[lbo-talk] Tea Party Numbers (and Chomsky's citation of polls)

Miles Jackson cqmv at pdx.edu
Thu Sep 2 11:23:22 PDT 2010


On 09/02/2010 07:08 AM, Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> "Posed fairly" = answers are very sensitive to how the questions are worded. Anyone who thinks that there isn't deep hostility to a welfare state in American popular opinion just isn't looking. Yeah, there are contradictions, but it's not hard for right-wing politicians to bring out the hostility.
>
> Doug
>

One of the essential tensions in U. S. culture: "helping out" vs. "personal responsibility". On one hand, we have a long and I think commendable tradition of mutual aid (e.g., barn raisings, co-ops, volunteer organizations). On the other, we have the "welfare moms are lazy" trope. Repubs are adept at stoking resentment about people "not pulling their weight", but it's important to remember that mutual aid is a core U. S. value as well.

To put it crudely, that's the real culture war in the U. S. today: "Let's work together for our mutual benefit" vs. "Every man for himself". --And not to be too gloomy, but every day in thousands of ways capitalist social relations pull us into latter mode of thinking.

Miles



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