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.
No comments:
Post a Comment