Playing the Class Card

[Leo 9]

Playing the Class Card
Robert Scheer
Posted January 9, 2008 | 02:06 PM (EST)


As long as Hillary Clinton, and now Gloria Steinem, has chosen to play the women's card against the race card, let me throw in a third one: the class card. Clinton claimed in the New Hampshire primary debate that she is the unmistakable agent for change because she is a woman and her election as president would send a strong signal of a new day aborning to America and the rest of the world. It is hoped that it would be a more progressive message than the one sent by Margaret Thatcher's ascent in England.

Steinem put a finer point on the argument in her New York Times commentary, published Tuesday, New Hampshire's primary election day, arguing that women get wonderfully more "radical" as they age, and therefore older women are more inclined to vote for Clinton, Steinem's preferred candidate, as opposed to Barack Obama, whom younger women went for in Iowa. Maybe those younger women were more worried about how to pay off college loans or swelling mortgage obligations than gender identity.

What is radical about voting for a corporate lawyer who, in defense of her Arkansas savings and loan shenanigans, once said you can't be a lawyer without working for banks? Steinem boasts of Clinton's "unprecedented eight years of on-the-job training in the White House" without referencing the Clinton White House's giveaways to corporate America at the expense of poor and working Americans, the majority of them being women. Sen. Clinton's key election operative, Mark Penn, was the other half of the Dick Morris team that recast populist Bill Clinton as the master of triangulation.

I am not trying to play the class card here by claiming that because Obama grew up black and middle-class he will therefore inevitably be that rare politician who remembers where he or she came from. Bill Clinton, who came from a poor family, disproved the notion about remembering. To his everlasting shame as president, Clinton supported and signed welfare legislation that shredded the federal safety net for the poor from which he personally had benefited. He faithfully served big corporate interests by signing off on Gramm-Leach-Bliley, the Financial Services Modernization Act, which, as a gift to the banks, insurance companies and stockbrokers, reversed consumer protection legislation from the New Deal era. Thanks to Bill Clinton, those pirates were allowed to merge into the largest conglomerates the world has ever witnessed and, adding insult to injury, to "data-mine," thus sharing your most intimate financial and health information. Bill Clinton's next biggest concession to the fat cats was the Telecommunications Act, which ended what was left of public control of the airwaves and permits mega-media corporations to grow even bigger. No wonder Rupert Murdock and Hillary Clinton now get on so famously.

snip

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-scheer/playing-the-class-card_b_80731.html

[Xipe Totec]

1. Playing the Class Card

first paragraph: "let me throw in a third one: the class card"

fourth paragraph: "I am not trying to play the class card here"


Which is it?

[redqueen]

4. He qualifies the second quote you posted...

"by claiming that because..."

So that means he's playing it, just not for the reason he went on to say he wasn't playing it for.

[frankenforpres]

2. was obama middle class

seemed at least upper middle by my score card


not old money, but neither was Hillary IIRC

[magatte]

6. Obama lower middle-class

Obama was only able to buy a house, after he received the book deal for "The Audacity of Hope". So he is definitely not upper-middle class...

[frankenforpres]

7. what does that have to do

with how he grew up?


anyone that graduates from Harvard Law has already become upper class to me regardless of finances

[Adelante]

13. Middle, not upper middle

As an adolescent his grandparents took him in and took charge of his education and sent him to a good school. But his mother was not well off at all and his father had died. Obama had college loans like most people.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Little Star]

5. Who gave Huff the R's talking points????? Huh??

[Leo 9]

8. I wouldn't call these R talking points.

I am not trying to play the class card here by claiming that because Obama grew up black and middle-class he will therefore inevitably be that rare politician who remembers where he or she came from. Bill Clinton, who came from a poor family, disproved the notion about remembering. To his everlasting shame as president, Clinton supported and signed welfare legislation that shredded the federal safety net for the poor from which he personally had benefited. He faithfully served big corporate interests by signing off on Gramm-Leach-Bliley, the Financial Services Modernization Act, which, as a gift to the banks, insurance companies and stockbrokers, reversed consumer protection legislation from the New Deal era. Thanks to Bill Clinton, those pirates were allowed to merge into the largest conglomerates the world has ever witnessed and, adding insult to injury, to "data-mine," thus sharing your most intimate financial and health information. Bill Clinton's next biggest concession to the fat cats was the Telecommunications Act, which ended what was left of public control of the airwaves and permits mega-media corporations to grow even bigger. No wonder Rupert Murdock and Hillary Clinton now get on so famously.

What points are you talking about?

[readmoreoften]

10. The concept of the "card" (as in trump card) is a RW talking point.

It inherently undermines the validity of a minority's argument against a majority. Does anyone ever say that Falwell is playing the "christian card"? No. Does anyone say that someone is playing the "white" card or the "straight" card or the "male" card? No. Those cards are played every minute of every day.

[Leo 9]

14. It sounds like the author is using it (or playing it) in a positive way...

towards Obama.

That's why I posted it here, in support of him.

Why not enjoy the turning of their terms around to use against them, those of the evil movement that calls itself conservative?

[readmoreoften]

9. Yeah and about 90% of Americans are playing the fucking class card.

Stupid talking RW points. Card. These rich corporations are lucky it's just a card. It should be a goddamned revolution.

[Girlieman]

12. "It should be a goddamned revolution."

Agreed

[Leo 9]

15. At most you've managed to mention use of a term "playing the ___ card"...

I've yet to hear what RW talking points you claimed this article/editorial has.

I though about it and want to print it, so I'll use this reply to kick it now.

[BootinUp]

11. The Democrat Disease card, trumps the class card. nt