[lbo-talk] The Wisconsin Recall Results: A Post Post-Mortem

[Wojtek S]

CB: "Key among the “wedge issues” was that of race, utterly ignored by the
overwhelming majority of commentators. It is well known that Milwaukee
is one of the most segregated cities in the country, surrounded by
bands of predominantly white suburbs"

[WS:]  I think this is true on one level, but it also misses a far
more subtle phenomenon - the Black flight into suburbia - quite
visible in the DC-Baltimore area - which not coincidentally coincides
with the white flight.  Denouncing this as 'Black bourgeoisie" smacks
of moralism and misses the class aspect of it.  In particular, what
matters is not that much generalized "race" or even working vs upper
class division, but the division between the middle classes -
including the professional and the working class- on one side, and the
de-classed lumpenproletariat on the other.  I think this division can
travel rather far in explaining why working class in this country
often votes against its economic interests, as the Wisconsin case
seems to demonstrate.

-- 
Wojtek

"An anarchist is a neoliberal without money."