Obama Talks About Economic Inequality; Clinton and McCain Play Pollyanna
For the last week the media have inundated the American public with Barack Obama's statement about people in small towns in Pennsylvania.
He said, "You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them...
"And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
However, Clinton and McCain's pummeling of Obama is hypocritical because both know that the economic and social inequality in this country that Obama was referring to is a reality but they prefer to ignore it or pretend it's not there and talk about Obama's statements as elitism and disdain instead, which is false.
As Gary Younge in The Guardian points out, "Clinton immediately seized on his remarks, handing out 'I'm not bitter' stickers in North Carolina and casting Obama as a cultural elitist. 'As I travel around Pennsylvania,' she said. 'I meet people who are resilient, who are optimistic, who are positive ...' The Republican nominee John McCain branded him "out of touch". But their capacity to feel these people's pain is matched only by their ability to inflict it. Clinton supported the North American Free Trade Agreement that led to outsourcing to Mexico; McCain offers nothing but more of the same market fundamentalism."
Economic and class inequality widened during this Bush administration and needs to be addressed in this election year.
Eugene Robinson wrote about an Economic Mobility Project research initiative led by Pew Charitable Trusts and its results:
"The 'rags to riches' story is much more common in Hollywood than on Main Street. Only 6 percent of children born to parents with family income at the very bottom move to the very top."
"That's right, just 6 percent of children born to parents who ranked in the bottom fifth of the sample, in terms of income, were able to bootstrap their way into the top fifth. Meanwhile, an incredible 42 percent of children born into that lowest quintile are still stuck at the bottom, having been unable to climb a single rung of the income ladder.
"The study notes that even in Britain -- a nation we tend to think of as burdened with a hidebound, anachronistic class system -- children who are born poor have a better chance of moving up."
And as Younge continues in his article about class and economic problems in Uniontown, Pennsylvania:
"That does not make such a conversation about class any less vital. It would carry the dual benefit of being both timely and strategically savvy. Timely, because the economic problems of many Americans are particularly acute right now. One in 10 of those with mortgages is in negative equity; one in 16 is behind on their payments. Consumer confidence is at the lowest level on record; unemployment is climbing at a steady pace. All of this will get worse before it gets better.
"Moreover, most people are heading into this bust without having enjoyed any of the benefits of a boom. Since the last recession the median wage has declined slightly. A Pew survey to be released on Wednesday reveals that most people feel they have been stuck in place or fallen backward over the past five years - the most gloomy short-term appraisal of personal advancement in almost 50 years. Thanks to the credit crunch, the days when people softened the blow by borrowing massively on their homes and credit cards are over. Americans are heading for a huge slump in their standard of living.
Michael Zweig, the director of the centre for study of working-class life at the State University of New York's Stonybrook campus says, "Couch the conversation in more meaningful ways, and people might engage, argues Zweig, enabling them to make better sense of other core issues such as immigration, the outsourcing of jobs, healthcare and, indeed, race itself...'
" '...Who is running public policy of the country? Who's got power over whom? What do we have to do to challenge them?' "
The core questions have always been, "Who's getting screwed and Who's doing the screwing?"
As Younge writes, "Walk around Uniontown for a day and you will find little in the way of bitterness or optimism. But you will find many who are despondent and even more who are desperate. 'They can put a man on the moon but all they can do for poor people is give out blocks of cheese?' asked Cindy Digga, resources consultant at the Fayette county community action agency. 'Don't you think America should be able to do better than that? The American dream's still possible. It just depends in what part of America. Here in Fayette county, it feels like we've been forgotten' "
During this election year, there should be real talk about economic and class inequality and the terrible lack of social justice. Putting on their Pollyanna faces, Clinton and McCain want to hide the reality that power is in the hands of the few have's and have mores like themselves and their corporate lobbyist cronies who, with the Bush administration, have screwed the common good big time. Obama wants to talk about the Uniontown's of the US and how to begin fixing those failures for the common good.
Let's talk. Let the sunshine of truth and reality shine.
He said, "You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them...
"And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
However, Clinton and McCain's pummeling of Obama is hypocritical because both know that the economic and social inequality in this country that Obama was referring to is a reality but they prefer to ignore it or pretend it's not there and talk about Obama's statements as elitism and disdain instead, which is false.
As Gary Younge in The Guardian points out, "Clinton immediately seized on his remarks, handing out 'I'm not bitter' stickers in North Carolina and casting Obama as a cultural elitist. 'As I travel around Pennsylvania,' she said. 'I meet people who are resilient, who are optimistic, who are positive ...' The Republican nominee John McCain branded him "out of touch". But their capacity to feel these people's pain is matched only by their ability to inflict it. Clinton supported the North American Free Trade Agreement that led to outsourcing to Mexico; McCain offers nothing but more of the same market fundamentalism."
Economic and class inequality widened during this Bush administration and needs to be addressed in this election year.
Eugene Robinson wrote about an Economic Mobility Project research initiative led by Pew Charitable Trusts and its results:
"The 'rags to riches' story is much more common in Hollywood than on Main Street. Only 6 percent of children born to parents with family income at the very bottom move to the very top."
"That's right, just 6 percent of children born to parents who ranked in the bottom fifth of the sample, in terms of income, were able to bootstrap their way into the top fifth. Meanwhile, an incredible 42 percent of children born into that lowest quintile are still stuck at the bottom, having been unable to climb a single rung of the income ladder.
"The study notes that even in Britain -- a nation we tend to think of as burdened with a hidebound, anachronistic class system -- children who are born poor have a better chance of moving up."
And as Younge continues in his article about class and economic problems in Uniontown, Pennsylvania:
"That does not make such a conversation about class any less vital. It would carry the dual benefit of being both timely and strategically savvy. Timely, because the economic problems of many Americans are particularly acute right now. One in 10 of those with mortgages is in negative equity; one in 16 is behind on their payments. Consumer confidence is at the lowest level on record; unemployment is climbing at a steady pace. All of this will get worse before it gets better.
"Moreover, most people are heading into this bust without having enjoyed any of the benefits of a boom. Since the last recession the median wage has declined slightly. A Pew survey to be released on Wednesday reveals that most people feel they have been stuck in place or fallen backward over the past five years - the most gloomy short-term appraisal of personal advancement in almost 50 years. Thanks to the credit crunch, the days when people softened the blow by borrowing massively on their homes and credit cards are over. Americans are heading for a huge slump in their standard of living.
Michael Zweig, the director of the centre for study of working-class life at the State University of New York's Stonybrook campus says, "Couch the conversation in more meaningful ways, and people might engage, argues Zweig, enabling them to make better sense of other core issues such as immigration, the outsourcing of jobs, healthcare and, indeed, race itself...'
" '...Who is running public policy of the country? Who's got power over whom? What do we have to do to challenge them?' "
The core questions have always been, "Who's getting screwed and Who's doing the screwing?"
As Younge writes, "Walk around Uniontown for a day and you will find little in the way of bitterness or optimism. But you will find many who are despondent and even more who are desperate. 'They can put a man on the moon but all they can do for poor people is give out blocks of cheese?' asked Cindy Digga, resources consultant at the Fayette county community action agency. 'Don't you think America should be able to do better than that? The American dream's still possible. It just depends in what part of America. Here in Fayette county, it feels like we've been forgotten' "
During this election year, there should be real talk about economic and class inequality and the terrible lack of social justice. Putting on their Pollyanna faces, Clinton and McCain want to hide the reality that power is in the hands of the few have's and have mores like themselves and their corporate lobbyist cronies who, with the Bush administration, have screwed the common good big time. Obama wants to talk about the Uniontown's of the US and how to begin fixing those failures for the common good.
Let's talk. Let the sunshine of truth and reality shine.
Posted by Kaz at 4/14/2008 1:57 PM 
Categories: Clinton, Presidential Race, Politics, 2008, Obama, McCain
Categories: Clinton, Presidential Race, Politics, 2008, Obama, McCain
Comments