[lbo-talk] authentically working class

James Heartfield Heartfield at blueyonder.co.uk
Thu Sep 11 02:49:28 PDT 2008


Doug, corrects me on what America is like: "You really should spend some time here to get a full taste of it." Which is true. On the few visits I do make what surprises me is how small-town a lot of America is, coming from heavily urbanised Europe. So I read, for example, that 'slightly more than one-half of the nation's population lived in jurisdictions --- cities, towns, boroughs, villages and townships --- with fewer than 25,000 people or in rural areas.' http://www.newgeography.com/content/00242-america-more-small-town-we-think

Which reinforces my suspicion that the LBO-list is a little skewed in its demographic towards the larger cities, and out of touch with small town America, as, I believe is much of the US left.

That strikes me as a problem, especially seeing some of the visceral hatred that Sarah Palin's candidacy provokes. I suggest that a lot of that reaction is just anti-working class prejudice, masquerading as anti-republicanism (in much the same way that the left here kept its most bitter attacks for 'Essex Man' who was supposed to have cost Labour victory throughout the 1980s).

The glee that the liberal press take in reporting the (thoroughly ordinary) problems in Ms Palin's family life seems to exemplify their disdain for ordinary people.



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