Dear Mr. Bageant,
Thank you. This is the best social-political commentary I have read in many years. Very powerfully written. I have straddled this cultural divide myself for most of my life. It can be a lonely place.
Nowadays I teach the aspiring youth of the working class and the cast offs of the shrinking middle class. It is an interesting mix. I tell them of the times when we were a wealthy country, and life was easier.
Not to nitpick, but as I remember it, the date of the decline goes back to 1972. A low paying job back then ($6.25/hr in Michigan) meant you could eventually buy a house, a car, a couple of toys, have a couple of weeks off work, and get a modest retirement check. I think of this as the American dream. The wife didn't have to work either. In fact, where I worked women were discouraged from taking low paying manual jobs. Workers felt these allowed men to support families. It is not like that today. Now the average couple are both required to work. I am afraid that soon they will be unable to afford a house or earn a retirement.
If it is not God and guns, how did it come to pass that the working class allowed themselves to be so completely fleeced by a stupid rich kid? How did Rove pull it off? As they have gotten poorer, they have become meaner. Rove plays to the lowest part of human nature. The greed and anger of impoverished and desperate. It is hard to argue against the belief that Bush is not going to give their money to the "lazy people who are on welfare". It is hard to explain that a future devaluation is a tax.
Jim
Michigan
