Kevin Williamson has started a shitstorm by criticizing poor white people

[Recursion]

Interesting crack-up happening on the right this week. The original is on the National Review, which is paywalled.

It is, however, widely quoted, particularly these paragraphs:

It is immoral because it perpetuates a lie: that the white working class that finds itself attracted to Trump has been victimized by outside forces. It hasn’t. The white middle class may like the idea of Trump as a giant pulsing humanoid middle finger held up in the face of the Cathedral, they may sing hymns to Trump the destroyer and whisper darkly about “globalists” and — odious, stupid term — “the Establishment,” but nobody did this to them. They failed themselves.

If you spend time in hardscrabble, white upstate New York, or eastern Kentucky, or my own native West Texas, and you take an honest look at the welfare dependency, the drug and alcohol addiction, the family anarchy — which is to say, the whelping of human children with all the respect and wisdom of a stray dog — you will come to an awful realization. It wasn’t Beijing. It wasn’t even Washington, as bad as Washington can be. It wasn’t immigrants from Mexico, excessive and problematic as our current immigration levels are. It wasn’t any of that.

Nothing happened to them. There wasn’t some awful disaster. There wasn’t a war or a famine or a plague or a foreign occupation. Even the economic changes of the past few decades do very little to explain the dysfunction and negligence — and the incomprehensible malice — of poor white America. So the gypsum business in Garbutt ain’t what it used to be. There is more to life in the 21st century than wallboard and cheap sentimentality about how the Man closed the factories down.

The truth about these dysfunctional, downscale communities is that they deserve to die. Economically, they are negative assets. Morally, they are indefensible. Forget all your cheap theatrical Bruce Springsteen crap. Forget your sanctimony about struggling Rust Belt factory towns and your conspiracy theories about the wily Orientals stealing our jobs. Forget your goddamned gypsum, and, if he has a problem with that, forget Ed Burke, too. The white American underclass is in thrall to a vicious, selfish culture whose main products are misery and used heroin needles. Donald Trump’s speeches make them feel good. So does OxyContin. What they need isn’t analgesics, literal or political. They need real opportunity, which means that they need real change, which means that they need U-Haul.

Ouch

I can only seem to find blogs on the right responding to it, so here's Cup O' Joel:

http://joelmathis.tumblr.com/post/141088063476/in-defense-of-poor-whites-or-kevin-williamson-is

This is conservatism at its 47-percent worst, the kind that reduces people to makers or takers, to purely economic units. Give me the Rod Dreher-style conservatism, which might be too pious for my taste, but at least is recognizes that communities have value – and deserve, yes, conserving – for reasons apart from economic opportunity.

But if we’re going to make this purely an economic issue, let me ask the good folks at National Review: Where would you have the poor whites of (say) Appalachia move to? Where is the place — and these places used to exist — where you could walk out of high school, get a job and have a decent chance at advancing beyond the ranks of the working poor all on your own bootstrap? The same conservatives who sniff at the poor whites who simply need to rent a U-Haul are the same who gleefully celebrate the use of robotic and automated workers when human workers ask to make more than $7 an hour.

It’s important to be responsible for oneself. It’s a lot easier when the means to getting there aren’t out already out of reach.

[Recursion]

1. There's an economist at Berkeley pushing for "mobility vouchers" as part of UI

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/unemployment-benefits-should-encourage-geographic-mobility/2013/04/12/c84880be-a382-11e2-82bc-511538ae90a4_story.html

Americans have always been willing to move to look for better economic opportunities, and this willingness to relocate is a big factor in U.S. prosperity. Yet while everyone is free to move to look for a better life, not everyone takes advantage of the opportunity to the same degree. Some overdue changes in unemployment insurance could improve the mobility of less-educated Americans, narrow their earning gap with better-educated workers, ease unemployment and reduce income inequality.

Today, about 40 percent of U.S. households change addresses every five years. A significant number relocate to a different city. About 33 percent of Americans reside in a state other than the one they were born in.

Geographical mobility has been decreasing over the past decade, but it is still remarkably higher in the United States than in Europe and other developed countries.Despite the history of geographical readjustment in this country, there are vast differences in the propensity to relocate. The more education a person has, the more mobile he or she is. College graduates have the most mobility, high school graduates less and dropouts the least.

This lack of mobility has large economic costs. Consider the uneven economic performance of U.S. cities. Some cities — Austin, Boston, San Francisco — are growing quickly, attracting innovative employers and adding well-paying jobs. Other cities — Detroit and Buffalo, for example — are falling behind, shedding jobs and population. As the economic fortunes of communities grow apart, the financial benefits of moving keeps increasing, but only some people exploit this opportunity.

[Bluenorthwest]

27. San Francisco? A voucher to move to a wildly expensive city which many people are having to leave

because they can't afford the rent or the long commutes? The idea is to have unemployed people from Upstate NY move to SF?
Very much out of touch with the real.

[brett_jv]

2. One of the many interesting debates in American life where both 'sides' definitely have their points

But of course, like nearly every debate in the world today, most people will fall all over themselves to insist there's truly 1 'right' and 1 'wrong' side to be on ... and shit just goes round and round ...

[Tobin S.]

3. I think that's what they call punching down.

Most people who can work try to get jobs. Unfortunately, where I live, and for much of the country, many jobs only pay $7.25 an hour and are part time. Those are the jobs that come open the most around here. Jobs that pay a living wage are few and far between.

[meow2u3]

17. Those authoritarians who punch down are nothing but bullies

That's what conservatives are at heart: bullies and cowards. Bullying is the hallmark of authoritarian personality. They can punch the defenseless with no qualms but don't have the guts to stand up to the real power brokers.

[greymattermom]

5. Education is a real issue

the folks I know in Kentucky may have a high school degree, but stop by anywhere in east Kentucky and talk to folks, then do the same thing in northern Minnesota, and you'll notice a big difference. Without education, and I mean how you'd function with a high school degree, these folks can't move. There is a huge issue with accents too. I lost my accent on purpose, but I was young when I did it.

[Ex Lurker]

8. "There is a huge issue with accents too"

In other words, accent bigotry. I refuse to lose my accent. Fortunately, I'm in a position where they have to accommodate me instead of vice versa.

[Recursion]

11. And education and mobility are strongly linked

People without high school diplomas are the most likely to remain in the state in which they were born; people with college degrees are the least likely.

[Odin2005]

21. As a Minnesotan I was shocked when I learned how common dropping out of high school...

...is in other parts of the country. MN and ND have the highest high school graduation rates in the country, IIRC.

And as somebody with an interest in American English dialects, I fucking hate accent bigotry.

[AxionExcel]

6. Williamson punching down hard on the spawn of degenerate Repube ideology & propaganda

These facets of reality, my fellow Americans, are what the Repubes hath wrought with 40 years of toxic sewage.

[snagglepuss]

35. "the spawn of degenerate Repube ideology & propaganda"

EXACTLY!

[Chakab]

7. From the RW POV, I don't see the problem. This is exactly the kind of criticism that they've lodged

at economically disadvantaged minority communities, primarily the black community, for years. If that tone isn't a problem when it's directed at non-whites, what's the issue here?

[thesquanderer]

9. I agree, there's nothing color-specific in this perspective.

I think the only reason it's the slant of this article is that it's aimed at Trump supporters. There's a lot of "white underclass" in that group. POC? Not so much.

[Fast Walker 52]

12. yeah-- as obnoxious and mean-spirited as it is, at least it's intellectually consistent

[kag]

37. I think the problem is that...

Poor, ignorant whites are their base. And now that their base is RUNNING to vote for Trump, they can't figure out why, oh, why those poor people aren't listening to THEM anymore. Why they can't "control" their base.

They're all scratching their heads trying to figure out what's wrong with those poor, uneducated, white Americans, and looking around at everything but themselves to try to figure out who/what to blame.

'Cause, you know, personal responsibility.

Poor, uneducated minorities, on the other hand, have been their scapegoats all these years. They've pitted both groups against each other for so long they can't remember how or why they began distinguishing between the two in the first place. They can't remember that the whites used to have opportunities that the minorities never had. And they can't (or refuse to) remember that it was they themselves who ripped those opportunities--read jobs--away from them.

Just my opinion.

[BeyondGeography]

29. Trump has driven a wedge between a big part of their base

and the conservative establishment, which not only hasn't done squat for said base, but despises it with Randian sadistic glee. Trump is their rebellion and the NR crowd is showing its deep-rooted contempt. The issue is political suicide, the conditions of which were in place for the reasons you highlight.

[malletgirl02]

44. The difference is

The difference is this time the Republicans are attacking their own base.

[eridani]

10. Joe Bageant on the health care available to poor whites

http://www.energygrid.com/society/2004/08jb-karaoke.html

Yet the local Social Security administrators, cold Southern Calvinist hardasses who treat federal dollars as if they were entirely their own — being responsible with the taxpayers' money — have said repeatedly that Dot is capable of fulltime work. To which Dot once replied, "Work? Lady, I cain't walk nor half see. I cain't even get enough breath to sing a song. What the hell kinda work you think I can do? Be a tire stop in a parkin' lot?" Not one to be cowed by mere human misery, the administrator had Dot bawling her eyes out before she left that office. In fact, Dottie cries all the time now. Even so, she will sing one, maybe two songs tonight. Then she will get down off the stage with the aid of her cane and be helped into a car and be driven home.

Although my people seem to step on their own dicks (I couldn't think of a female metaphor) every time they get near polling place, it is not entirely because we are drunken inbreds, although it is a contributing factor. The truth is that Dottie would vote for any candidate, black, white, crippled blind or crazy, that she thought would actually help her. I know because I have asked her if she would vote for a president who wanted a nationalized health care program?"

"Vote for him? I'd go down on him!"

Voter approval doesn't get much stronger than that.

[Fast Walker 52]

13. LOL! Wow.

[raccoon]

16. Thanks for the link. This bears repeating:

Parties do not lead revolutions. They follow them. And then only if things get entirely too hot for them. The Democrats began to support the civil rights movement only after the bombings and lynchings and fire hoses and marchers caused enough public outrage indicated there were probably some votes to be wrung out of the whole sorry goddam spectacle playing out on American TV screens.

[Odin2005]

23. I love Joe Bageant.

As someone who grew up in a poorer rural area I relate to his writing so much.

[davidthegnome]

14. It's really easy to mock poor people...

when you are fortunate enough to not be one of them.

It's almost as if these people are saying; "It's YOUR fault for deciding to be poor!" Just more of the common conservative position that our economy is in the dumps because people won't get jobs, because they rely on government welfare and therefor don't have to do anything. Ugh. It never fails to disgust me when it comes from "educated" people, either. People who ought to know better, who have likely studied sociology on some level, even if it's just an introductory course.

Guess what folks? The productivity of the American worker? It's at an all time high. We are working more hours, for less money, when you take into account inflation and the fact that cost of living has skyrocketed, while wages and/or benefits have most certainly not done so to anywhere near the extent they should have. Americans take fewer vacations, receive fewer benefits and are generally treated with more contempt and less respect by employers than almost any other first world Nation. Yet, the difference between CEO pay and average worker pay is nothing short of vomit-inducing. Here's a little gem from Mother Jones: If the median household income had kept pace with the economy since 1970, it would now be nearly $92,000, not $50,000.

(Link: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/06/speedup-americans-working-harder-charts)

I love it when these supposedly educated, informed people bitch about welfare, too. Guess how much TANF pays in a generously paying state like Alaska? For a family of three: $923 - that's monthly. (Note: That is the maximum allowable benefit) https://singlemotherguide.com/temporary-cash-assistance-for-the-poor/

The above link uses data from 2014, I don't know how the numbers have changed (if they have changed) since.

So, all these people supposedly "living high on the hog" getting less than a thousand a month in cash assistance, a few hundred bucks in SNAP benefits... oh, that terrible government, giving away so much hard earned American money to a bunch of layabouts who are just whelping children and don't get jobs. Except that many if not most of these people are working poor. That's right, they're janitors, window washers, bar tenders, waiters and waitresses, cooks, dish washers, customer service reps. They work in retail, they work in in wood shops, in little gas stations, in grocery stores bagging groceries - all over the Country. Without them this economy and this very Country could NOT function.

At the same time, when you consider the outrageous corporate subsidies paid in this Country every year - the trillions of dollars stashed off shore by people who have made their living underpaying, the various military projects we are funding that simply do not work... do not result in anything useful... (again, in the hundreds of billions and even trillions of dollars) it would seem that, not only are we living in economic system which unjustly favors the wealthy elite - we are living in one that eagerly, gleefully, ignorantly condescends to the poor and treats them with unbelievable contempt. Even when a great many of these "poor people" are working two or three jobs, even when a great many of them STILL cannot get health insurance.

More of the old ultra right... "Let them die!" bull shit. More of the old ultra right... "The poor are useless/have no value to society" bull shit. Try living without us. Just try it. Who the fuck is going to brew your coffee? Bring you your drinks at the bar? Who's going to serve your meals? Who's going to take out your garbage, wash your windows, clean up your messes, build your products, paint your houses, babysit your children...?

Folks, this goes so way the fuck beyond any boundaries of race, religion, political preference, sexual preference, gender, or any of the other differences that we have between us. We are ALL of us being screwed. Our funding for education, for healthcare, for infrastructure, for anything and everything that benefits the average American... is but a drop of water in an ocean when you compare it to corporate subsidies, to CEO pay, to the amount of reckless spending that - every year - continues to build the military industrial complex.

What Kevin Williamson ought to do? Make google his friend, hell, go take a couple sociology classes, maybe do a little reading from time to time. Maybe meet and get to know some of these poor people he's talking about. How the hell anyone can give this infantile ignoramus any sort of consideration as an actual writer goes beyond me. A few minutes with a search engine can very easily discredit everything he has to say.

It goes well beyond anger, for me. The working class, the working poor - and the just plain poor... they are all my heroes. Or, just as accurately, YOU are all my heroes. They (the working class, the working poor - and the just plain poor) year after year, throughout my life, have inspired me, have moved me forward, it is their strength, their courage and passion in the face of unbelievable odds that moves me - it is THEY who move society forward, who build it, who strengthen it - and who will ultimately overcome. The 99%. Together.

[klook]

34. Absolutely great post. Thank you.

This echoes the wonderful 1/26 post you have on your DU Journal page. I couldn't agree more.

This same writer, btw, has blamed "progressivism," "welfare economics," and unions for ruining Detroit's African-American community, so he can be counted on to provide flawed, if inconsistent, analysis of what Michael Harrington called The Other America. No wonder he's a right-wing media darling.

[surrealAmerican]

45. Great rant.

For people to get jobs, the jobs have to actually exist. For people with jobs, they wouldn't need government assistance if those jobs payed a living wage.

People like this writer seem to think it's perfectly fine to have some percentage of the population starve to death in the streets.

The current system is unsustaining and unsustainable.

[tblue37]

50. And the RWers who complain about the poor having kids they can't afford also do

everything they can to make sure those without money don't have access to affordable contraception, safe and legal abortion, or actual sex education so they have a good idea about how to prevent pregnancy AND are not too ashamed about having sex to plan ahead even if they could get affordable, accessible contraception.

[ladyVet]

52. Thank you for such an awesome post, David. It's right on.

Even here, poor people are told to just move to wherever the jobs are. To spend years getting an education that ultimately won't get them anything over minimum wage, if they can even get a job. To sell their stuff, which even if it nets them some money doesn't do a damn thing about the underlying problem, which is that they're poor and there's no way to get out of it.

They need real opportunity, which means that they need real change

From the OP, anyone who doesn't understand why so many of us are for Bernie, I don't know what to say to you. To continue to run this country like it's still 1950 and a family can live on one salary is to doom us to total ruin. None of us will live on a dead planet, yet we are racing towards the sixth extinction event as if it doesn't apply to all of us.

Letting the rich continue to get richer, at the expense of the environment, at the expense of the poor and lower classes, is only fueling the bloody revolution that will result. And if you don't believe it, take a time machine (or study that damned history that keeps happening over and over again) back a couple of centuries and ask the French aristocracy. They lost their heads over their greedy and uncaring ways.

[HughBeaumont]

53. This needs to be a post of its own.

[Pakhet]

59. Please post this as a standalone op. It's beautifully written n/t

[salinsky]

15. The hard truth of the matter is ....

.... both the Trump phenomena and the Sanders phenomena are fueled by white rage in regards to the American Dream no longer being their supporter's exclusive domain.

[davidthegnome]

19. Hmm.

There may be some anger on the part of some whites who fear becoming a minority. This 99% business though? That's pretty much mostly everyone. The working class, the working poor, and the just plain poor... most of them are us. Most of us are them. This is regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion... and so on and so forth. The American dream has always been out of reach for most of us, if the American dream has, generally speaking, truly ever been anything but an American myth.

The true Sanders phenomena is rage against the wealthy elite, the liars, frauds, crooks - and other various scum bags... who have been screwing almost ALL of us, for decades. He has been raging against this, speaking out against it, for many years. Many of his supporters have been doing the same. It's past time for the poor to unite, regardless of any difference in race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, socio-economic status. It's past time for us to unite and launch our way-too-fucking-long-in-coming political, economic, and social revolution against the powers that be. For all of us.

[FailureToCommunicate]

30. +1

[redruddyred]

47. have learnt from various clinton supporters on twitter

that ITS NOT ALL ABT WHITE GUYS ANYMORE!!! get real!!
i will agree that minorities have historically had a raw deal and there is a case for reparations.
but to them it's always race (or gender!) and "equal rights" means "more than equal rights, for me"
trump knows there are disadvantages to being white. not as many, but some. sometimes it feels like the leftwing zeitgeist doesn't acknowledge this.

[The2ndWheel]

33. White males are pissed that they're not needed as much in America

Americans in general are pissed that they're not needed as much around the world. People the world over are pissed that they're not needed as much period.

[redruddyred]

46. no i don't see that at all

seeing a lot of schaudenfraude towards white, working class guys from the clinton camp tho.
imo these dudes should be congratulated on staying clean of the GOP.
disclaimer: is not white, working class man, but has many friends who are. they're a pretty nice group.

[Bluenorthwest]

18. Kevin Williamson has also been a theater critic but he's not the screenwriter of the same name....

His 'work' as a theater critic is perhaps the most biased and poorly written criticism I have ever read. I am not surprised by his lack of empathy for the poor as this sort of worldview is regularly visible in his criticism. Don't care much for his ethics as a reviewer either.
I first learned exactly who he is because there is an actual writer, a creative writer and filmmaker who has the same name whose work is amusing and whom I'd always liked and then I read a review I thought was by the actual Kevin Williamson and I was flummoxed by his conservatism. Then I found out the critic Williamson is not the same person as the writer Williamson and that was a relief.

[Odin2005]

20. This poor white guy thinks Kevin Williamson can go fuck himself.

[Jitter65]

22. Funny how HRC is the only candidate out there trying to directly address their situation with

proposed solutions. She hasn't forgotten them although they may hate her. More of them need to hear her message. Folks here are always saying people need to get to know Bernie...I agree. They need to get to know the REAL Bernie(who wanted to dump toxic waste in these peoples' backyard). But they really need to get to know Hillary and her message by listening directly to her and not through media soundbites and DU unsubstantiated allegations and innuendo.

[davidthegnome]

26. Interesting.

DU unsubstantiated allegations... you mean, like what you just said about Sanders? How's that welfare reform looking?? Those American soldiers who died in Iraq? I'm also curious... is it true that her corporate campaign donors all have toilets made out of solid gold? Inquiring minds want to know.

We could sit here and trade barbs if you want, but I'd rather get down to substance.

Present us with the actual policies, the actual ideas, the actual goals she has moving forward. Sanders has made his very distinct, very blunt, not too complex for even the average lay person to understand. Higher education funded by the public... health insurance funded by the public... less reliance on fossil fuel, less subsidies for corporations, a higher minimum wage, greater benefits for the American worker... all things that benefit Americans, period - regardless of race and gender.

I've listened to many of Clinton's speeches - and I remain uncertain about what, if anything, she is going to do to address the issues that the "Sanders phenomena" is all about. Third way solutions... are not going to be enough. Not nearly.

[eridani]

38. The Queen of Fracking knows all about toxic wast.

Sanders is against it.

[ProfessorGAC]

54. Impartial Primary Observer Here

What you have stated is absurd.

[Jitter65]

56. Have you even bothered to read her proposal for bringing training and jobs to these people? nt

[ProfessorGAC]

58. Too Much Attitude

You are in no place to assume a damn thing about what i've read, or what i've looked into.

I stand by my original assessment.

[Odin2005]

62. HRC and her supporters are too busy driving poor white people from the Party.

[Paladin]

24. "So does OxyContin." Wow. (nt)

[Recursion]

40. Yeah (nt)

[Volaris]

25. It's his attempt at an excuse for why the GOP establishment

Is going to get its head handed to it 8 months.
It's his attempt to blame the people with the pitchforks, blame the Created Monster, hell even the lightning storm if need be...ANYTHING to keep the Good Doctors laboratory open for another 4 years.

It won't work this time.
And it's PAST time. These are already the sweetest-tasting Republican tears in my lifetime, and the conventions haven't even happened yet.

[davidthegnome]

28. Maybe I need to chill... but, really...

How the fuck can anyone at DU take this guy seriously? Read that shit, I mean... actually read it. If you agree with what he says, you're on the wrong damn forum.

[Democat]

32. He is saying to Trump supporters what they say to minorities

You don't have to agree with what he is saying to see the irony in the pushback he's getting from right wingers.

[Recursion]

39. ^^^ This

That's the important thing here. He's applying the same "logic"* to poor whites that has been applied to poor minorities for years, and suddenly he catches shit.

* and, just being strict, it is "logical", in that he has premises and carries them forward to conclusions. In that he's a lot more "logical", strictly speaking, than the conservatives who reserve this rhetoric only for persons of color.

[JustAnotherGen]

60. +1

And I'm wondering what he hoped to accomplish with this.

[Sanity Claws]

31. Author is confused about cause and effect

[Javaman]

36. The book "Methland" should be required reading by all...

First comes the venture capitalists (read: Bane capital and their ilk), they buy up union run companies (which in many cases, especially the Midwest, were the only source of income for many many small towns), fire all the employees. Then rehire many of them back, but certainly not all, at a third of what they were making. Then, more than likely in most cases, the business, was then closed down and shipped off to, usually, but not always (this was before NAFTA) to a third world country.

Now once prosperous families that had a living wage and were able to support a family, had healthcare, put kids through college and had enough for retirement savings are now having to work triple shifts to make ends meet.

That is if they are rehired back. If not, they have to take an unskilled job, and work a triple shift at even less pay. And if there was only one bread winner before, now there are two to make ends meet.

No more stay at home parent to look after the kids. The typical family structure begins to break down.

So now the workers find themselves either out of work, underpaid or overworked.

What to do?

In sweeps meth.

Why meth? Well, just like meth aka Benzedrine; was used during WWII to make both the allies and axis powers get more from their soldiers; such as: stay up longer, require less food and preform at a higher level of work detail, the workers do the same: triple shifts aren't for the faint of heart.

But sadly, we all know what Meth can do to a person, especially when they are "tweeking".

One by one, these small towns across America, that were the mainstays for various companies producing everything from washing machines to honey hams, had their jobs bought up, torn down then shipped out.

This meat of this happened in the 70's, 80's and early 90's, but it still continues to this day.

In steps NAFTA and the granting of Most Favored Nation Trading Status for China.

The drain of skilled jobs and skilled workers goes into overdrive.

Meth explodes across the land, and a once upon a time small prosperous towns vanish into a dystopian present day Grapes of Wrath on Meth.

Jobs never to return, hopes of a thriving downtown vanish and are replaced by walmart, who0 sells cheap substandard goods from third world countries. Goods, I may add, that were once made here of better quality.

And along the way, Unions took a massive hit.

Propaganda from the right wing along with the venture capitalists, tore down the only vestige of hope for the American worker to secure their job safety. As each company was bought off and sold off, away went the good paying quality union jobs.

Yet, to this day, the right wing will love to tell you that the unions were the cause of all the lost jobs. and will still use them as a present day example of how they need to be done away with.

Union membership has fallen from an all time high in 1947 (33%) to an all time low in 2010 (11.9%). With the most massive fall off during the Reagan/venture capitalist era. Funny how that works, huh?

So what are we left with? Huge swaths of small town America with huge drug problems, unskilled workers, underemployed people or people who just can't find work or enough work.

But the truly amazing part about this, is the subtle yet brilliant use of slight of hand by the right wing. The massive amount of misdirection employed to convince the average worker to continually to vote and work hard against their own best interests and to demonize Unions.

Ironically, it was during the republican years that the most jobs were lost, yet, the average republican voter is convinced that it was all the Democrats doing.

That is just some amazing brainwashing Kung Fu.

But wait, there's more!

Now take this same pattern and extend it to education.

We are now living in the same type of dynamic that happened with union jobs in the 80's but only with education.

The slow and very deliberate dismantling of our once great education system. It seems almost now with every single president that comes along that there is some sort of new education program or initiative. All of which is always underfunded and under utilized. So what happens? The right wing blames the teachers.

So what is their solution? Privatizing schools, for profit colleges which end up with under achieving students and "college" graduates in debt with a diploma not worth the paper it's printed on. But more over, to make matters worse, the tuition of a normal not for profit college (it's really sad that I have to qualify that), sky rockets and puts those students and their parents into deeper debt. (But that discussion warrants it's own post all to itself.)

So for the author of this article to blame the "white poor" for their own undoing is just ridiculously ignorant and has racist bias.

Because the problems by which he sites (not the actual cause) is not just in the poor white communities, it's nation wide and highest in the minority areas.

To easily cast off the problems of our society as the population being lazy is just beyond ignorant and if anything, is incredibly lazy on the authors part.

What I think here is the author is purposely being obtuse to employee an argument against welfare and Medicaid, but I could be wrong, but somehow, I don't think by much.

In summation, if we are to tackle the overwhelming problems of society, we have to change the way people think. One does not do that by condemning them. And to think ignorantly that the problems we face can magically be fixed by one grand proclamation or some sort of magic bill in our congress or one candidate has some sort of magic mental elixor that will change the way people think? I have about a dozen bridges for sale and more on back order for you.

We face a systemic problem of a congress in entropy, a presidential election process that has more in common with American Idol than something born of the Constitution. We as a nation can certainly do better, but we have been beaten down so far, that any concept of hope is nothing but a slogan which so thoroughly distorted it's used more as a catch phrase to be run 24/7 on the news to improve ratings.

Cynical? Me? Hell yes. Tired of the whole mess? I don't even know where to begin.

Am I hopeful things will change for the better? If you by mean by change, you mean replacing the light bulb over the new presidents desk? I'm not even believing that's possible anymore.

[MountCleaners]

41. Where is the SCIENCE?

I'm not sure how "poor" these Trump supporters are. I've seen stats that say that low-income whites are more likely to vote for Democrats.

Some people's idea of "poor" is someone making $50,000 a year.

[dembotoz]

42. found al gores book The Future at a dollar store interesting read would suggest it to anyone

we need to come up with so new ideas.

current shit is not working

[malletgirl02]

43. Please write a letter to the editor about this.

I think you should write a letter to the editor about this in order to inform more people. Right now although it is a good OP, you a re preaching to the converted. In addition to your local paper you need to write about this to as many news papers as you can. You also should contact the DNC, and tell them they need to go to the national media about this.

[forjusticethunders]

49. Looks like the white working class is the new erm, black.

At least according to this article (since the OP was looking for a left response)

http://www.salon.com/2016/03/18/this_is_why_donald_trumps_winning_what_right_wing_media_doesnt_understand_about_rage_the_economy_and_the_white_working_class/

On one level this shit is obviously disgusting especially since that's literally what white racists have been saying about black people for 400 years. On the other hand, the white working class, um, voted for this. I think there's some saying about sowing the wind and reaping the whirlwind. But honestly, we shouldn't be celebrating the fact that the white conservative elite now feels free to "ghettoize" (though I think the term Cornel used is actually more appropriate) their working class "brethren" because really, nobody truly deserves that.

Poor whites are only useful to the white elite when they need their help to keep black people down.

Also note to Mr. Williamson - please write more articles like this! Tell those white people in Ohio and Florida and North Carolina and Michigan and Iowa and Pennsylvania and Virginia what you *really* think of them!

[Teamster Jeff]

51. Are you even allowed to bring a U Haul to Mexico?

[Mr Dixon]

55. ROFL

I little truth from the right

[JustAnotherGen]

61. The one thing I'm confused about is Garbutt being Trump Country

Because it's you - I'm going to go sideways with this . . .

It's really only one street or two on and around Scottsville-Mumford Road and I had a friend who lived in 'Garbutt' - but was in the WCSD. I don't think there were a lot of 'school age' families on the road at the time. I don't know if it's the best example - because those people continuously voted my dad onto School Board (Black Democratic) and my mom onto the Wheatland Council. Now this was the 80's and early 90's - but it's still just two/three roads if you don't take I-90 from Rochester to Buffalo - if you want to take the back way.

So the N.R. article lost me from there . . . he should have used the Town of Greece (also Monroe County) - shown the differences between Long Pond Road and English and Ridge Road because the closer you get to Ridge the more impacted by the loss of Xerox and Kodak and Bausch and Lomb - and no recovery since.

The folks in Garbutt/Wheatland tend to have a little more wealth on hand then the author seems to thinks exists. And they've been 'Scottsvillians' for a long time - who are so advanced (I love this) that they just wrapped up their own Solar Array. This located behind the Scottsville Fire Department on get this . . .

Scottsville Mumford Road (eta as I referenced above).

I grew up in this community - it's a lot of people who lived below their means and we now (when I kvetch/go back to visit) joke about how our moms and dad's were the original 'helicopeter-yuppie-organic' parents. Only they were really not about self esteem - more telling us we were dumb asses when we acted like it.


So - if he has the community wrong - can I throw the whole thing in the dog pile?

[Recursion]

63. Is Garbutt "west" or "midwest" TX?

My knowledge of TX cuts off at my grandpa's old farm in Weatherford.

[JustAnotherGen]

64. NY

Not Texas.

There was no Garbutt, N.Y., until 1804, when Zachariah Garbutt and his son John settled there. They built a grist mill, and, in the course of digging its foundations, they discovered a rich vein of gypsum, at that time used as a fertilizer. A gypsum industry sprang up and ran its course. Then Garbutt died. “As the years passed away, a change came over the spirit of their dream,” wrote local historian George E. Slocum. “Their church was demolished and its timber put to an ignoble use; their schools were reduced to one, and that a primary; their hotels were converted into dwelling houses; their workshops, one by one, slowly and silently sank from sight until there was but little left to the burg except its name.”

Read more at: https://www.nationalreview.com/nrd/articles/432569/father-f-hrer

[Jitter65]

66. Just think what he must feel about poor minorities. nt