Post news and information from your neighborhood: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________ Erik,
Excuse me! What vast middle class? If you are a member, have you noticed your numbers getting thinner? The policies promulgated by both Democrats and Republicans seem to be designed to put mc out of existence. But, of course, the PR industry spends millions to convince a lot of us that we are middle class. Bruce Leier Aurora/St. Anthony -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Erik Hare Sent: Sunday, February 22, 2004 11:32 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [StPaul] Re: No public funding for the stadium... Post news and information from your neighborhood: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________ I love a good class war. A guy like me, raised Republican and as pale as you get without it being considered a medical condition, should logically be on one side of class warfare. But I'm not. See, I'm not really invited to that party. But I know how it goes. The reason why "Class Warfare" inevitably comes up in an issue like this stadium is that we have two distinct classes in this nation who have absolutely no idea what the other is thinking. The vast middle class, well, they pick one side or the other or get divided -- but they rarely run any of the actual debates. Their vote counts, but they almost never decide who or what you're voting on. Their lives are just tooo bizzy. So it comes down to the polar opposites, like this stadium thing has. We have people in Saint Paul who honestly aren't sure where the rent money is going to come from. They might also not have health insurance, or else are on a really basic plan with a high co-pay. Worrying about stuff like that is something the rich honestly don't understand, and no one can understand until you are there (BTW, I'm there but slowly digging out right now). On the other hand, I really don't think that the poor understand what it's like to get a real proposal together and shop it around to everyone who has money and to make the Bigger, Better Deal actually happen. I think that people of lesser means in this city probably can't imagine why this stadium crap has come back, so soon, and why anyone thinks they can get this thing through. It's up to the middle class to decide, and they'll be largely silent on it until they march to the voting booth. They'll see in front of them some kind of tax increase, and given the state of the economy will vote accordingly (note: that this failed in 1999 is telling to me). But it will come down to a kind of class warfare, largely because we have two large groups -- really, one large group and the other group that has gallons of newspaper ink to get its message out -- who simply have no idea what the other one is talking about. It's up to the middle class to understand one side or the other, and what they do usually is look at it in -- suprise! -- terms of their own interest. I will be very surprised if this goes through now that Thune has sucessfully captured the Class Warfare argument and made it real. Not that I thought it would work at all, but it now sounds like things are in place for a crushing defeat. And if I were Mayor, I would at the very least not have this thing on a ballot the year before re-election. The only alternative, to have it at the same time as re-election, is the only thing worse. This thing is turning into pure poison, and one I'd hate to be on the wrong side of. A class war developed around an issue where the bizzybizzy middle is likely to cast off the elites is something the Democrats haven't been able to make stick in a long time (the 1999 vote largely went to waste for lack of an over-arching strategy). This time around, it could bring in a progressive mayor with something that looks like a mandate. Erik Hare [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://home.comcast.net/~wabbitoid/ Irvine Park, West End, Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA, North America, Earth Fine Amish furniture, cedar chests, and crafts http://www.harmonycedar.com _____________________________________________ NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/ _____________________________________________ For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract _____________________________________________ NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/ _____________________________________________ For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract
