Here We Go Again, Trash-Talking The Working Class

[loyalsister]

A voting bloc that does not get enough attention is frequently maligned by pundits, and popular culture is showing their numbers and power right now. They are real people and deserve some respect from us and candidates.

Bear with me, please, as I start this column with a brief story about my two grandmothers who lived in trailer homes......

I wanted you to know a little bit about my grandmothers so that you might better understand my outrage over a Cleveland Plain Dealer writer’s reaction to Sarah Palin’s endorsement of Donald Trump for president:
“Thanks to Trump, the entire Palin clan is now back in the spotlight they so crave. Come July, Republican National Convention organizers should house the whole dysfunctional family at a trailer park in Ashtabula.”

Much closer to home, since Donald Trump’s charade of a candidacy caught fire, I have heard many fellow liberals freely toss around the terms “white trash” and “trailer trash.” These are people who would never dream of telling a racist joke, but they think nothing of ridiculing those of lesser economic means. Every group has its “other.” For too many white intellectuals, it’s the working class.

This campaign year has barely begun, and it promises to be a long one. Regardless of which partisan lens we look through, we will see some voters who confound us.
Mocking them will never bring us closer to understanding them, but it will surely reveal us, and we will not benefit from the exposure.

http://www.nationalmemo.com/here-we-go-again-trash-talking-the-working-class/?can_id=ba90f81da08cd2a9b6e3446edc2552e5&source=email-todays-headlines-jobs-with-justice-12916&email_referrer=todays-headlines-jobs-with-justice-12916&email_subject=todays-headlines-jobs-with-justice-12916&link_id=4

[Warpy]

1. I worked for a living and lived in a trailer and I'm not a bit offended by the term

I lived in an actual park with clubhouses and swimming pools and reduced rate membership to an adjacent golf course. All trailer parks are not created equally, not are all trailers. Mine was at the bottom of the quality scale but I worked on it a lot. It was comfortable and every inch of space was well thought out. If I could have moved it to a vacant lot nearer to work, I'd still be living in it.

"Tiny houses" look a little amateurish compared to the average single wide, at least once the factory wallpaper is gone.

However, I digress. To me, the term refers to sets of behavior standards and personal philosophy that are generally ego driven and detrimental to nearly everyone around them, especially their own families. It has nothing to do with job classification or socioeconomic status. It applies perfectly to Bushes and Palins.

I will now be alerted on by all the DU word police determined to lecture their elders even though no word in this post is offensive.

[loyalsister]

2. Are you comfortable with other stereotypes?

Like welfare queen, angry black man, resentful disabled person, etc....

Identifying behaviors with living conditions and socioeconomic status is a stereotype that degrades a group of people.

[Warpy]

5. Killing descriptive language on the theory that someone, somewhere will be offended

(and usually that's a busybody being offended on the behalf of someone who didn't indicate offense) is far, far worse. After all, "welfare queen" is a great way to identify corporations that suck up subsidies and pay no taxes.

SJW and word police would like to reduce all writing and discourse to the level of a Dick and Jane book.

No thanks. Buh bye.

[Odin2005]

3. The Democratic Party has a classism problem.

For all our pretensions as being the party of the Working Class, for the last 30 years or so the party has become socially dominated by the urban Middle and Upper-Middle Class of the big cities who consider working class white people to be "dumb, gun-toting bigots".

I'm from a rural working class background and I tend to stick with other working class people because I just cannot relate at all to "hip" middle class city folks who seem to look down on me as a hick even though I have a bachelor's degree.

[loyalsister]

8. For sure

I have been disappointed in the local party. Every invitation includes a minimmum or suggested donation. A local Democratic club holds weekly meetings at a country club.

I get that fundraising is important and it's not always easy to find meeting space, but there should be more effort to be inclusive.

[Quantess]

4. They?

[loyalsister]

6. I am not counted among the working class

because I am disabled and don't work. I do sympathize with this column and the people she speaks of because I am also subject to stereotyping.

[CTyankee]

7. I also think it is offensive and really too broad a term to apply broadly.

I get it but let's think of a better way of expressing what we think.