Sunday, April 03, 2011

Liberals and the Working Class

One of my Facebook friends linked me this interesting article the gist of which is the poor, working class, poorly educated and religious tend to be conservative. Their actual ideology cuts against their economic self-interest. The data are all presented on a state by state basis which can be terribly misleading. South Dakota counts as much as New York.

The data also tell us what many of us have known. OTHO, the conclusion that working class people vote against their economic self interest may be a bit hasty. Are working class people really voting against their self interest? Think about the liberal ideology of the last 40 years. The primary liberal focus has hardly been on class. It has been on historically disadvantaged groups that are minorities within the poor and working class. The hypocrisy of the liberals is that they are happy to do good for some of the poor and working class if the burden falls predominately on others who are poor and in the working class. If a cause, like those that are class oriented, would actually mean liberals are affected, it somehow loses its attraction.

There are broad strokes but for the most part Left means caring about the poor and working class of all types, Liberal means not caring and Right means using them to advance your own ends. Of course Liberals do this too but it is more like collateral damage.

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