tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post5432798214585262702..comments2024-03-29T03:19:09.227-04:00Comments on The Philosopher's Stone: A MORNING WALKRobert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-25444070517631096052016-11-27T15:41:39.140-05:002016-11-27T15:41:39.140-05:00Never mind I see Jerry said essentially what I was...Never mind I see Jerry said essentially what I was trying to say, but much better. Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08250295324149056708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-51719429076126538102016-11-27T15:40:30.262-05:002016-11-27T15:40:30.262-05:00Professor Wolff,
Let me try to clarify and summari...Professor Wolff,<br />Let me try to clarify and summarize my point. This wasn't a part election, it was an establishment versus anti establishment election. Given that those rust belt workers can easily see the Democratic establishment sold them out, they voted for an anti-establishment candidate who happened to be running on the Republican ticket. No?<br />Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08250295324149056708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-2924430157604734652016-11-27T15:02:48.658-05:002016-11-27T15:02:48.658-05:00Here's Brian Leiter on Clinton's relativel...Here's Brian Leiter on Clinton's relatively progressive electoral promises. They do seem a lot better than Trump's.<br /><br />http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2016/11/heres-the-strongest-reason-to-vote-for-hillary-clinton-beyond-the-fact-that-shes-not-donald-trump.htmls. wallersteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17448905469871566228noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-78173931549076115442016-11-27T14:55:11.975-05:002016-11-27T14:55:11.975-05:00Charles Lane wrote a column on the white working c...Charles Lane wrote a column on the white working class for the Washington Post on Thursday. Here’s an interesting quote:<br /><br />“A diverse society brings great benefits — social, cultural and economic. Urban Americans experience these daily. Life brims with new experiences, challenges, excitement, what an economist would call “positive externalities” of demographic change.<br /><br />“Yet homogeneity has benefits too. In rural areas, or small towns, where everyone speaks the same language, or practices the same customs, life can be simpler, more predictable, less frictional. Economists call these “compositional amenities,” and many people value them above the benefits of diversity — even above economic gains.”<br />Trump’s strength in rural and small town America is consistent with Lane’s observation about “compositional amenities.”<br /> <br />Many of these were the places left behind by globalization and the modern economy. The Brexit vote in the UK was consistent with this as well. Younger, better educated voters (not enough of them) saw opportunity in the EU. They could pursue careers in 27 different countries. Older, less educated voters weren’t interested in career opportunities in 27 different countries. They wanted to preserve the opportunity they had at home.<br /><br />“Compositional amenities” can serve as a nice euphemism for bigotry. As an American I immediately think race—and that surely was at work with some of those white working class votes for Trump. In the UK, though, it wasn’t race, at least in our sense of the word. It was “outsider,” those from other EU member states working in the UK. There was a wave of assaults on Poles working the UK after the Brexit vote. Same race. Different nationality. Different language.<br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01601151117159492920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-50993031808883267312016-11-27T13:05:26.873-05:002016-11-27T13:05:26.873-05:00Professor, what would be your response be to Berni...Professor, what would be your response be to Bernie who said “I come from the white working class, and I am deeply humiliated that the Democratic Party cannot talk to the people where I came from....” ?<br /><br />Secondly, we no longer vote tickets and the notion of a "responsible" party may be long gone too. Also "open primaries" are suppose to be more democratic - an argument I have doubts about. Therefore, I think it may be muddying the waters to say in 2016, certainly at the national level, that the choice facing workers was between the Democrats and Republicans. Campaigns have become more and more the presentation and choice between two individuals - party programs, histories, and policies aside.<br /><br />And while I do believe that the election was stolen by means of a variety of "election fraud" measures, HRC was just not a good candidate. An insightful article in this regard: It's Storytelling, Stupid: What Made Donald Trump Smarter Than Hillary Clinton<br /><br />http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/11/24/what-made-donald-trump-smarter-than-hillary-clinton.html<br /><br />Jerry Fresiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17566575038825699112noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-77199191664705306712016-11-27T12:30:20.618-05:002016-11-27T12:30:20.618-05:00Chris, I find your comment genuinely mystifying, u...Chris, I find your comment genuinely mystifying, unless you think I need to be reminded of the inadequacies of the Democratic Party, which I do not believe for a moment. "Saviors" has nothing to do with it. It is transparently obvious that one has a better chance promoting genuinely progressive policies through the Democratic Party than through the Republican Party. A big influx of working class White voters into the Democratic Party demanding really progressive policies would enormously strengthen the hand of such people as Bernie Sanders. Who is strengthened by those voters voting Republican? Paul Ryan, who wants to phase out Social Security, medicare, and medicaid, and is opposed to a rise in the minimum wage. I understand that it makes you feel really good to write comments like that, but they simply have no rational strategy behind them. They are just feel-good "pox on both your houses" expressions of dismay at the reality of contemporary American politics. You can do better than that!Robert Paul Wolffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-9451019700203552512016-11-27T12:03:01.977-05:002016-11-27T12:03:01.977-05:00"The Democratic Party regularly receives the ..."The Democratic Party regularly receives the votes of millions of men and women who are doing quite nicely in the present grotesquely unequal economy – people like me, for example. The Republican Party regularly receives the votes of millions [or tens of millions] of Americans who rely on the policies implemented by Democrats – Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, the minimum wage, etc. – despite the fact that the Republicans are committed to undoing every one of those policies."<br /><br />This is the conundrum that I wrestle with. It makes no economic sense. I think the answer lies in the realm of culture and identity, but I'm unable to pin anything firmly down.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01601151117159492920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-92232778941241179872016-11-27T10:43:08.773-05:002016-11-27T10:43:08.773-05:00"by and large, the Democratic Party defends p..."by and large, the Democratic Party defends programs and policies that protect and advance the interests of the least well-off Americans"<br /><br />I see you quote Frank too, but perhaps you should read his newer book 'Listen Liberal' which is a damning indictment of the Democratic party, who after all under Clinton pushed through NAFTA, and deregulated wall street, which lead to direct loss of jobs in the very rust belt sector of the US that voted Trump over Clinton... So this dichotomy that the republican voter is voting for their very oppressors and ignoring their saviors is a false one.Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08250295324149056708noreply@blogger.com