Race and class in America are indistinguishable.

[Nevilledog]

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John Stoehr's Editorial Board
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Trump transcended class divisions between white people. GOP governors are inflaming them again

Trump transcended class divisions between white people. GOP governors are inflaming them again
Race and class in America are indistinguishable.
stoehr.substack.com
11:03 AM · Jun 15, 2021

https://stoehr.substack.com/p/trump-transcended-class-divisions

The idea that the Republicans are the party of the working class is now conventional wisdom among some members of the Washington press corps. That has bothered me for a variety of reasons, but I don’t recall reporting the following annoyance. If the Republicans are the party of the working class, what does that mean in terms of class? We don’t know, because most of the press corps does not bother asking the question.

Instead, we are left to read between and among the lines. The working class is drawn to the Republicans on account of the Republicans standing against things and people and ideas that the working class stands against. Those “things and people and ideas” have a certain color and a certain gender such that the Republicans are the party of the working class less in terms of class and more in terms of bigotry and prejudice. We are not talking about a working class so much as a whites-only working class. This is what lurks between and among the lines but the press corps never comes out and says it.

To the whites-only working class, Trump was their hero. To the whites-only petty bourgeoisie, he was their ideal. To both, he was the means by which they stayed white or got whiter.

There are intimations of class, though. The people who twice broke for Donald Trump were largely the very obscenely rich as well as Americans believing they deserve to be very obscenely rich but for whatever reason are not. They live in every city and town. They are businessmen, property-owners and church members. They are respected and admired. They work hard and give back. They didn’t go to college, which to the press corps means they are working class. To everyone else, they are the local upper crust.

That’s not usually reported either. Neither is the root of the local upper crust’s support for their idol. The Republicans, when they had control of the Congress, did one thing. They passed tax cuts benefiting the very obscenely rich. To the extent they benefited a petty bourgeoisie that’s resentful of not being very obscenely rich, it was by treating the petty bourgeoisie as if they were very obscenely rich. That they got little or nothing materially is beside the point. The point was being seen as being like Donald Trump.

*snip*