It's scriptural to them...

On the subject of elder care costs today, the shop owner shared that the cost of his father's residence in the veteran's home had surged to more than $10,000 a month since the death of his mother. He was talking to a family friend who currently works as a plumber after selling his family's heating oil business a few years ago. The plumber griped that the government cuts funding for veterans and spends the money on "illegals." He blurted that out without the slightest hesitation. It's as true as God's word.

Therein lies a big problem. Our whole political system runs on public opinion. It's how we, the people, decide who gets our vote. The GOP has managed to make "illegals" the catch-all for the nation's ills. By extension, the Democrats  -- who try to enact humane policies and easier pathways to citizenship -- are evil because they don't vigorously persecute immigrants in general and undocumented ones in particular.

Hard-working people like simple answers. "Democrats spend too much money helping illegals, so our own people get short-changed" places blame instantly for the nation's problems. The solutions is simple: get rid of the illegals. To do that, get rid of Democrats.

Since the vast majority of people right around here are white, and most of them work in practical trades where they identify problems and fix them through straightforward direct action, they gravitate to the idea that you just have to get yourself a good, honest job and work hard at it to extract a decent living from the rich people who own the money supply and kindly share it with us.

Inheriting a well-established family business doesn't hurt, either. The plumber is no billionaire, and he's done more than his share of mucking around in nasty basements and crawl spaces installing and servicing systems, but he also never had to apply for work, especially far from his birthplace and home town.

The willing labor of these unconscious beneficiaries of privilege genuinely entitles them to more than just flippant dismissal. In a very white state like New Hampshire, nearly every role is filled by a white person, including "impoverished dirtbag." Contempt for the poor is not linked to race here. Interestingly, this does nothing to blunt the racism with which bigots view the problems of those other places where the gangs are awful and the migrants swarm in to rape the women, force drugs on unwilling clients, eat the pets, freeload on the welfare system and still take a lot of good jobs from good Americans.

The great Puritan work ethic can be summed up thusly: misery loves company. The virtuous toilers who have done fine for themselves can't imagine life any other way. Around there, they serve the wealthy with a smile, but they don't become friends. I really don't know if they envy the fortunes of the leisure class, while voting reliably to make sure that the leisure class remains in control. You work in that system and don't complain. If you try to change things, it's because you are lazy and you're looking for a way to slack off at others' expense.

New Hampshire is isolated from the major conflict zones in the United States right now, but it is not isolated from broadcast and internet media. As the former first in the nation presidential primary state, New Hampshire has bred into its population the idea that they are politically astute. The congressional delegation at this time is all Democrats, but the state legislature and many local offices are dominated by Republicans. At the local level, conservative attitudes dominate, shaped by the national information machinery that keeps the right wing unified by the same oversimplifications and distortions.

There is no Davos for workers

It's a lot easier to organize a small number of rich people than a large population of workers. The rich have the advantage of not having to work. They may put in long hours, but those hours are devoted to  consolidating and exerting their power. The actual workers have to put in their hours at toil they mostly did not choose. Then they have to be their own servants to maintain whatever sort of home they have.

There is no Davos for workers. Organized labor needs preparations as if for nuclear war, or a famine, or a catastrophic storm: shelter and sustenance for all, ready to deploy on short notice when a collective action cuts off everyone's income.

We don't have massive strikes and demonstrations in this country because our population is so dispersed. People would have to get to the nation's capital to swarm it. We've had a few, but they require extreme provocation. Movements are hard to sustain. Swarming in your own area is only as effective as the media coverage of it. And a mess in any major city is only a mild curiosity to anyone 15 miles away. Simultaneous actions in many cities might draw notice, but would further alienate the rural populations that control the US Senate. And before too long you have to get back to gainful employment: that thing we call work.

From the standpoint of the wealthy, our greatest age was the Gilded Age, when we emerged as a global power. Only when a member of the privileged class finally came down with an advanced case of noblesse oblige did we manage to get FDR's New Deal, and its struggling descendants into the 1960s. The 1970s were the neutral moment in the swing of the pendulum, as its return began almost imperceptibly. It has been sweeping back as a wrecking ball since 1980.

Social movements develop their own internal logic. The movement back toward centralized authority controlled by the wealthy will not stop until that status is achieved. And the pendulum may stop right there as the petty kings of corporatocracy metaphorically stop the rotation of the Earth. They will have vastly more advanced weapon and surveillance technology than their ancestors had, with which to quell uprisings. Good, obedient citizens will applaud the mass murder of dissenters. Because the internal logic for this has been building for decades, we can't vote it away. Its supporters will vote their beliefs, their feelings, their desires for a strong hand. Sure, they want a small government, but that government will still have the job of crushing dissidents. Among the free and armed citizens, the plutocrats will smile indulgently as their unofficial enforcers do the wet work. Freedom is for those who conform.

This could be stopped by peaceful means if enough swing voters would realize -- and care -- where things are headed, but they don't.

The occupant of the Oval Office from January, 2017 to January, 2021 was the greatest thing to happen to the right wing since Ronald Reagan. Indeed, he is the logical heir. Along the way have been many contributors to the rise of the right. Listeners to right-wing talk radio can feel like badasses without having to do anything. The minority who do want to do things can join militias and maybe some day get to shoot some people or blow something up. But the movement is mostly supported by chickenshits who want to make lots of money, pay little in taxes, and take no real risks.

You want common ground to build a coalition? That's it right there. Those same desires have fueled corporate Democrats now labeled as neoliberal. Make lots of money. Don't get shot at.

I'm with you when it comes to not getting shot at. But we diverge over the money. The pursuit of wealth automatically destroys the environment and the well-being of the ecosystem. It tramples on the rights of indigenous peoples to live in their environmentally balanced ways. You may destroy slowly, thoughtfully, and with a measure of regret, but you will destroy. And competition -- a cornerstone of the capitalist philosophy -- guarantees that the destruction will be neither slow nor regretful. Too many people will be shoving and grabbing to get their pile.

I'll still dangle the hope that a slim majority will vote together to put the brakes on what looks like a killer avalanche. Even then, that alliance will have to hold its ground and defend its perimeter long enough for the benefits to become obvious to a more reliable majority. And every generation will have to have the same arguments over and over.