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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow Republicans have made a science out of white working-class resentment
But lets not kid ourselves about what the term most commonly means in our current political discourse. When a conservative derides identity politics hes saying that white people are getting the short end of the stick. Its not an academic critique or even more anodyne call for melting-pot solidarity. Its racist coding, plain and simple. Even if identity politics is open for interpretation, there is no mistaking the meaning of Dog-whistle politics:
Dog-whistle politics is political messaging employing coded language that appears to mean one thing to the general population but has an additional, different or more specific resonance for a targeted subgroup. The phrase is used only as a pejorative, because of the inherently deceptive nature of the practice and because the dog-whistle messages are frequently themselves distasteful, for example by empathising with racist or revolutionary attitudes. The analogy is to a dog whistle, whose high-frequency whistle is heard by dogs but inaudible to humans.
That conservatives use identity politics as a dogwhistle is not well understood by the mainstream media. Or, if they do understand it, they ignore it. Here is a perfect example from a story this past Friday in the New York Times about Marco Rubio:
The identity politics people in the party want a champion who looks like him to mitigate accusations of racism, said Ben Domenech, a conservative writer. And the classical conservatives look at him and say, This is somebody who can sell our ideas to the public.
http://www.salon.com/2015/05/11/how_republicans_have_made_a_science_out_of_white_working_class_resentment/
daleanime
(17,796 posts)Historic NY
(37,449 posts)its absolutely a cesspool.
sufrommich
(22,871 posts)lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)The OP is a problem statement that should be fixed.
We should start by considering how our full-throated support of amnesty for illegal workers sounds to them.
We have no problem recognizing how H1B visas impact the workforce, but it at least has the merit of being regulated; we know exactly how many H1B workers are here taking jobs.
sufrommich
(22,871 posts)bigger impact on blue collar workers than H1B visas ever will.And yet you'll see lots of DUers explain why that's different.
UglyGreed
(7,661 posts)Hillary, wasn't she on the board of directors of Walmart? Just sayin"
sufrommich
(22,871 posts)That won't sit well in the Detroit area.
UglyGreed
(7,661 posts)[Thom Hartmann]: I remember it well, Bernie. In fact I miss it. It's beautiful, I'm looking out--we live in a house boat on the river and I'm looking out across the water at the shore and it's all covered--it's just beautiful. It's a winter wonderland. But you can't move a car in the city. It just shuts down the city. Anyhow, Bush said he is going to loan the automakers some money but he is going to attach some strings to it. Your thoughts?
[Bernie Sanders]: well--before we jump into that, and that's certainly a very important issue--you know what, I'm hearing in my state of Vermont, and I think it's true all over this country, Thom, and we can't underestimate it, there is an enormous amount of fear and apprehension about what's happening in the economy. And the degree to which things are moving so rapidly that a year or two years ago, a year ago, the Bush Administration was talking about how you remember this? the fundamentals of the economy are sound. The economy is robust, everything is wonderful and now we're looking into the abyss and what we are seeing, and we cant forget about this, is right now I know people, you know people, people are losing their jobs. 500,000 people lost their jobs just last month. Unemployment is soaring. People are losing their homes and when people lose their homes and their jobs, they're losing their health insurance. People are putting money into savings accounts and investment accounts for their retirement and that's gone. Or a substantial part of that has gone as the stock market has gone down. People trying to save up money for their kids to get a college education. That's going down. This is a real, real tragedy.
And nobody really knows exactly what's going to happen tomorrow. So I think clearly what we have to do as a nation is understand how we got to where we are. Make sure we never repeat this again and then figure out in a very bold way of how we revitalize this economy, how we create good-paying jobs and we don't repeat the mistakes of the past. How we get rid of--once and for all--this extreme right wing Alan Greenspan, George Bush type of ideology which has essentially said that if you do everything that the rich and large corporations want, suddenly somehow it's all going to trickle down to ordinary people and the economy will be prosperous and clearly that's a crock. It hasn't worked and we have to learn that lesson very profoundly.
The immediate concerns that I have, Thom, is that I voted-- I think as many of the listeners know--against this bailout for a dozen different reasons. But one of them was
[Thom Hartmann]: The bail out the banks.
[Bernie Sanders]: The bail out the banks, and one of them was that I didn't think the middle class and working families who have seen a decline in their income under Bush should have to bail out Wall Street when those guys have made huge increases in their income and wealth. But more importantly right now the Bush people have spent -- I think the last count something like 335 billion of the first tranche and it's amazing, amazing, how little oversight or accountability we have from these financial institutions that we're bailing out. You know, if you came to me, and you said, "Bernie, I need some money", I'd say, "Okay Thom, I'll give you some money but this is what you got to do with it, A, B, C and D, and I'm going to watch you. But apparently ABC did something last week.
They asked all of the banks that had received this bailout and they said, "tell me the loans that you're making, tell me what are doing with the money". Only one of the banks responded, so we really don't know whether they're giving out--or continuing to give out--outrageous bonuses, paying dividends. We don't know if they're making loans to small businesses, if they're dealing with foreclosures. If they're really trying to get our economy stimulated and create jobs, doing the things that this bailout was supposed to do! We don't even know that. And the idea of the Bush administration, perhaps asking for another $350 billion, is totally incomprehensible.
To my mind to add insult to injury, as you may have seen in the papers today, the Fed came out dealing with this horrendous situation with credit cards. And I was on the House financial services committee for many years and we dealt with this issue--I raised this issue, I should say, we didn't deal with it--and what you have is credit card companies ripping off people in the most unbelievable ways. Through bait and switch tactics, saying "sign up and will give you zero interest, 2% interest", then of course they end up changing the interest rates anytime they wanted, late fees are extraordinarily high. Coming up with all kinds of ways to raise money from unsuspecting consumers.
And then the Fed comes out and says, okay we should do A,B,C, and D, all of which are fine ideas, but then they say that they shouldn't go into effect until July 2010, which is basically absurd. We have to deal with the credit card crisis and the ripping off of people, especially from many of the same institutions that are receiving bailouts from taxpayers who are now getting money from the Fed at almost 0 interest and are now charging in some cases consumers on their credit cards 25 or 30%. So that's an issue that has got to be dealt with.
The other concern and major issue that people are going to see a lot of action on in January before Obama becomes president, but certainly immediately after, is this stimulus package which I strongly, strongly support. I am not in favor of bailing out Wall Street with no strings attached but I am in favor of rebuilding our infrastructure to create millions, creating millions of good jobs, dealing with the crumbling of our bridges, our roads, our water systems. And also to a significant degree -- and this is one of the great challenges that the Obama administration and all of us are going to face--breaking our dependency on fossil fuel and foreign oil, moving to energy efficiency and wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and other sustainable energies. And doing that, in the process, creating millions of good paying jobs.
We also have to be mindful in this economic downturn that we don't want to forget about people falling--the most vulnerable people in our society; the kids, the elderly, and the sick--falling through the cracks and so we have to make sure that nobody in America goes cold, nobody in America is sleeping out on the street. We have to worry about the cities and towns.
But bottom line here, I think, in this moment of great economic uncertainty, the time is now for the American people, for the president of the United States, the new president, for the Congress to start rethinking this trickle down ideology of tax breaks for billionaires, unfettered free trade, anti-trade-unionism, and all of the other aspects of a right wing ideology which has clearly failed.
[Thom Hartmann]: Yeah. Even their approach to the auto bailout is--you know--we need to drive down wages to make this -- it's a race to the bottom.
[Bernie Sanders]: Thom, that is exactly right and anyone who thinks that a lot of the Republican opposition to this automobile bailout -- when the Republicans defeated it a couple of weeks ago -- didn't have a lot to do with trying to destroy the United Automobile Workers and to in fact drive down wages--which are already plummeting in the automobile industry -- is sorely mistaken.
Now some listeners may say, "Well you know, frankly I don't live in Detroit, I don't make cars -- why should I worry about it?" Here's why you should worry about it. Historically the gold standard for manufacturing workers was the automobile industry. Workers there earned good wages. They had good benefits. They had a strong union. They had a pension program, and so forth. And by raising that standard, it meant that in non-union manufacturing in the state of Vermont, or the state of Arizona, you had a standard by which people had to respond to. And if in your gold standard area wages go down, so that people are entering the automobile industry now making 14 bucks an hour with lower benefits, how do you think people are going to make a living wage working in a non-union shop elsewhere in this country?
And you're quite right--what we're talking about here is a collapse of the middle class. A race to the bottom.
Our big money interests tell us that in China they only make $.50 an hour, how dare you ask for a living wage for your family? So what we have seen under Bush is that race to the bottom, a growing gap between the rich and the poor, an increase in poverty, and those are the kind of, kinds of trends that we really have got to reverse if we're going to save the middle class of this country.
- See more at: http://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2008/12/transcript-bernie-sanders-economy-bailouts-19-december-2008#sthash.ycCZOEUK.dpuf
DownriverDem
(6,228 posts)I live in a suburb of Detroit and work Downtown. Without the auto bailout/loans Michigan would have tanked. Not only Michigan, but all the other auto manufacturing states. We have a repub gov and legislature. They have been screwing us ever since they gained control.
GummyBearz
(2,931 posts)I mean, $500 properties in Detroit doesn't exactly conjure up images of a healthy economy...
Buyer beware of Detroits $500 foreclosed properties
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2015/03/16/detroit-foreclosed-properties-auction/24829395/
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)How about abortion, GBLT rights, same-sex marriage, equal pay, while we're at it?
Police brutality and civil rights for African-Americans? Working class white voters don't wanna hear about that either.
"Full-throated support for amnesty for illegal workers"
Steve King couldn't have turned the phrase better. Shall we count you as a member of the "Deport Deport Deport" caucus?
Romulox
(25,960 posts)geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)Romulox
(25,960 posts)to supercede those of non-citizens. Again, this is definitional in a "democracy".
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)Romulox
(25,960 posts)geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)Here's a hint: bashing "amnesty for illegals" is what Mitt Romney did.
Romulox
(25,960 posts)Again, could you more explicitly articulate what you are trying to say?
ismnotwasm
(41,976 posts)Of these, many are Latino. They are used and exploited and underpaid--yet believe enough in America to work here, to have children here. The countries they come from are controlled by drug cartels, corrupt governments, have horrible human rights records. They are a diaspora.
Outside of almost any Home Depot, you can find them lining up, hopeful for work. A sea of brown faces being picked up by a mostly white hirer, often in expensive work trucks.
Is your solution to deport all undocumented? All? Root out the sweat shops here in America, the trafficking of souls for sex and labour? Or just the ones outside of Home Depot?
And families? Send them back? All? No matter how long they've been here or what they've accomplished?
How do you propose to do that?
lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)Illegal workers are taking their jobs too.
lunamagica
(9,967 posts)for undocumented immigrants. That is a fact.
And without the Latino vote, there's no way to win the White House.
Romney learned this the hard way...
lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)NoJusticeNoPeace
(5,018 posts)of the line, even if we committed mass murder to get there.
Even if we enslaved people to get there.
Why the Japanese, Chinese and most of all African Americans dont lose patience with white Americans, is amazing to me
lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)The topic is illegal aliens.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)Though, those of us who hold the Democratic position on immigration refer to them as "undocumented workers" not "illegal aliens."
Also, for those who care about votes and elections:
http://nbclatino.com/2013/03/05/poll-immigration-reform-now-top-issue-for-latinos-path-to-citizenship-vital-to-winning-their-support/
So, no, telling the fastest growing segment of voters to screw off in order to pander to low information xenophobes is not a good idea.
Depaysement
(1,835 posts). . . a litany of working class white sins. That's why many don't vote for Dems. After the Charter School teacher is done scolding us for our illiberal views, which many working class whites don't hold, why are we going to vote for the Corporate Democratic Party? We might as well vote Republican.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)It is a waste of time to chase conservative voters by pandering to them.
Actually, it's worse since that turns off members of the Democratic base, e.g. Latinos, women.
pampango
(24,692 posts)Not only does it not work to attract their votes, it does - as you say - alienate liberal voters in the process.
Depaysement
(1,835 posts)The Dems espouse or enact a conservative economic agenda. If that were more geared toward working clas voters we might win more seats in Congress.
hootinholler
(26,449 posts)They do not respond to fact. For 40 years they've bought into the myth that the welfare recipients are eating their lunch and living high on the hog. Even though they are poor they understand from experience that someone is eating their lunch but somehow do not connect it to tax cuts for the 1%. This is an emotional response and is connected to nascent racism.
Until we can convince them that they've been taken, made fools of, conned out of their livelihood, they will not change who they support.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)You can't just decide to not work and have the government give you free money.
He said there must be a special welfare just for black people.
hootinholler
(26,449 posts)Spent a few years on assistance back in the early 70's. Then he got a job in a coal mine.
Today he's anti union anti welfare and laps up the tea bagger coolaid.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)daredtowork
(3,732 posts)Both Democrats and Republicans relentlessly send this message that there is a class of people "living on welfare" to justify what they are going to "get tough on". And when white people discover that's not the case when they need it...of course there must be "special welfare for black people". So many advocates for the poor work so hard to fight this myth - because the lies result in harm to the weakest and most vulnerable members of society. Not only are the remaining forms of assistance continually cut (food stamps), but recipients are treated with indignity and once they are rendered homeless they are subject to all sorts of physical ills, indignities, and the general hostility of society. Yet the truth can't break through the perpetual barrage of lies told by politicians. It's just in their interest to tell them, or at least hint at them, and they can get away with it.
There is no "special welfare for black people".
Blacks are not even the majority recipients of welfare programs.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)Their first thought is that black people are taking away their benefits.
All of this got amplified to 11 when Obama became President.
daredtowork
(3,732 posts)And it makes me mad that "housing the vets" is presumed to be equivalent to solving homelessness problems in Utah and New Orleans and other places. Sure, vets deserve to be housed - but there are other people who became homeless after contributing to society in various ways (working taxpayers, active in churches, perhaps known for helping little old ladies crossing the street...) - and they are simply excluded because only "homeless vets" seem to be a mark of shame for the American people.
IMHO, there is a lot of subconscious *angling* to make poor black men homeless to punish them for "not working" - even though while they are working they are harassed for competing for jobs with white men.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)Economic populism which embraces unregulated immigration is nothing but a head fake. Cheap labor requires poverty.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)Ditto the rightwing evangelicals who constantly whine about being victimized.
meow2u3
(24,761 posts)While they're at it, Dems should call out repukes and teahadists when they use it.
Dems need to learn to counter repuke dog whistles by pointing them out and give the translation in plain English. For instance, when repukes go on with their rhetoric about "religous freedom, " Dems need to say something like this: "'Religious freedom' is nothing but a dog whistle. You really mean that you want to discriminate against (insert minority here) and hide behind religion to justify it."
YoungDemCA
(5,714 posts)As if racism, sexism, misogyny, homophobia, and contempt for the poor were not structural and systemic in American society, but were rather, some individual moral failing that lower-status whites are more susceptible to (because of "lack of education". )
Notice that, in all this attention on people (skin color none-withstanding) with less wealth, power, and status, those whites with more of all of those things are utterly let off the hook in this discussion.
Why aren't we talking about how educated, affluent middle-class whites participate in (and perpetuate) the hierarchies of power and domination in American society?
Romulox
(25,960 posts)Depaysement
(1,835 posts)Because there is a class war going on and there is no working class party.
Romulox
(25,960 posts)But I guess the real problem is just racist white guys.
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)...
So, in these lefties minds, its an equal opportunity duping. Still one cannot help but notice that most of the people on both sides who complain about their fellow citizens being duped by politicians pandering to their narrow concerns have rarely walked in the shoes of those to whom the pols are allegedly pandering. It undoubtedly looks a little different from that perspective.
And,
When the phrase shows up in liberal spaces, it is saying ... "I feel I am getting the short end of the stick."
NoJusticeNoPeace
(5,018 posts)malthaussen
(17,193 posts)... pretty sure when regular ol politicians do it for their costituents it's called "representation."
-- Mal
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)is a Democrat and does it for PoC ... it's called a trick!
malthaussen
(17,193 posts)You're too ignorant to know you're being duped, while craftily advancing your exceptionalist agenda. Terry Pratchett actually did a bit on that in one of his books.
-- Mal
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)I have some great right DUers to set my ignorant a$$ straight!
AgingAmerican
(12,958 posts)Cluster B personality disorders are a categorization of personality disorders as defined in the DSM-IV and DSM-5.[1] There are four recognized Cluster B personality disorders:
Antisocial personality disorder (DSM-IV code 301.7): a pervasive disregard for the law and the rights of others.
Borderline personality disorder (DSM-IV code 301.83): extreme "black and white" thinking, instability in relationships, self-image, identity and behavior often leading to self-harm and impulsivity.
Histrionic personality disorder (DSM-IV code 301.50): pervasive attention-seeking behavior including inappropriately seductive behavior and shallow or exaggerated emotions.
Narcissistic personality disorder (DSM-IV code 301.81): a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and a lack of empathy
...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_B_personality_disorders
I have been realizing this lately. Their ideology is psychopathic, when observed from a psychological standpoint.
Empathy and compassion are signs of weakness, in the Republican world. Empathy is what separates humans from animals. Point this out to a Republican and they will shrivel like a worm in the sun.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)could be turned into an actual, and successful, political platform.
It does not bode well for the future, especially when combined with the ignorance/stupidity and xenophobia of so many white people. Ignorant and stupid people are incredibly easy to brainwash/propagandize. Germany in the early 20th century was the best-educated nation in Europe, probably in the world, and we all know what happened there with considerably less sophisticated and nuanced propaganda.
pampango
(24,692 posts)immigrants.
In Europe the right has been quite successful playing the "us vs them" card. It not only is effective politically but it serves the further right-wing purpose of diverting attention from the 99% against the 1% to "us" workers against "them" workers.
As the world becomes more interconnected, diversity will increase. While liberals are comfortable with diversity and multiculturalism, conservatives prefer to maintain the dominance of one cultural/racial group ("us" against minorities/immigrants ("them" .
Iliyah
(25,111 posts)Keeping people divided helps conservatives win.
Depaysement
(1,835 posts)Away from class and toward race, sex, gender. We don't do enough to counter that. So they win.
Arugula Latte
(50,566 posts)They've been given every advantage and they think they deserve more.
NoJusticeNoPeace
(5,018 posts)and you walk up to 10 random white people, at least 7 will assure you that while corps may not pay enough taxes, sure, and rich people may not either, sure, the REAL PROBLEM is all those people on welfare.
Guaranteed
I wonder what a question and answer session would look like here on DU
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)You know the types. They became rich and it was EASY for them. It practically fell into their lap.
They're often not too bright either. They know it too. They know lots of people that are smarter than them. Every so often they meet one and it just doesn't compute to them how someone smarter than them with more talent isn't rich.
The really ANNOYING ones then credit it to their faith in Jesus.
Arugula Latte
(50,566 posts)I know one who got into a very good public sector union job in the 50s. So, of course, as a retiree, he has fantastic benefits, a great pension, etc. to this day.
Yet of course he's a big fan of Ronnie Reagan, the Union Buster, and he thinks those dern Mexicans are the ones who are collecting all the benefits.
"Not too bright" describes him to a T. Oh, and of course he believes in Jeeeezus.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)They have also made a science out of promoting ignorance. Unfortunately it's the only science they will embrace.
MisterP
(23,730 posts)Eleanors38
(18,318 posts)...to die off.
Gothmog
(145,168 posts)The GOP depends on people voting against their interests
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)Along with the non-white working and middle classes. The problem is that the whites are blaming all the wrong people for the situation in which they find themselves. And they have been endlessly propagandized to be willfully blind to the people who are actually inflicting their suffering upon them. They have also been given a vast number of scapegoats.
pampango
(24,692 posts)Well said, hifiguy.
shaayecanaan
(6,068 posts)he was the guy who just won the election for David Cameron in the UK. The Labour Party on the other hand spent $300 million engaging the services of David Axelrod, which turned out to be a waste of money and time.
John Howard was a master of wedge politics. He would use environmental issues to drive a wedge between forestry workers and green voters (normally both Labor constituencies). He managed to obtain two seats in electorates formerly regarded as unassailable, which was hugely humiliating for the Labor party.
Part of the success lies in the reaction (such as the OP). If the left spends its time endlessly parsing utterances for racism and discussing semantics then it merely succeeds in (further) alienating the working class.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog-whistle_politics
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)and it always works.
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)MSM is part of the problem, not the solution.
Turbineguy
(37,322 posts)that got Hitler into power.