Charles Brown wrote:
> by Marvin Gandall > > -clip- > -- which explains their stubborn > refusal to buy the argument that the Democrats are "inimical to the > interests of working people." I think there will first have to be a major > change in the way most people, especially in the cities, experience the > system and the two parties for them to even begin to entertain that notion. > > ^^^^^ > This might be true, but how would we explain so many working people voting > for Republicans ? > > Charles ----------------------------------- The US consists mostly of working people, and the two parties are almost equally divided within the voting electorate. So one would expect to see working people forming the base of the major parties. I think this is now true of all capitalist democracies. Most union households are for the Democrats as they are for the social-democrats abroad. But union density in the US is smaller and has been declining steadily. That would explain the lesser weight of the unions in the DP than in the social democratic parties, although this gap can be exaggerated. Women and minorities are the other pillars on which the DP is built. I'm not surprised so many white male workers have crossed to the Republicans in the past three decades, in reaction to the rise of the black, women's, anti(Vietnam)war, and gay movements. The Republicans, as the natural repository for these racist, sexist, chauvinist, and homophobic sentiments were quick to exploit this reactionary fear and insecurity. Workers in the more rural and largely non-union Southern and Midwestern parts of the country increasingly came to identify the cities with these movements, with decadence, liberalism, unions, and the Democratic party. It may be also that, in a long period of stagnating or falling real wages, the Republican mantra of lower taxes also resonated with the least union-conscious and educated part of the American working class, the part most vulnerable to Republican demagogey that most government spending was being directed at black and Hispanic "welfare cheats" in the inner cities. Finally, I think there is some validity to the criticism that the Democrats have failed to sufficiently differentiate themselves from the Republicans, but I don't think this is the primary reason for the political division in the US working class. I think the underlying social and economic developments alluded to above have been more decisive, and the Democratic leadership has been adapting to rather than leading the corresponding shift to the right of white male workers. Marv Gandall
