Class Warfare's Losing Record
Class Warfare's Losing Record
By Salena Zito
EAST PALESTINE, Ohio – Newspaper accounts of the day described with shock the “enormous crushing crowds” that gathered in cities and towns (including this one) to see William Jennings Bryan, the Democrats’ presidential candidate of 1896, as he made his way to Pittsburgh.
The old master of class warfare did not disappoint: Paper after paper chronicled his rhetoric and the “unheard of” adulation he received from what he termed “the masses.”
The nation had been in a deep depression, with high unemployment and violent labor strikes, in the three years leading to the presidential election between Bryan and Republican William McKinley, Ohio’s former governor.
Despite the social unrest, economic uncertainty and a 90 percent voter turnout in many areas, Bryan and his class-based message failed.
Fast forward to today: President Barack Obama has decided that class warfare will be his winning message for re-election – and Bain Capital will be his code word for that message, implicitly conveying all the meanings of his greater theme.
Bain is the venture-capital firm that Republican Mitt Romney helped to create; it has invested in or acquired hundreds of companies, including Staples, Burger King, Dunkin' Donuts, The Sports Authority, Toys "R" Us and The Weather Channel.
In some cases, it loaned seed money to promising entrepreneurs. It also engaged in leveraged buyouts and attempts to turn around struggling companies with new management, re-organizations and cash infusions.
Jobs usually are saved or created by firms such as Bain. However, the leveraged-buyout process often is messy, and people sometimes lose jobs in pursuit of greater profitability.
Traveling much the same path as Bryan here in Ohio and in neighboring Pennsylvania, Vice President Joe Biden has escalated Obama’s class warfare with fevered cries – “They don't get us! They don't get who we are!”
The attacks on Bain also can be seen as part of Team Obama's progressive narrative, according to Baylor University political science professor Curt Nichols. It “stresses distrust in the free market and champions greater governmental intervention in social and economic life.”
“Without care, sometimes this narrative can … promote simplistic ‘us versus them’-type views that stress conflict between the haves and have-nots” – classic class-warfare language, Nichols said.
Appeals to economic populism – pitting people against so-called “interests” – are as old as the Democratic Party; Andrew Jackson successfully used them in the presidential election of 1828.
Jacksonian Democrats never opposed capitalism, however, and most certainly did not support a stronger central government.
“It wasn't until decades after Karl Marx really got the idea going that American politics witnessed the first mainstream appeals to class warfare made by Bryan,” said Nichols.
Since Bryan remains the only major-party candidate to lose three elections, you have to wonder how well class warfare works with Americans.
This is why Newark Mayor Cory Booker and former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell both dismissed the argument as wrong.
What the Obama campaign misses is that the working class – white, middle-income, blue-collar Democrats – deeply resents the dependency class and will not respond positively to such rhetoric.
Successful populists such as Republican Teddy Roosevelt and Democrat Franklin Roosevelt did not allow their championing of “the little guy” to devolve into class warfare.
They realized that Americans tend to view the United States as a land of opportunity and do not begrudge anyone for becoming wealthy.
The line between these two attitudes is sometimes fine. Yet class warfare has never won an election, while appeals to economic populism sometimes have succeeded.
Besides the attacks on Bain Capital, the Obama campaign appears to be using an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink appeal. Gone are 2008’s lofty appeals to “Hope” and “Change” – but what remains?
In the fashion of Chicago pols throughout history, Obama appears to be targeting his appeals to each faction of the Democrats’ coalition – women, African-Americans, big labor, young voters, gays – with values-based appeals and material offerings.
These tactics may add up to less than a complete strategy, however.
And how does his new campaign theme – “Forward” – fit into this puzzle?
Perhaps it is just a catchy phrase. Yet those who consider it another code word know that it traditionally has been part of the lexicon of the European socialist movement.
Another appeal to class warfare?
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'It’s their profession — modern liberalism. They can be capitalists while the rest of us rot under taxes and government regulation. Socialism for thee but not for me.'
Roger L imon
Reader Comments
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It seems strange to me that the reduction in #s of people employed by a company Bain purchased,trumps the fact that if Bain had not come in,spent tons of money,tried to restructure/rescue the company,and yes fired or stepped up retirement dates,that the entire company might have collapsed and.......................................... (((((ALL of the employees))))) would have been without a paycheck/retirement/healthcare
Its very much like what will happen if the United States Gov doesnt have a restructuring. When there is collapse there will be nothing.
Its not reducing a program. Its not restructuring many programs that actually help people.
All promises and safety nets are GONE/VOID/
We are faced with fiscal Gangrene.
Chop of a portion or watch the entire Gov body Die from rot within!
Five years ago I would have thought such statements as mine to be hyperbole,this is the new reality,sorry to say.
7. spathy 4:17 PM GMT on June 03, 2012
May 26, 2012
Socialism, by Any Other Name, Is Still Socialism
By William Sullivan
The Washington Post heralded the election of Fran%uFFFDois Hollande in France as the dawn of a new era, and the birth of a new breed of socialism. It is described as "free-market social democracy -- a pragmatic ideology in which nationalizations, clenched fists, and hammer and sickle are things of the past."
The implication is that the Western opinion of socialism has justifiably evolved to one of acceptance. Sure, socialism gets a bad rap for all those times in history when it went horribly wrong and, you know, killed all those millions of people. But the right people weren't in charge, you see, and their ideas were the wrong ones. What is being offered today in France is a newer, smarter socialism. The one that's never been tried before -- the one that works.
But despite the Western media's warm reception of this "pragmatic socialism" as something new, the disturbing truth is that socialism has always been always presented this way.
Link
Its long,but well worth it.
Its known to most of us but never have I seen it laid out in such form.
I wanted to cut and paste almost every other paragraph but This one is the one I chose.
JFK and the Death of Liberalism
By Jeffrey Lord on 5.31.12 @ 6:11AM
John F. Kennedy, the father of the Reagan Democrats, would have been 95 this week.
Would JFK have let the arrogant liberal elitism that was bubbling under the surface of his own administration metastasize to so many American institutions -- including his own party -- had he lived?
Would he have sat silently as the liberal culture turned against the vast American middle and working blue collar class and its values, sending JFK voters into the arms of Republicans in seven out of twelve of the elections following his own?
Please read this in its entirety.
Link
"What was one of the most notable stylistic aspects of the Kennedy presidency that had Georgetown parlors and the liberal media of the day swooning with admiration?
Exactly. They loved Jackie Kennedy -- specifically they absolutely adored that the First Lady was an accomplished horsewoman. Scenes like this video of Jackie riding with her children in the Virginia hunt country - as JFK watched from nearby -- were staples of the liberal media, the only media, of the day. If one grew up in the Kennedy era it is recognized instantly, particularly the scene where Caroline's horse "Macaroni" is nibbling on JFK as the President laughs. Horseback riding as Mrs. Kennedy pursued it was an expensive hobby then -- as now. And this fact was lavishly presented to the American public as a sign of class -- both financial class and as in "classy."
What was the big story about Ann Romney the other day? Take a look at Breitbart.com where they have neatly caught onto the sneering elitism that is falsely ascribed to Ann Romney because -- yes indeed -- just like Jackie Kennedy, Ann Romney rides horses. With one very big difference. In Mrs. Romney's case horseback riding was prescribed as therapy for her multiple sclerosis. Now, however, as was true with a big front page story in the New York Times, Republican Ann Romney is involved with a "rarified sport." Translation: Mrs. Romney is a snob. What's fabulous for Jackie is snooty for Ann."
So, I guess I'm a snob because I grew up riding horses. Lots of folks here, just normal country folk ride horses. It was something I worked hard for. The horse was given to me by one of my father's business associates, but I had to care for it, prove that I was able to pack the 100 lb sacks of feed from the car to the stable, and work for the money to maintain and feed the horse. It taught me a lot about responsibility.
Now I find that it makes me an elitist snob.
Odd that!
And much more!
And what kind of Governance do we have when such legislation is even up for a vote,WHEN......The nation is crumbling from ineptness.
If an administration and a complacent media can convince a large portion of Americans that we are not at the brink of a Debt crisis,and the few that wanted to blow feathers( start to stop the madness) at the problem are the evil doers,and soda size is put forth as an important agenda just how bad are things in the good old US of America?
Maybe we ought to do something about that.
Or...maybe we ought to let people decide for themselves and live with the consequences? No...that's way too far out there.
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