I was born in Winchester, Virginia. So was Rick Santorum. So was a fella named Joe Bageant. Joe was a self-styled Progressive redneck. He was born working class at a time in Virginia when the real working class was made to remain firmly in its place, but always with a rejoinder that the only thing separating them from black people was the colour of their skin.
Joe is no longer with us, but he wrote a seminal work entitled Deer-Hunting with Jesus. It's well worth a read, because Joe's mission in life was to get his "people" to realise that they were basically being stuffed by the Republican Party who had embraced their so-called interests, screwed by the Democratic Party which identified itself with the Coastal elites over forty years ago. The party which claimed to be for the working class had condemned them as toothless, uneducated inbreds, not worth the time or effort because of their inherent racism.
Well, we know now that racism, in the form of patronising condescension, is still alive and well in some sectors of the Left (Joan Walsh, anyone?).
Joe's firm belief (and I agree with him) as expounded in his book, is that the Republican Party's aim was to create a generation of undereducated or uneducated peasantry, distrustful of higher education, high on Dominionist religion, which emphasized how the nature of being "chosen" by God, and malleable to the rantings of the extreme Right. This peasant class would form the stock of low-paid worker drones who would promote the Republican interests, which were basically anything but the interests of the working class.
Just this week, at the Voters' Values Summit, another boy from Winchester, Virginia, confirmed exactly what Joe had been saying all along. Take it away, Rick Santorum:-
Scary, isn't it, that a small town like Winchester could produce two such divergent types. I miss Joe.
Joe is no longer with us, but he wrote a seminal work entitled Deer-Hunting with Jesus. It's well worth a read, because Joe's mission in life was to get his "people" to realise that they were basically being stuffed by the Republican Party who had embraced their so-called interests, screwed by the Democratic Party which identified itself with the Coastal elites over forty years ago. The party which claimed to be for the working class had condemned them as toothless, uneducated inbreds, not worth the time or effort because of their inherent racism.
Well, we know now that racism, in the form of patronising condescension, is still alive and well in some sectors of the Left (Joan Walsh, anyone?).
Joe's firm belief (and I agree with him) as expounded in his book, is that the Republican Party's aim was to create a generation of undereducated or uneducated peasantry, distrustful of higher education, high on Dominionist religion, which emphasized how the nature of being "chosen" by God, and malleable to the rantings of the extreme Right. This peasant class would form the stock of low-paid worker drones who would promote the Republican interests, which were basically anything but the interests of the working class.
Just this week, at the Voters' Values Summit, another boy from Winchester, Virginia, confirmed exactly what Joe had been saying all along. Take it away, Rick Santorum:-
Scary, isn't it, that a small town like Winchester could produce two such divergent types. I miss Joe.
Ricky understands that being GOP pays better than deer hunting with Jesus ever could. I say be thankful for the great Dan Savage.
ReplyDeleteVic78