This Washington Post story reads like it was written by an anthropologist who parachuted into Middle America and is reporting back to her friends at the wine-tasting party. It’s not condescending, because it doesn’t even pretend to be speaking to ordinary people; it’s explaining ordinary people to their social betters, so-called.

The people the story is about don’t need to be told what kind of products a dollar store stocks; they know. They don’t need to be told what a millwright does, for the same reason.

That makes the story, inadvertently, an anthropological study of the people who reads such stories, too.

Roger,

You are saying I was flippantly dissing Bart by calling his analysis “hokum”.

Wrong. Nothing flippant to it.

I was making a serious point that Bart’s analysis was wrong, and agreeing with Roy on the same.

Bart was flat wrong to say the WaPo article was condescending or too intellectual to properly appreciate blue collar types. Wrong. Anyone who does not believe me feel free to read the article for yourself and make your own judgment. It was well written and down-to-earth.

I can’t respond to Simmertime’s post because it was perilously close to gibberish. I explained the Republican strategy of “starving the beast” to him. Apparently he did not value the explanation.

Thanks for the advice Biscuit. First you denegrate Palin, then minimize the value of experience and suggest that I go interview the downtrodden. Hmmm. I guess that I can take that to the bank.

Please take an Econ101 refresher to regain knowledge about government spending, the effect of balanced budgets, interest of the public debt, growth of government programs, refusal to discontinue unneeded programs, and the effect of raising taxes to pay for it all. Next time your posts will be more informed.

Two quotes from Ed the Deep and Brilliant.

“Bart seems to be saying the hated WaPo can not talk about blue collar folk because the WaPo is too uptown to “understand”. Hokum of course”

“You don’t have to agree Roger, but for just one time in your miserable life show a little respect for an alternate opinion. (not holding my breath)“

So, I guess showing respect for different opinions is done by flippantly disregarding them as “hokum”?

Forget starving the beast. You might want to try letting your brain have a bite of sense every now and again.

bob, what difference does someones salary make in relation to their understanding of different classes? By your own standard, (assuming you’re nobly poor)YOU have no business discussing anyone outside of your own social class…especially the evil rich. Or the educated or the gainfully employed or those with common sense or those not still getting an allowance from their dad while they try to get that degree in social work after 14 years of school.

If it’s ok for you to make judgements of people you know only thru infantile and hateful stereotypes, why is it wrong for others to make judgements based on actual information?

Simmer - Part II,

To answer your “starve the beast” issue, you say “How is big government being starved by either party?“

Good question - simple answer. The way “starve the beast” works is to start with the assertion that government bureaucracy can never be pruned, only whacked to the ground, because it tends to grow no matter what.

So what you do is spend, spend, spend like a drunken sailor knowing that if there is no money in the Treasury for even the most basic essentials there is also no way to continue to grow government services or continue unwanted programs.

I’m not saying this is happening, only saying there is that possibility. In fact, it would be a good idea if it were not in practice terribly irresponsible and destructive. 

That is how you use big government in order to bankrupt government and later get the skinny downsized government you wanted all along.

Simmer,

To first answer your hypothetical to Bob, Biden and Palin both have great blue collar cred.

The WaPo article Bart critiqued (we have forgotten it already) was written by a vanilla standard issue journalist who could easily know something about blue collar America or any other facet of America, or at least be qualified to research and write on it.

In fact, couldn’t we all. Assuming you don’t live in the very bowels of Manhattan, you can get out and see the world if you care to. It isn’t as if these people are hidden away, can’t be seen and won’t talk to you.

Only the extreme illogic of present day politics dictates that the ONLY way to understand Dollar General workers is to work there yourself, the only way to conduct a war is to have flown an attack bomber, the only way to pick up foreign policy experience is to have negotiated treaties and talked personally to Karzid and in Berlin Square, the only way to understand the economy is to struggle to pay the mortgage on your own single home.

I agree that both candidates seem a bit out of touch but I choke on the incipient illogic of requiring the candidates to fit some inane profile other than wise and able leader.

We are not getting a date from EHarmony or Matchmaker.com, just electing a president and a veep, so if it turns out Palin likes rock climbing, Jesus, and sexual marathons, and so do we, that much is terribly irrelevant.

Find yourslef a wise and able leader, one who understands issues not trivia.

Hey Bob, which DEM, including Obama, is an expert on the blue-collar worker? Kerry, Kennedy, Schummer, Reid, Biden, Boxer, Gore, Clintons? I suspect that Bart knows far more about the blue-collar worker than any of the above.

Hey Starve-The-Biscuit! How is big government being starved by either party? The gigantic entity known as US govt. is hardly being put on a diet, let alone starved. Same goes for VA govt.

My point is that as we enter ObamaLand that new socialist schemes will be proposed and acquiesced to by a DEM Congress. We will have radical change to US society, one that ignores economics and business profit. Instead we will have a thrust of social programs similar to ones that were a precursor to our ruined economy of today.

As stated in another forum today, the institutionalization of legal racism and discrimination between groups. Perhaps we will see JJ at State, Al at HHR, Bond at Defense and Wright @ the UN. Laugh now because you will weep later.

I can not resist. How much does an editor of the Richmond Times Dispatch make ? Isd it a down with the people swalary ? Hourly ? he does work with his hands. So, I am supposed to believe an editor from a news corporation , Media General, who has a reputation for union hostility is nopw going to tell me who is an elitist. Don’t get me wrong. I respect Bart in many ways and for some of his editorial stances. But the idea that a 6 figure editor of ther Times dispatch is a friend and expert on blue collar America is a bit of a stretch.

Sometimes I ger confused. John Mc Cain, who thanks to his wife has 7 houses and 13 cars is kind of rich. Why isn’t he a democrat ? Oh, he ios running as a maverick populist. And he grew up as a Admiral’s son in a log cabin ? Then we have Obama the elitist, son opf a single mother whose best job before Senator, was law professor. Then we have sarah who is not rich rich-rich running as a republican and almost forgotten Joe Biden who is the poorest guy in the Senate. Rich republicans now tell me not to listen to rich democrats who are elitist. I get it. Clear, real clear.

Roger sez,

“Bart is just a partisan hack trying to say the WaPo is an elitist liberal rag because he found the articles writer a bit disconnected from the subject. Harumph.“

I think what Roy and I were saying is that we disagreed with Bart. The WaPo piece was not disconnected at all.

You don’t have to agree Roger, but for just one time in your miserable life show a little respect for an alternate opinion. (not holding my breath)

Simmer,

You say, “Most of us will not see the differences,...They will see a downward spiral in government efficiency,“

That’s interesting. That is precisely what I have already observed in my own lifetime after decades of conservative leadership.

With the “starve the beast” philosophy they may even enjoy the thought that government is worthless, because one way to get less and less government interference is to destroy government effectiveness producing a self-fulfilling prophecy. The more you destroy government the more you prove that government is evil and not to be trusted.

Also, the Dems are vieing for the middle class too. Both parties appeal to a patchwork of various values and philosophies that cut across class boundaries.

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