fantapolitica
humorous look at Italian politics (bilingual)Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Stanley Greengerg wrote an interesting article on Democrats and the White Working Class I have a grumpy comment. Dear Stanley Greenberg I admire you and your work, but I have two objections to this post. 1) You write of what is implied by many people none of whom you name. "many observers [skip] Implicitly, they are asking whether Democrats can build a national majority [skip] while paying scant attention to the so-called lunch-pail economic and material issues that are traditionally of greatest concern to working-class whites." Who proposes paying such skant attention. Even if you didn't list and quote them to save space in the article, you should have a list of quotes on hand here to respond in comments. Who proposed that when and where ? I can't think of anyone. I think an editor should demand to see the list and the quotes even if there isn't space for them in the article. Consider the last word in the quoted passage. Lunch pail issues are traditionally of greatest concern to working-class non whites too. In fact, this is your main point, but I don't think you are arguing with anyone. Until you name someone, I will believe that the article mainly sets up and knocks down a straw man. 2. The set of people being discussed varies from paragraph to paragraph. Throughout only whites without college degrees are in it, but sometimes women and millenials are excluded too. There are lots of white millenials without college degrees. Again this is your main point. However, you are, I think, arguing with your former self (or, more exactly, the straw Stanley Greenberg who assumes nothing has changed since you accurately described public opinion in 1980). Sometimes the set is only of middle aged and elderly men. The white working class is then hawkish, uninterested in gender equality, against gay marriage, and suspicious of means tested government programs. Other times, the set is of people with low wage jobs who are disproportionally female and young (and of course non white). Then the majority's opinions on non lunch pail issues are the opposite (for one thing the means tested programs are lunch pail issues for lots of young and female workers). I think an editor should demand a formal definition of terms of art central to the article (here what does "white working class" mean) and enforce consistent use of the same definition for the same phrase.
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