UCB sociologist explains the pro-bush, blue collar mentality

[zimv20]

link (http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/03/12/int03326.html)


Arlie Hochschild: Let me back up first before I answer that, though, so I can nail down some poll results. They came as a bit of a surprise to me. A full 49 percent of blue-collar men and 38 percent of blue-collar women indicated in a January '03 Roper poll that they would vote for Bush in 2004. We can now compare that to the smaller proportion of pro-Bush professionals and managers. 40 percent of male and 32 percent of female professionals and managers plan to vote for Bush.

So if we compare occupational groups, blue collar workers are more in favor of Bush than the white collar sector. If we compare educational groups, we find the same thing. High school graduates and dropouts are more pro-Bush than people with graduate degrees. And if we compare income groups, we find people with family incomes of $30,000 or less are no more opposed to Bush -- about the same -- as those with incomes of $75,000 or more.

The surprise is that the people most hurt by Bush's policies are his strongest supporters. We know that there have been 2.5 million jobs lost in his presidency. He's kind of got a "bleed 'em dry" approach to the non-Pentagon part of government spending. He's not doing anything to help blue-collar workers learn new trades, or get a house, or help their kids go to college. He's loosening the Occupation Health and Safety regulations. The plants the guys work at are less safe. His agricultural policies are putting small farmers out of business. So we have to ask: why would they vote Republican?


there's a kind of a dilemma here that the blue-collar guy, since the ‘70s on, has been suffering a giant economic downward slide. His paycheck is worth less. His job has become less secure. His benefits have been carved down. And all of this is bad, bad news for him. His wife's had to go to work, and now, 30 years later, the two of them earn what he alone would have earlier earned.

With this economic hit has come a cultural hit. Now I think it's a worldwide story, a kind of economic undermining of patriarchal customs and expectations. And so, with this economic decline may come marital instability -- a lot of hard things have hit this guy. And so how he feels psychologically becomes a really important question. And I think the story is that he believes -- whether it's true or not -- that a lot of people have come up from behind him. Women have come from behind. Minorities have come from behind and gotten ahead; immigrants, new arrivals, have come from behind and have gotten ahead. Even the spotted owl -- a lot of them are not environmentalists because they think somebody's now putting animal rights over their human rights. As he's sliding down, he imagines all these groups moving up.

And a very understandable thing to do is to look at them and want them to go back where they came from. The feeling is one of frustration, fear, anger. What he's not doing is looking at Bush, the guy at the top, who's rigging the whole economic game, and who's not doing a thing to support him, and who's actually deflecting blame away from the top. So it comes down to this: those feelings that come with a kind of loss of position, income and status among blue collar males is being exploited instead of addressed.

Look at Bush's adolescence and young adulthood -- it's really extended until he was 40. He was careening around in Daddy's car, getting tickets for drunken driving, stealing the wreath off the Macy's front door. He was dragging a garbage can from a neighbor's driveway down the street and careening around.

He's still careening around. That's what he's doing in Iraq -- careening around. We are the neighbor's garbage can; he's dragging us with him.

But how that gets to be an asset subliminally for this important swing vote group is that you can mess up and still end up on top. He's not providing any policies to help that happen. That is the sleight of hand. He's actually making the working man's life a thousand times harder.

Buzzflash: Bush can't communicate directly to the white male about how he stands for the white male being on top, so there's a lot of coding going on, it seems. And much of this is subliminal, because Bush can't say, well, I keep Laura in her place, but --

Hochschild: You never see her. She's in a lockbox.

BuzzFlash: And she's always walking behind him and is carefully scripted to say as little as possible. If she says anything, it's once or twice a month, and it's a sentence or two, or maybe a highly controlled interview. In their relationship, she symbolizes the woman who is always deferential to the husband. And Bush himself, although he comes from entitlement, in many ways he shows that the more he fails, the more secure maybe white males feel who are feeling uncomfortable with their position, because he's still the President of the United States. It is a reinforcement of all of the white males -- that no matter how much they screw up, they're still head of the family.

[mactastic]

Ah yes, the angry white male theory. I didn't think that was anything new?

[jefhatfield]

i will state this first...i am a democrat

but the republicans since the late 80s and early 90s up til now have been brilliant in capturing the blue collar world in votes...a group that has traditionally been democrat and still receive more from democratic policies

but the gop has remade its image from greedy silver spooners to the other party that stands for the working man

when i heard colin powell's speech at the 2000 republican convention, he made a good argument for how the gop is better for the minority in america...he had so much authority in his voice and many trust him like a grandfather...he put a great spin on the gop as the party for minorities today

just like the south went from being solidly democratic to solidly republican, the blue collar trust in the gop can make the gop change their policies to cater more to them...in the meantime, the success of clinton with wall street has remade the democrats into the other party for big business and business in general

if this trend continues, the democrats may end up being the rich, waspy, fatcat party of ivy leaguers and the gop may end up becoming the party that the workers and unions support...it could be a big flip flop

during the civil war, it was the gop who was the more socially progressive party and over the years that changed around so anything can happen over a long period of time

[Neserk]

typically, the more educated you become the more liberal you become so it not surprising that blue collar workers would be more inclined to vote Repbulican.

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by Neserk
typically, the more educated you become the more liberal you become so it not surprising that blue collar workers would be more inclined to vote Repbulican.

what i find very sad is how the democrats have lost much of the working class vote...i thought that is who they stood up for and since when has the democratic party been the party of the yuppie elite?

howard dean's consituency is called the starbuck's brigade and he is the overwhelming choice of educated professional people...the still significant blue collar force still with the democrats very much like general wesley clark

and it's ironic that they are trying to displace the working class hero george bush who went to philips andover, yale, and harvard and comes from the northeast brahmin...what a strange world we live in ;)

[pseudobrit]

Originally posted by jefhatfield
what i find very sad is how the democrats have lost much of the working class vote...i thought that is who they stood up for and since when has the democratic party been the party of the yuppie elite?

Since the unions have been falling apart.

[jefhatfield]

unions have lost nearly half their power since their heyday and while they are still a major force in american politics, they are no longer the democrats ace card

i remember growing up where america was two to one in favor of the democrats and the biggest issue for the democrats was just getting democrats to get out and vote...now i see a big push for the democrats to capture republicans who used to be democrats ;)

i used to be a republican in the nixon and ford days, and i believed them to be excellent presidents as i still do, but when the gop got the "say anything/promise anything but spend our money instead" reagan and bush, then i ditched the party and went democrat and have not looked back since

but since educated business conservatives like me ran over to clinton/gore, many a blue collar worker went to the dole/bush camp and it became kind of like a baseball team trade:p

this swapping period of the 80s and 90s will be studied by political scientists for many years to come

[Desertrat]

The Democrats became perceived by many blue collar folks as catering or pandering to Women's Lib and homosexuals--aside from any racial issues. Further, the blue collar perception of "Welfare"--however skewed it may be--is very negative and is tied to the Democrats.

My question, then, is why would anybody be surprised at the shift in blue collar voting patterns? I saw this coming in the days of the 55mph speed limit. I was on the road a good bit, and the various commentaries over the CB by truckers provided a pretty good clue about likes and dislikes in politics...

In the south, mountain west and southwest, the gun control issue also favors the Republicans. Just ask Ann Richards about Texas, and a fair number of legislators in Georgia.

'Rat

[Neserk]

Originally posted by jefhatfield
[B]what i find very sad is how the democrats have lost much of the working class vote...i thought that is who they stood up for and since when has the democratic party been the party of the yuppie elite?


I'm hardly a Yuppie or Elite. You might be surprised who is out there being educated beyond high school these days. Most of the people I went to school with were going into service related fields. Certainly not high paying jobs. While education is the way out of poverty is not necessarily the road to wealth ;)

[Code101]

Originally posted by Neserk
typically, the more educated you become the more liberal you become so it not surprising that blue collar workers would be more inclined to vote Repbulican.

So in other words, the more educated you get, the more dumb you become? Or better yet, the more brainwashed you become?

[Neserk]

Originally posted by Code101
So in other words, the more educated you get, the more dumb you become? Or better yet, the more brainwashed you become?

actually, the opposite ;)

[Sayhey]

Originally posted by Code101
So in other words, the more educated you get, the more dumb you become? Or better yet, the more brainwashed you become?

That's only if you get your MBA and go to work for Enron, then end up working for Bush!;)

Seriously, education levels are too blunt a tool to describe liberals. Minority voters have traditionally voted for some of the most liberal candidates and if you compare education levels they are, in general, not as high as the population as a whole.

Union membership certainly has something to do with the voting habits of blue collar workers, but it is not the only factor by far. I would agree with the observation that there have been profound cultural changes that have occurred over the last 25 to 40 years and these changes have effected how blue collar voters view politics. However, I think it is more of a question of how effective politicians are in taping into the feeling of alienation among most blue collar voters.

To put it bluntly, the Republican Party has been very effective in its use of fear and patriotic symbols to convince many blue collar voters to vote against their interests. Having grown up in a blue collar family and having worked in such jobs much of my life, I have no doubt where my interests lie - and they are not with Bush!

[Dont Hurt Me]

Big business runs both these guys and if you think not you are mistaken. It use to be Democrats were for the poor, Republicans were for the rich and the middle class got screwed. but according to this its the dumbies are for the Republicans, the smarties are for the Democrats and the middle class is still getting screwed- whats changed?:eek: What are the blue collars values? they love god, they love patriotism and they love country. now ask yourself which party holds these values more then the other?

[Sayhey]

Originally posted by Dont Hurt Me
Big business runs both these guys and if you think not you are mistaken. It use to be Democrats were for the poor, Republicans were for the rich and the middle class got screwed. but according to this its the dumbies are for the Republicans, the smarties are for the Democrats and the middle class is still getting screwed- whats changed?:eek: What are the blue collars values? they love god, they love patriotism and they love country. now ask yourself which party holds these values more then the other?

Those are not just blue collar values. I don't buy the idea that the Republican party best holds these values. I do accept the idea that it has been effective in convincing many people that it does. I think that is not a reflection of reality, but one of perception.

I think you are right to point out that both parties are controlled by big business. I would like to see other parties become viable options to choose from, but not in this presidential race. This is not an election about big business, at least not all large corporations. It is about the direction our country is taking under Bush. Corporate control is an issue only in as much as they support or push the policies of Bush. The only viable alternative is the candidate of the Democratic Party. To the degree the Democrats can build a broad coalition that takes in blue collar workers and many others they and we will be successful.

[Dont Hurt Me]

perhaps better wording would be which party ( seems or promotes these values then the other?) maybe even which party is marketing these values? anyways you look at it the Republicans are getting these guys. I just read today that another senator or congressman was switching over to the republicans. by the way iam Independent.

[Neserk]

Originally posted by Dont Hurt Me
Big business runs both these guys and if you think not you are mistaken. It use to be Democrats were for the poor, Republicans were for the rich and the middle class got screwed. but according to this its the dumbies are for the Republicans, the smarties are for the Democrats and the middle class is still getting screwed- whats changed?:eek: What are the blue collars values? they love god, they love patriotism and they love country. now ask yourself which party holds these values more then the other?


:confused: Middle class still get an education. They just have to pay more for it when all is said and done. (Stafford Loans, anyone?)

[pseudobrit]

Originally posted by Code101
So in other words, the more educated you get, the more dumb you become? Or better yet, the more brainwashed you become?

Oh hahahahahahahahahahhahahahahha

dude, you're so funny I just **** my pants.

[Awimoway]

I like what Hochschild says about why the blue collar identifies with the Republican party. The big divide is cultural, not economic.

But Hochschild is way off when he tries to account for why the blue collar approves of men like Bush. It has nothing to do with immature hijinks because they don't fixate on or believe any of those stories about him. I think here is where Hochschild's Marxism gets in the way. There is no class envy for them to overcome. They identify with the wealthy. They--we--live in a country that is saturated with cultural images of wealth. We spend less time focused on neighborhood gossip than we do on celebrity gossip. The rich and famous are our neighborhood, regardless of the fact that most of the people who watch are poor. They want to believe they are rich. Lotteries and Vegas even give them the hope that someday they will be rich. So they turn a blind eye to all the sweetheart deals between big business and the government. They revile taxes that would actually help them. It's all about hope. It's sick and twisted, the way hope is used against them, but that's how it's done.

Essentially, they are in denial about their own state of affairs. They want so desperately to keep up the illusion that America and the straight white man are at the top of the world that they ignore their own poverty.

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by Desertrat
The Democrats became perceived by many blue collar folks as catering or pandering to Women's Lib and homosexuals--aside from any racial issues. Further, the blue collar perception of "Welfare"--however skewed it may be--is very negative and is tied to the Democrats.


catering to homosexuals? by how much then? wasn't gay marriage still not law when clinton left office after eight years? catering to women's lib? again, by how much? women still make less than men for the same job

it's a lot more complex than that and though the shift is real, there are far too many factors to take into account...i still know a lot of white, male blue collar workers who hate the ground george bush walks on and think theat he caters to his rich corporate buddies and the rich/very rich...just look at who benefits the most from tax cuts

colin powell thinks that the minorities in america will be next to jump over to the republican party and if that is true, then i see that the democrats would then be in a lot of trouble...we all know that colin powell or condi rice have been in the hopes of some republicans to run in 2008...i guess then we will see how many of colin powell's minorities actually vote for him or condi rice

in 1992, bush senior's only minority victory was among asian americans, but i am one asian american that went against the trend;)

[Desertrat]

jef, re "catering to homosexuals? by how much then? wasn't gay marriage still not law when clinton left office after eight years? catering to women's lib? again, by how much? women still make less than men for the same job."

Passage of laws is less important in public perception than the speechifying on issues, or the introduction of legislation with the attendant PR handouts.

All I'm saying is that as a generality in the blue collar world, the perceptions exist. I've hung out in too many beer joints and schmoozed with too many "workin' folks" to believe otherwise. I'm not trying at all to justify those perceptions.

'Rat

[mactastic]

Originally posted by Code101
So in other words, the more educated you get, the more dumb you become? Or better yet, the more brainwashed you become?

Nice. Thanks for lowering the maturity level around here.:rolleyes:

[mactastic]

Originally posted by Desertrat
The Democrats became perceived by many blue collar folks as catering or pandering to Women's Lib and homosexuals--aside from any racial issues. Further, the blue collar perception of "Welfare"--however skewed it may be--is very negative and is tied to the Democrats.


Republicans have become percieved as being in the pocket of big business particularly the oil and gas industry, extremist christians, and the gun lobby aside from any issues. Further, the perception of "Corporate Welfare" however skewed it may be is tied to the Republicans. Which perception is worse? I've been to plenty of "beer joints" and heard plenty of griping about the job losses and deficit increases under Bush, not to mention the little matter of the fibs he told to get the military "ball" rolling in Iraq.

Of course I'm not trying to justify these positions. I just say them because I can.;)

[mactastic]

Originally posted by Dont Hurt Me
Big business runs both these guys and if you think not you are mistaken. It use to be Democrats were for the poor, Republicans were for the rich and the middle class got screwed. but according to this its the dumbies are for the Republicans, the smarties are for the Democrats and the middle class is still getting screwed- whats changed?:eek: What are the blue collars values? they love god, they love patriotism and they love country. now ask yourself which party holds these values more then the other?

Big business and the Christian right control the GOP. Trial lawers and labor unions control the Dems. Money controls them both.

[mactastic]

Originally posted by Dont Hurt Me
by the way iam Independent.

So am I. So is Bill O'Reilly. So is Tazo for that matter. Independant doesn't mean you aren't a conservative or liberal, just that you aren't a member of any particular party.

[Desertrat]

Yeah, mac, I pretty much agree with "Republicans have become percieved as being in the pocket of big business particularly the oil and gas industry, extremist christians, and the gun lobby aside from any issues. Further, the perception of "Corporate Welfare" however skewed it may be is tied to the Republicans. Which perception is worse?"

I'm not sure that "worse" matters. Lotsa blue collar folks work in the oil and gas industry; their paychecks are more important to them than the political issue therein (IMO). A fair number of them
ARE extremist Christians. A high percentage of them own guns, whether or not they've joined any pro-gun group.

What's important to you or to me isn't necessarily as important to Joe Sixpack.

'Rat

[mactastic]

Well if you want to go that route, supposedly about 10% of our population is homosexual, and just over 50% of them are women. I can't imagine more than 10% of our population gets their paycheck from the oil or gas industry, and I would imagine there are more women than gun owners in this country. In addition to Joe Six Pack, there are Adam and Steve Twelvepack, and Jane Winecooler (hows that for stereotyping:D ) as well. It's all about who can get who out to vote.

[pseudobrit]

IMO, Joe Sixpack can be horribly misinformed, scares easily and therefore is easy to manipulate.

Stereotypes cut both ways.

[Neserk]

Originally posted by mactastic
Independant doesn't mean you aren't a conservative or liberal, just that you aren't a member of any particular party.

Me too.. I won't register with a political party... uggh.. I hate lables...

[Desertrat]

Is it not correct that for decades the Democratic Party has created a collection of small voting blocs (Women's Lib + blacks + unions + Latins + gays + liberals, etc.) in order to create a majority?

Could it not be that the Republican Party is now engaged more actively than in the past in doing the same thing?

IMO, both parties are equal as to providing misinformation as to issues or opposition candidates...

'Rat