for billionaires' interests. Divide and conquer.
I agree with the Fight for $15 living wage.
The incredible boom in higher ed population, combined with the stratospheric rise in costs to attend, the huge concerted attacks on public ed for pre-k through high school, and the new normal that a grad degree is necessary to have a comfortable living when it used to be a bachelors -- mean that they are solidifying a stratified society, where there is a permanent serf class, like the societies in Europe that our founders rejected.
Thomas Frank's last book (Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People?) made some good points. One discussed the false 'meritocracy' focus on 'eductation, working hard to get ahead, etc.', the results of which lead to the existence of a good number of people up top of our party, union structures, media, etc, who actually are part of the club, won't suffer too badly under opposition party rule, actually have no skin in the game, and aren't really revulsed by the clear hatred of and attack on the vast majority of our population by the tiny plutocrat class.
So it's a tough sell to rank-and-file lumpen, if someone knows and understands actual political reality, and is trying to encourage those rank and filers to support a party that is more in their interests. They could end up running into actual geniuses or savants among that group who see clearly with realpolitikal insights that they may have a terrible enemy in the repug party, but they don't have a real friend ally who is fighting for them in the 'opposition to the repugs politicians' they know themselves. I'm a half-a-loaf advocate, especially when it's half a loaf vs zyklon b. But that fake meritocracy bs makes it difficult to proselytize to the very best of the low income people that a lot of our party's best politicians represent. You can't spark a political wildfire when the key organizing tenets of the more 'populist' party are 'Give us money, give us volunteer time for free, show up, shut up do what we say.' And that wildfire should be so easy to spark, because the repugs have created social conditions that make for a tinderbox so very liable for a raging prairie wildfire of political change.
I read Mr. Welsh's analysis. It was very well written, and had a lot of great points, very well stated. The bullying, the punching down and puckering up. Thanks for the link, Will. Recommended.
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