Carl, One huge, major, unforgivable, dire, error in your post. The song is
Allentown, one word. Disenfranchisement is a class problem and extends far
before the 90's for whites. From the indentured servants of the colonial era
to the coal towns of the early 1900's the upper class has kept their heel on
the lower class. We did, for a minute in our history, develop a middle class
but that is fading away. Now, what can we do about it?
________________________________
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> on behalf of Bob Hachey
<bhachey@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, October 16, 2017 5:00 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: ah ha, I found it...
Hi all,
Miriam and Mary both make good points here.
Firstly to Mary’s point. I agree with you that it is best to consider all
disenfranchised populations be they black, white, brown or purple. While it is
true that blacks have been disenfranchised to a far greater degree than
dispossessed white workers who have been feeling that way since, perhaps the
early 1990’s, each group believes that they have been treated unjustly and that
they have a legitimate ax to grind. Never do forget the importance of
perception here as well as the importance of reality. Blacks have had it bad
for a very long time, since the beginning of American history. But the whites
are comparing their lives to that of their parents and finding that they are
not doing as well. This belief is expressed very well in a song by Billy Joel
entitled Allen Town about factory workers and coal miners who lost jobs in the
1970’s and 1980’s. They see that maybe their sons or daughters didn’t get into
that good college and they fear it was because affirmative action programs
allowed minority students to take their places.
Now to Miriam’s point. IT does seem strange how we read more today about
disenfranchised white folks than we do of disenfranchised black folks. It
almost seems like the disenfranchisement of blacks is so ubiquitous as to not
be newsworthy. IF we are to ever truly fix what’s wrong with our system, we’d
better take into account all who have been treated unjustly by a badly
corrupted system that fosters a horrible level of income inequality that
impacts all of us negatively except for the very wealthy.
Do I blame those who voted for Trump? Yes and no. I blame them for not doing
their homework regarding how evil Trump really is, but I don’t blame them for
how they feel about the status quo and the leadership of both corrupted
parties. Yes, voting for Trump was deplorable, but it may have been equally
deplorable for Hillary to put it that way during the campaign. One of the
things that bugs me most about that campaign was that Trump never did pay for
his many horrible statements and that Hilary paid for all of her far fewer
horrible statements. It was almost as if Trump were made of Reagan’s Teflon,
(nothing stuck to him,) and Hilary was made of glue.
Bob Hachey
