers, enviros, labor lawyers, politicians, experts, urban decadence, homosexuality, etc. However, they would not simply say 'we dread these people and their ways." Instead, they would say, 'these people threaten us and our way of life, so we have to protect ourselves, our values and our way of life."

So Obama was right - guns, religion and immigrant or free trade bashing are a part of the populist scape-goat game that the PFoL play out of desperation caused by their miserable economic condition.

Wojtek

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