Blog Comment

I posted these on the Crooked Timber blog, in a discussion of whether the American working class was conservative.

I spent most of my working life (40+ years) as an office clerk or warehouse worker. My partner spent most of his working life as a med tech or a truckdriver. I figure we met a lot of members of the American working class. Some were conservative. Many were not. (My partner just said, “Talk to Denny and see how conservative he is.” He is one of the maintenance guys in our building. He’s a 75+ white guy, who is a Wellstone progressive. When we took off for Xmas, he said to us, “Are you going to Occupy or is this a vacation?”)

One of the other people commenting said the police and firefighters in Wisconsin were okay with Walker attacking union rights, till they realized their union rights were being attacked. I wrote:

If I am remembering correctly, Walker was going to exempt police and firefighters from the “death to unions” law. The cops and firefighters came out in Madison, none the less. Yes, there is false consciousness. But people are actually quite complex. Having just spent a week with the upper middle classes, I’d say the working class is often more complex. Working people have all kinds of ideas, which come from the mass media, pop culture, their own local culture and traditions. Minnesota Iron Rangers tend to be pro-union, pro-gun and anti-abortion, due to a history of union struggle, a hunting culture and a lot of Catholic ethnic groups. I don’t see this as consistent, but I am not a Ranger.

...The Iron Range is Democratic Farmer Labor. The local DFL politicians are pro-gun and anti-abortion, but Rangers stick with the state DFL, though the party is not pro-gun and anti-abortion. The lifestyle issues do not trump the class issues in this case. People are complex.