J.D. Vance wrote a compelling account of what has happened to poor white people in the United States. He has now hitched his wagon to Donald Trump's star. Paul Krugman writes:
The thing about Vance is that while these days he gives cynical opportunism a bad name, he didn’t always seem that way. In fact, not that long ago he seemed to offer some intellectual and maybe even moral heft. His 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” drew widespread and respectful attention, because it offered a personal take on a real and important problem: The unraveling of society in Appalachia and more broadly for a significant segment of the white working class.
What can be done? Progressives want to see more social spending, especially on families with children; this would do a lot to improve people’s lives, although it’s less clear whether it would help revive declining communities.
Back in 2016 Trump offered a different answer: protectionist trade policies that, he claimed, would revive industrial employment. The arithmetic on this claim never worked, and in practice Trump’s trade wars appear to have reduced the number of U.S. manufacturing jobs. But back then Trump was at least pretending to address a real issue.
From pretending to conspiracy. That's the path the Republicans have chosen:
I’d say that G.O.P. campaigning in 2022 is all culture war, all the time, except that this would be giving Republicans too much credit. They aren’t fighting a real culture war, a conflict between rival views of what our society should look like; they’re riling up the base against phantasms, threats that don’t even exist.
This isn’t hyperbole. I’m not just talking about things like the panic over critical race theory, although this has come to mean just about any mention of the role that slavery and discrimination have played in U.S. history. Florida is even rejecting many math textbooks, claiming that they include prohibited topics.
That’s bad. But we’re seeing a growing focus on even more bizarre conspiracy theories, with frantic attacks on woke Disney, etc. And roughly half of self-identified Republicans believe that “top Democrats are involved in elite child sex-trafficking rings.”
Vance has jumped into the madness with both feet. Like Trump, he is giving Ohioans something to hate. And he knows better.
Image: thedailybeast.com
4 comments:
Since his book had so much to say about the empowerment education confers, Owen, it is especially disappointing to see that Vance has hitched his star to a party that does everything it can to discourage critical-thinking skills.
It's all pretty cynical, Lorne.
I do not understand the obsessiveness with US politicians,who more than anything use their time to destroy the best that the US has to offer.
Canadians should distance themselves from US influences.
We are starting to see the Americanisation of Canadian politics with Kenny and Polievre .
We should concentrate upon keeping Canada , Canadian.
There are no good American politicians when it comes to international politics!
TB
I agree, TB. We should be suspicious of American influence.
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