The stories white guys tell themselves

[teach1st]

Tampa Bay Times, 8/12, by Robyn E. Blumner

Joan Didion wrote, "We tell ourselves stories in order to live." I'd modify that slightly for this presidential election year and say, we tell ourselves stories in order to vote. Which is why Mitt Romney maintains a huge lead in the polls among blue-collar white men.

The differential is staggering. Non-college-educated white men give Romney a 37-point advantage over President Barack Obama according to a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll. Why would struggling wage earners support a candidate who would give tax cuts to the top 1 percent, a group that controls 43 percent of the wealth in the country, while adding to the tax burdens of people at the lower end of the income scale? Racial issues aside — and I'm not discounting the significant "black president" factor, it comes down to the power of myth and story.

White men have been fed the myth of the rags-to-riches, self-made man, the quintessential American narrative that says hard work and perseverance will equate to success. The idea cemented in the male cerebral cortex is that people who start from nothing can work themselves from the Horatio Alger mailroom to the corner office.

...

A recent Romney campaign ad draws on this theme by accusing Obama of trying to take the work requirement out of welfare. (A false assertion, by the way.) As CBS News' Bob Schieffer explained, this ad is designed to shore up support among white working-class men. In shades of Willie Horton, the ad offers a racially divisive subtext while reinforcing the self-made-man corollary that people who need government assistance are lazy moochers.

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[Hoyt]

1. Why would they support Romney? Because he's a bigot like them.

[teach1st]

3. Some are. With others, not so simple.

It's hard to argue the bigotry theme, but I don't think it's that simple. It's hardly a large sample, but I have a lot of former students as friends on Facebook. We live in a poor area, with few jobs outside of restaurants and service, and most have a bleak future right now, even the ones with some college. Those who post anti-Obama stuff (mostly falsehoods) are not on the surface racist. In fact, some have posted anti-racist ideas, too. They are, as a group, nice people. We might do ourselves and them a disservice when we call them bigots instead of understanding how they think and how their political ideas are influenced.

[Beartracks]

4. +1 The racist label is too easy.

People who think every anti-Obama conservative is motivated by racism are painting with way too broad a brush. Until we understand their mindset and thought processes, we won't be able to help them see the light.

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[brewens]

2. Ever hear a Republican anecdote about a guy working hard 40 hours a week to get ahead?

Hell no! It's always 50 hours or more. They've been doing that for years. Guys will actually brag about that when all it gets them if $40 thousand a year. Way to go ace! Work yourself to death for 12 bucks an hour.

That's part of where the jobs have gone. They turned three jobs into two and people went a long with it.

[catbyte]

5. It's just like the lies White Supremacists tell themselves

They delude themselves by saying they're the Master Race, yet these numbnuts can't hold a job, abuse their significant others, are deadbeat dads, and live off their girlfriend's public assistance. They are worse than useless.



Diane
Anishinaabe in MI

[daybranch]

6. pain

Blue collar white guys will come around to supporting Obama to make this a blowout election. Young blue collar workers can see how much their non wealthy parents and or grandparents depend on social security and medicare. Middle aged blue collar white men see they will be dependent on both programs soon. Older white blue collar workers see these programs as an almost immeddate necessity.
They are not complete racists and certainly dislike snobs born with silver spoons in their mouth who attack their old age security.

[AdHocSolver]

7. They cling to the Horatio Alger myth because it helps them work so hard for so little.

Most people realize that they will never get rich, but they don't want their fantasies debunked. The latter would be more painful than the reality.

Eugene O'Neill wrote a dark play that deals with this phenomenon of people clinging to their delusions called "The Iceman Cometh".

The Wikipedia link for a description of this play is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Iceman_Cometh

If someone is already depressed, I recommend that they avoid reading or watching the play.