TPM has posted a video excerpt of Barack Obama discussing the Thomas Frank thesis with Charlie Rose, from November 23, 2004 – with references to guns and religion — so this is not a new topic for the presidential hopeful.
Regular Protein Wisdom visitors will chuckle over Obama’s observation at the beginning of the clip that the Democrats need to think about their “overarching narrative.” But the conclusion of the clip is where viewers get to savor the sweet, sweet irony of Obama emphasizing the need for Democrats to not appear to be condescending to the “God and guns” crowd.
In between, Obama turns to one of his favorite examples in this genre — the October 2004 closing of a Maytag factory in Galesburg, IL. His suggestion that this was an economic collapse is a bit of an overstatement, if median family income statistics are any indicator. Those who want a more nuanced view of the aftermath of the plant closure might visit 33 Months — the product of a course at Knox College focusing on Interactive Journalism (to which I would add that the Mexican plant which took over most of the Galesburg capacity is now shuttered).ÂÂ
Googling Galesburg does not turn up any news stories suggesting that the town has become any more church-going, gun-loving or racist in the intervening years. However, R. Thomas Buffenbarger, president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, recently charged that Obama “did nothing†to help prevent Maytag from closing the Galesburg plant. In addition, the Chicago Tribune reported:
Obama had a special connection to Maytag: Lester Crown, one of the company’s directors and biggest investors whose family, records show, has raised tens of thousands of dollars for Obama’s campaigns since 2003…
***
Obama’s chief political strategist, David Axelrod, said late Thursday that the senator did not know Crown sat on Maytag’s board until the Tribune noted it last September in a story about the closing of the Maytag headquarters in Newton, Iowa.
Moreover, as suggested earlier, there is the issue of squaring Obama’s protectionist view on trade with his liberal views on illegal immigration. What would Obama think if Maytag had closed the Galesburg plant and opened a new one elsewhere in the US staffed by lower-wage illegal immigrants?
Perhaps these factors explain why blue-collar voters might be extra-skeptical that Obama will deliver — as opposed to Obama’s theory that they are extra-skeptical of him because he is black.
——
P.S. Whatever one thinks of the Galesburg case, it is not advisable to make policy by anecdote. Daniel W. Drezner wrote a piece on outsourcing for Foreign Affairs a few months prior to the Maytag plant closure, noting that “Outsourcing actually brings far more benefits than costs, both now and in the long run.”
Bonus: Tom Maguire rounds up what Rahm Emmanuel, Nick Kristof and Tom Wolfe were saying about related topics in November 2004.
It’s like if NPR were distilled in candidate form. It’s like they underwent karyokinesis and spawned this snotty little man. Same damn DNA. It’s very creepy.
Also what’s with the beards thing? When I think of beards I think of Al Gore, Osama bin Laden, Bill Richardson, Fidel Castro, and Katie Holmes mostly, not Maytag workers.
Frankly, I’m a little surprised that when the flap surfaced about Senator Obama being rumored to be a Muslim, he responded in one of his rallies that he prays to Jesus every night. And now he tells us that small town rabble cling to religion as a salve to allay their bitterness. But didn’t he cling to religion as a salve to ensure his election stays on course? Is he then bitter or perhaps just thoroughly ingenuous?
I’m sort of bitter that I don’t have more guns. Like a full-auto Tommy gun, for example.
I wonder why it never occurs to people that someone might be skeptical of politicians because politicians are lying crap-weasels who are only interested in feathering their own nests?
– So now, since even for a Neo-Marxist Liberal simply illiterating hate speech for people who have faith in god would be a bit over the top, he conflates religions belief with gun ownership if you happen to reside in Penn. Apparently gramma goes to church on Sunday packing her trusty Glock in the Ford glove box.
– Is it just me, or do both Dem candidates, and the party as a whole, have a political death wish this year?
Barry forgot to mention the other thing people cling to when their fortunes are on the wane: booze.
“My campaign drives people to drink.”*
Right on cue here’s NPR cleaning up Twinkletoe’s mess. Their top story today…
href=”http://www.npr*.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89598497
Obama’s Religious Rhetoric Puts Faith in Spotlight
Obama’s chief political strategist, David Axelrod, said late Thursday that the senator did not know Crown sat on Maytag’s board until the Tribune noted it last September in a story about the closing of the Maytag headquarters in Newton, Iowa.
Seems to me that Obama, being The Messiah and all, “did not know” or “is not aware” of a lot of s*** going on around him. If that’s the case, then he’s a pretty p***-poor excuse for a Messiah.
Rich, beautiful, coastal types are liberal precisely because their lives are so wonderful. They want to preserve their lives exactly as they are. If I were a rich movie star, I’d vote for peace and poverty relief. War and domestic insurrection are the greatest threats to their already-perfect livesâ€â€why mess with it? This rational fear of the peasantry is frequently misinterpreted as rich guilt, but that’s not the case. They just want to pay off all the have-nots to keep them from storming their manors and impaling them on stakes.
Republican elites don’t set off the spite glands in the same way, and it’s not only because of a sinister right-wing propaganda machine. Take a look at a photo of the late billionaire Sam Walton, a dried-out Calvinist in a baseball cap and business suit, and you’ll see why. If Republican billionaires enjoy their wealth, they sure as hell hide it well. As far as one can tell, Republican billionaires genuinely like working 18-hour days in offices. Their idea of having fun is a day on the golf green (a game as slow and frustrating as a day in the office) or attending conferences with other sleazy, cheerless Calvinist billionaires. If that’s what all their wealth got them, let ’em have itâ€â€so says the spite bloc. This explains why the Republican eliteâ€â€the only true and all-powerful elite in America todayâ€â€is not considered an “elitist” class in the spleens of the white male have-nots. Elitism as defined today is a synonym for “happy,” not “rich” or “powerful.” Happiness is the scarcest resource of all, not money. And the happy supply has been cornered by the beautiful, famous and wealthy coastal elite, the ones who never age, and who are just so damned concerned for the have-nots’ well-being. In that sense, you can see how the Republicans were able to successfully manipulate the meaning of “elitism” to suit their needs. They weren’t just selling dogshit to the credulous masses; they were selling pancreatic balm to the needy.
At the other end of the economic spectrum, non-millionaires who vote Republican, the so-called “Reagan Democrats,” know that the country is not theirs. They are mere wage-slave fodder, so their only hope is to vote for someone who makes the very happiest people’s lives a little less happy. If I’m an obese 40-something white male living in Ohio or Nevada, locked into a permanent struggle with foreclosure, child support payments and outsourcing threats, then I’m going to vote for the guy who delivers a big greasy portion of misery to the Sarandon-Robbins dining room table, then brags about it on FoxNews. Even if it means hurting myself in the process.
the rest is here.
Interesting article, I have no comment about it, besides that the author uses the very wide brush to describe wide swaths of population, but the psychology of an average male described in there seems very common and fit more apt to many East European countries..check their voting patterns and behaviour for the last 100 years…
But you see, MarkJ, Obama really em the Messiah.
When he doesn’t perform miracles, people will crucify him.
“…it is not advisable to make policy by anecdote.”
Hey, that’s MY line!
“This explains why the Republican eliteâ€â€the only true and all-powerful elite in America todayâ€â€is not considered an “elitist†class in the spleens of the white male have-nots.”
sashy, you read some really, really stupid shit.
And it shows.
Better and better. The Marxist codger is in rare form today…
Guess who his paragon of true patriotism is?
Jeremiah “God Damn America” Wright.
http://www.npr*.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89598542
Tell you one thing. I get to say yay! when this bastard (finally) dies and I really don’t care if it’s tacky. I really don’t.
“East European countries..check their voting patterns and behaviour for the last 100 years…”
Voring patterns in Eastern Europe?
When, while they were being throttled by the Soviet Empire?
Great googlyy-moogly.
well, I should correct myself, O’brain, when they were allowed to freely vote, not under USSR dominations.
The article mentions the example of Serbia, btw….
The author of Sashal’s article does think we are living in ‘Les Miserables’.
Wow. I was right.
Good, because the bit you quoted is a piece of shit.
Here’s an idea — maybe you should try to, I dunno, actually get to know people instead of buying into assessments of the clearly bigoted.
Another idea — maybe the folks “voting against their economic interests” are really voting the issues they find more important. Maybe they’re satisfied with their economic positions, or don’t think it’s government’s role, or maybe they just disagree with the prescriptions made by the left.
If so, then shouldn’t the “celebrate diversity” crowd accept their different values? Why the hostility and condescension?
Then why go back 100 years?
– You know sashal, as much as its true we don’t stand on topic ceremony here on pw, it would really be refreshing if just once you could keep your head out of your ideologically skewed anti-Republican ass for at least a couple of comment sentences before you launch into some “theory of the week” bullshit screed.
– Do it for the Children!
the rest is here.
What a load of pompous, bitter crap that the writer reveals in paragraph 2:
The realization that some pro-Republican sentiment lurks inside of me was enough to make me want to stick my head in the oven. Or throw myself out the window like the possessed priest at the end of The Exorcist.
Oh, yeah, I forgot elitist.
Mikey, good observation at #16.
The author sure is not thinking about the prosperous middle class.
In his defence he had mentioned the example of the 40 something obese and economically struggling single white male, not the other type of voter (besides the elites).
I also commented in the original post regarding wide brush…
I love the inclusion of “obese” in there. Gotta get the modern aesthetic condemnation in there.
Do it for small town America, and small town guns, and all them small town churches! Just don’t do it for John Cougar Mellencamp, who everyone knows is a small town faker, a pinko-house Obama muckraker! Which reminds me, I’m still boycotting Dexter Gordon, French-loving mother-scratcher. Louis Armstrong! Go small town America, fuck yeah!
Rob, the non-obese is the author and all mentioned by him coastal liberals.
Playing on the stark contrast here….
Well see that’s about the only place an ethos of self-reliance is inculcated anymore. Small towns are hugely problematic like that.
I couldn’t read your article sashal cause I didn’t like his tone. It wasn’t a Sunday morning tone at all. Hey shouldn’t you be in church?
– Yes, but see darwins, theres a hell of a lot of gun-toting, bible thumpers that, in the aggregate, live in small towns. I guess the Marxocrat collective can go with the found image of a bunch of buck teethed, cousin loving retards that are unaware of TV beyond the “Price Is Right”.
Yeah but if you don’t get the wheel to go all the way around you’re automatically disqualified from the showcase showdown and also the audience groans cause you’re such a loser and you can still kiss Bob Barker if you want but you have to get your loser ass off the stage pretty quick. As it should be, I think.
Like I said, dig back into his speeches long enough, you’ll find more of these. This was just a Clinton machine special, and while it’s tasty, it isn’t new, I suspect.
Examples like this show that this is a long-time meme of Baracky and the Left, just not usually exposed in such a raw and naked manner. It took one of the attack dogs of the Clinton machine pushing this for the media to commit an act of journalism.
– Now if Hillery can get her staff to duct tape Bills mouth shut, maybe she’ll stand some sort of chance to hang in there.
This, I think, is the biggest danger arising from a hypothetical Obama presidency, more so than any actual ideologically founded policy enactments.
Even a staunchly anti-American, Dem-run Congress would turn out to be an obstacle to his Hope-y, Change-y, Unite-y goodness. And while we might expect the media theme on his failures to start out blaming teh obstructionist-y Congress, that wouldn’t last.
By 2010, people would be removing the letter O from their keyboards.
– The Pope says hes tired of the whole idea of “Moral Relativism”, and “social engineering”. Post modern Liberalism is whats wrong with the world.”
– Hopefully he can go with the power of the pulpit for now, and save breaking out the Glock just for emergencies.
– I don’t think the Left is going to live down these gaffs for a long long time.
– Baracky is ignoring the first rule of holes. He now says “….if he offended anyone, he deeply regrets that. and that he may have used a poor choice of words”…, BUT, he stands by the sentimate of “Bitterness” in his comments.
– Memo to Barack. If you start to notice your audience is speaking Chinese you might want to stop digging.
“This explains why the Republican eliteâ€â€the only true and all-powerful elite in America todayâ€â€is not considered an “elitist†class in the spleens of the white male have-nots.â€Â
Wrong. We don’t mind businessmen their money because they earned it and are usually involved with therie business and personal lives. FOr the most part, I can choose to not do business with a corporation. They can’t make me purchase an SUV. I don’t presume to tell them where to build their factories or allocate their jobs geographically.
Liberal elitists tend to the politically connected social(ist) engineers who are forever proposing laws that muck with our lives and takes our money and force us by said law to do things we have otherwise chosen not to do. By Force. And then they bitch about the unintended consequences. Like rent seeking by said corporations because they get hammered by the laws the libs advocated. And they wonder why they aren’t trusted by us hillbillies.
This is what I mean when I say the sashal doesn’t “get” America.
I read Sashal’s article, and g00gled Mark Ames. There’s not a piece he’s ever written that’s not bilious and…well, spiteful. Wiki says he’s an expatriate journalist who was born in the SF Bay area and attended Berkeley, and is now living in Moscow. Left the U.S. because of…yes, you got it, Bush. Sr.
A liberal finally reaches his nirvana.
Now, I will never read him again.
Oh, and Pablo, I don’t think that was beer Hillary was drinking. Celebrating Obama’s latest screw-up calls for the good stuff… ;D
Comment by Jim in KC on 4/13 @ 6:39 am #
I’m sort of bitter that I don’t have more guns. Like a full-auto Tommy gun, for example.
If you had an original 1927 Thompson with the serial numbered matching drum magazines, you’d be looking at six figures for a price. Unintended consequences and all that.
Funny you should go there, serr8d. Truth is, the whiskey was actually Crown Royal. The beer was after, with pizza. Just a good old down home country girl, our Hillary.
the 40 something obese and economically struggling single white male
This is not, I repeat not, an offensive stereotype.
“Thirty years ago, I had a good job in the mill in Pittsburgh. I was bringing in a good income, going to jazz clubs, discussing Proust over white wine and brie, with my gay friends of all colors. I was all for free trade, so that we could sell the steel overseas, and I never bothered to go to church, let alone actually believe in God.
“But then, the plant closed down, and I couldn’t get another job. I went on unemployment, and found odd jobs here and there, but they barely paid the rent on the loft, and the payment on the Bimmer. I couldn’t afford the wine and brie any more, and had to shift over to beer and brats.
“Of course, as a result, I started hanging out with the wrong crowd–the beer drinkers.
“And it wasn’t just the beer. Some of them actually went out in the woods in the fall, and shot animals. And kilt ’em. With real guns!
“I was shocked, of course. For all their diversity, none of my gay friends would have ever thought of doing anything like that. But with my job loss, and lack of money for pedicures and pommade, they didn’t want to hang with me any more. So I borried a twelve gauge over’n’under, and went out with my new beer-drinking animal-killing friends in the woods. And I’ll tell you what, when I shot down that eight-pointer, I felt a sense of power over the helpless in a way that I hadn’t since I’d been looking down on the rednecks when I had that good job in Pittsburgh, driving around town in my 528i…”
“But it didn’t stop there. Soon I was attending Wednesday night revivals, and huzzahing and hossanahing, and babbling with the best of them. After a few months I’d graduated to juggling garter snakes, then rattlers…”
“I have hit rock bottom.”
http://www.transterrestrial.com/archives/2008/04/you_go_into_the.html
H/T: Ace
A liberal finally reaches his nirvana.
You know, I’ve been to Moscow. While a fascinating place, it’s in no way a liberal nirvana. The air is the first thing you notice. And by notice, I mean it hits your nose, mouth, throat, and lungs like 5 packs of smokes all at once.
– I don’t think what paasses as a goodly portion of the Dem party these days are “Liberals”. I think they’ve suncken so deep in their anti-American self-flogging ideology they’ve moved leftward into Marxocrat land.
It should be pointed out that Maytag (by then purchased by Whirlpool) also shuttered a plant in Herrin, Illinois in 2006. It put some 1,500 people out of work. Obama obviously was too busy with his own aspirations to worry with this closing by then, and anyway, that’s those downstate hicks who are already squeezin’ Jesus a little too much.
The reality is that, with the exception of the Neptune Drying Center line (which I designed electrically and programmed) and a handful of presses, the Herrin plant was woefully out of date. It was filled with people who did nothing but the most degrading, mindless work of material handling and manual assembly. It’s sad to say, but plants like this are going to go by the wayside in favor of more automated (or lower wage) facilities. Propping them up is not going to solve our competitive problem.
“Frankly, I’m a little surprised that when the flap surfaced about Senator Obama being rumored to be a Muslim, he responded in one of his rallies that he prays to Jesus every night. And now he tells us that small town rabble cling to religion as a salve to allay their bitterness.”
He only prays because he knows Jesus needs his advice…
First, isn’t ‘obese and economically struggling’ something completely different that what has ever happened before on earth? Since when before have the poor ever been overweight?
Second…well, shoot. The rest of the article makes no darn sense to anything going on in America, except maybe the fevered wish-fantasy of the author.
I guess it would just be a little too obvious for Obama to just moon America every time he speaks. Oh, wait…
I remember when fat cats used to be fat.
[…] ? Comment by McGehee on April 13, 2008 @ 9:47 am […]