Joe,
You have nailed it down, my friend, in your book, Deer Hunting with Jesus. But it isn't just the anti-union mutt people of northern Virginia anymore. Erie, Pennsylvania, was a strong union town and when I worked at GE 30 years ago we had 35,000 employees. GE had moved the appliance line to Louisville, Kentucky, in the mid-50's to escape the labor union, but the IUE organized the plant down there, and the company eventually sold the entire division to a French conglomerate. It cost Erie 35,000 jobs, but we still had the railroad division which employed another 35,000.
Things were gradually outsourced in various directions, to the point where the plant currently employs about 1500 people. Even the McDonald's located across from the main gate has been torn down. The city of Lawrence Park, a company town and once a highly desirable place to live, has lost almost all of its tax base to the point where they are now trying to merge the school system with Harborcreek, a farm village about three miles down the road.
This occurred throughout Erie. Bucyrus Erie hasn't been in Erie since the Korean War. Like Lowell, Massachusetts, there are now miles of empty mills all across town. Mattell toys closed about five years ago, outsourcing everything to China. My cousin Richard took an early buy-out when the Kaiser Forge closed (division of Kaiser Aluminum), and considers himself lucky to escape with anything at all. Good thing he inherited a few bucks. All the tool and die shops are closed. People work in Chinese retail stores like Wal-Mart these days. They produce nothing.
Ross Perot was right, of course. That swooshing sound you heard was the sound of their jobs going over the border to Mexico (and elsewhere) as a result of NAFTA (Clinton's biggest error), GATT, and all the other "free trade" agreements Wall Street sold to the gummint. Erie is not alone. Buffalo is a ghost town. Cleveland is a ghost town. Pittsburgh is a ghost town. There is no middle class anymore, and education is impossible because nobody can afford it except the very rich. My old school charged me $17 per credit hour back in the 60's. They now get $675 per credit hour. Who can do this on Wal-Mart's generosity?
But Phil English (R-PA) is still their representative. The Pennsylvania Legislature, which cut state support for the state university system (taxes, y'know), is all Republican, and the voters still consider Arlen Specter a friend of the working man.
I don't recall who said it, but they described Pennsylvania as Pittsburgh at one end, Philadelphia at the other end, and Alabama in the middle. They ain't wrong, bro'.
Ron
Palmetto, Florida
PS: George MacDonald Fraser (of Flashman fame) wrote "The Steel Bonnets," describing the history of the Scottish border reivers over the last 400 years. As nasty a group of thieves as the Sicilian Mafia.
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Ron,
You have described our plight so accurately I have nothing to add. What will it take before working people rise up?
I am rather optimistic about the Hispanic influx, however. The two biggest strikes in the decade were won by Hispanic janitors in Los Angeles and vegetable pickers in Florida. Maybe some day we white working class folks may grow a set of brown balls. Or at least look up from the TV screen.
In art and labor,
Joe
