y
Steve Koss (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War (Hardcover)
Let me begin by saying that, as an escapee in 1974 from Red State Indiana to Bluest of Blue New York City where I discovered my own liberal bona fides, I hope every New Yawker, Bostonian, Connecticut Yankee, San Franciscan, Portlander (OR), and Seattlean reads Joe Bageant's DEER HUNTING WITH JESUS. Along with every East and West Coast Democratic Congressman, Senator, and Presidential aspirant. Why? Understanding a different country within our country, developing a modicum of identification or at least empathy, developing and further promoting national policies to address the societal needs of working class America, and (if for no other reason) increasing the chances of re-establishing and maintaining Democratic control of Congress, the White House, and someday the Supreme Court.
Bageant is not some liberal academician who just helicoptered in Margaret Mead-like for a brief, notebook-in-hand stay with the indigenous peoples of Winchester, Virginia. Rather, DEER HUNTING WITH JESUS describes the author's return to live in his hometown after a thirty-year absence in such far-flung left wing havens as Boulder, CO , Eugene, OR, and the Coeur d'Alene (ID) Indian Reservation. What he discovers is a town far different than the one of his boyhood, a place where "average folks" are uneducated, hopelessly parochial and uninformed, terrified of getting sick, and anesthetized by materialism, religious fundamentalism, and eight hours a day of television. They spend most of their lives resentful of "elites" and the rich, but resigned to their lot, all the while living on an economic precipice.
In each chapter, Bageant tackles one aspect of rural, working class life: Republicanism, debt and bankruptcy, gun ownership, religion, allegiance to the military and military ideals, health care, and education and the American lifestyle as delivered by Wal-mart and the mass media. In almost every instance, however, the author combines exposition and revealing statistics with highly personal accounts based on the lives of Winchester's citizenry. From the first pages at the Royal Lunch to the book's closing back there again, Bageant tells his story through the townspeople. We meet Dink Lamp and Pootie, the karaoke-loving Dottie, local rich guy Bobby Fulk, Woody McCauley and his wife Ruth, Tommy Ray, longtime friend Tom Henderson, old high school flame and Rubbermaid factory worker Carolyn, and Joe's demon-exorcising, Baptist pastor brother, Mike. In his one major diversion out of Winchester to the nearby town of Fort Ashby (WV), Bageant relates the fascinating story of that town's native daughter and serial Abu Gharib abuser, Lynndie England. Some of their stories are illustrative, while others are stunning in their subject's naivete and a few are simply heartbreaking. Bageant tells their stories, especially those of Dottie and Ruth, with a touching tenderness and humanity, and without a trace of condescension. In the end, most of Winchester's working class are simply economic victims of the broader American society, most fooled by corporations, government leaders, and the media into believing they are living the average Joe's American Dream.
Of course, Bageant's imposed reality on these individuals tells the real tale, the one few if any in Winchester comprehend. Working class America is grossly undereducated and overfed, hypnotized to near catatonia by television and right wing talk radio, underpaid but duped into believing that unions will only worsen their plight, and lacking in health care and retirement benefits. The lives of many of the people in DEER HUNTING WITH JESUS will ultimately be dictated by events and forces outside their control and understanding. Yet they march along in political lockstep, conservative Republican to the core without knowing why, responding with emotion rather than reason to religious and political appeals designed for just that purpose.
Similar to books like Ehrenreich's NICKEL AND DIMED or the New York Times's series compendium CLASS MATTERS, Joe Bageant gets truly up close and personal with small town, working class, Blue State America. Instead of Thomas Frank's intriguing but more academic WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH KANSAS?, we get a microcosmic, small town equivalent - a sort of "What's the Matter with Winchester, Virginia?" The difference in Bageant's book (from Ehrenreich's and the Times's), however, is that his agenda is overtly and in your face political, yet done with humor and a genuine feeling of care and concern for the townsfolk who populate his writing. Hopefully, this book will also provide (liberal) Democrats with increased insight on how to finally begin reaching a large segment of the American population. Bageant makes it clear that improved education, a livable minimum wage, and access to affordable health care would be good places to start.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Report abuse | Permalink
Comment Comments (5)
40 of 41 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Serious Book Highly Recommended, July 1, 2008
By
Robert David STEELE Vivas (Oakton, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER) (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War (Hardcover)
Senator Obama may or may not have read this book. It's author does open with the observation that life is so hard among the white poor and working poor that they seek solace in beer, overeating, Jesus, and guns. This is, however, a very serious book, a first-hand deep look into the hearts and minds of the 60% of the country that cannot control its lifestyle, environment, pay check, or future.
Early on I note that the author appears to combine both education and common sense. There are magnificent turns of phrase throughout.
My fly-leaf notes:
+ Parallel world to that of the educated urban liberals
+ Life runs from complete insecurity to looming job insecurity
+ Just over half the poor in the US are white and this is the only group that is growing in number
+ For someone earning $8 an hour, if nothing goes wrong, they have $55 a week for groceries, gas, and incidentals
+ Insurance can cost as much as rent or mortgage
+ One third of working Americans make less than $9 an hour
+ They are inherently anti-union, facts are irrelevant, Christian radio is their primary source of information and viewpoint
+ This is a permanent underclass, two out of five have no high school diploma while all over 50 have major health issues, and low to no credit
+ The leftist middle class does not realize that this group votes right in part out of a feeling of revenge
+ Right owns the bars, the non-Internet real world
+ Left lost the middle when they demonized guns and gun owners--70 million gun owners, 200 million guns, guns are used to protect 60 times more often than they are used to attack
+ Superb multi-page discussion of whitetrashonomics and the trailer mortgage scams
+ Fundamentalists are superbly organized, home schooling leads to select colleges where political indoctrination is part of the deal
+ Sense of Rapture and Left Behind is very real within this group
+ Excellent discussion of how health "non-profits" are a real-estate valuation scam that serve only the well-off and not the poor
+ Television and petroleum have defined us
The author makes it a point to quote and point to a dirty dozen books that he drew on, but overall this is an essay from the heart with a great deal of intellect and a great deal of discipline in the presentation.
= new reply since forum marked as read
It's hitting an audience that finds it more important than the Kardashians....
