Reply #139: Condescension to Southerners and the poor [View All]

[Boomer]

Reading through the posts in this fascinating thread, I saw over and over again the assumption that poor people vote for Bush because they have been "tricked", that they need to be "educated" in the issues so that they will see how they are voting "against their own interests."

There is almost no recognition that for many poor, being rich is NOT a priority. Family, community, church -- these are markers of their value system, not their salary and investment portfolio. My father-in-law was a very bright southern Ohio man, born poor. He worked hard to care for his family, but if he felt he had to make a choice between "improving his life" and "doing the right thing", he would do the right thing without blinking.

The Republicans have persuaded large blocks of voters that their concern for moral issues, a concern that is of more importance to them than financial issues, is best served by the Republican party. The Democrats have allowed the "values" debate to be framed by the Republicans and have not taken back the moral high ground.

I've read better defenses of Democratic values on forums like DU than from the party itself. THAT is one reason we're losing voters who are probably more in line with progressive agendas than they realize. It's less a matter of educating the poor than it is a matter of educating THE PARTY and getting them to broaden their perspective.

As it happens I'm an atheist (a lapsed Unitarian) and even I find myself wincing at some of the DU posts containing vituperative scattershot condemnations of Christianity in general rather than targeting specific groups who wrap themselves around the Bible while violating its principles. This goes hand in hand with the disenfranchisement of the poor, for whom Christianity offers a value system divorced from the greed-based merit system that has become predominant in American society.

There are so many ways, both obvious and subtle, in which we can unwittingly show contempt and disdain for people who should be our allies.