The gentry liberals (LAT/OpEd)

[katty]

The gentry liberals


They're more concerned with global warming and gay rights than with lunch-pail joes.

more: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-op-kotkin2dec02,1,25621.story

By Joel Kotkin and Fred Siegel
December 2, 2007

After decades on the political sidelines, liberalism is making a comeback. Polls show plunging support for Republicans and their brand of conservatism among young, independent voters and Latinos. But what kind of liberalism is emerging as the dominant voice in the Democratic Party?

Well, it isn't your father's liberalism, the ideology that defended the interests and values of the middle and working classes. The old liberalism had its flaws, but it also inspired increased social and economic mobility, strong protections for unions, the funding of a national highway system and a network of public parks, and the development of viable public schools. It also invented Social Security and favored a strong foreign policy.

Today's ascendant liberalism has a much different agenda. Call it "gentry liberalism." It's not driven by the lunch-pail concerns of those workers struggling to make it in an increasingly high-tech, information-based, outsourcing U.S. economy -- though it does pay lip service to them.

Rather, gentry liberalism reflects the interests and values of the affluent winners in the era of globalization and the beneficiaries of the "financialization" of the economy.

[rpannier]

1. The article lost me many times over...but this was the most aggravating

Traditional middle-class concerns such as the unavailability of affordable housing, escalating college tuitions and the shrinking number of manufacturing jobs usually don't rank as top concerns.

[katty]

3. concur-that was a tad "thick" - without the so called

gentry liberals from many walks of life/endeavor bush would still be looking for and yammering on about "yellowcake" along with scooter and karl steamshoveling the crap down our throats.

[distantearlywarning]

2. "Moron Republicans"

More concerned with the "Homosexual Agenda" and the evil brown skinned people (the vast "them") than with balancing the budget.

[Selatius]

4. What the hell does it mean by "turning left"? I also think "liberal" has been abused as a term.

Just because a person is socially liberal but economically center-right doesn't mean he's a leftist at all. He's just a right winger who doesn't care about gay marriage or abortion or anything like that compared to evangelicals. Prior to FDR, people who pushed "lunch-pail" economic issues were known as "progressives." FDR co-opted the term "liberal" in an attempt to reach out toward economically center-right voters who were hurting because of the Great Depression.

"Liberals" back then referred to people who generally preferred laissez-faire capitalism or subsidies to business interests and were socially liberal in that they also favored individual freedom to determine how one lives his or her life. This is why in Australia and in many European countries, the term "liberal" has a right wing connotation.

When you're talking about the Democratic Party today, you're really talking about the struggle between the progressives and the liberals.

[Romulox]

5. This was posted in GD:P a couple days ago. Didn't generate much response beyond cries of "HERETIC!"

I tend to agree with the article.