"Class is not a useful framework for understanding the two party system in the US. This is not intended as a jab at Marx, class consciousness, or anything of the sort, just a remark on its relevance. The Democrats and Republicans were not founded on a class basis, do not operate on a class basis, and their political ideology isn’t class based."
I disagree. Team D is the political manifestation of the class consciousness of the Prfessional Manager Class, with various grievance groups as junior partners. Lanyard people. Email jobs.
Team R plays a similar role with regard to Local Gentry, with white evanglicals as their sidekicks. That guy who inherited or bought his dad's muffler shop and parlayed that into a regional chain of muffler shops. Patrick Wyman describes the type well.
In this, their historical antecedents were the Whigs and Tories in the UK.
I disagree. For lack of a better the dirtbag left has said this line about the Dems, but it doesn't go far enough and is at least part of why I wanted to write this series of essays. The biggest problem being that this assumes the PMC are anything other than marginally better off salary men, mandarins with a little power other than excessive education. This PMC, in so far as it exists, is a key segment the Democratic brand is marketed to but it certainly is no expression of their class power. Certain tastes must be pandered to in order to effectively market the party to this segment but only a fool would mistake this for actual control. I know the brawling between the Sanders voters and the lanyards made this possible, but this salarymen are mostly a scapegoat and those of us on the left should know better.
Great stuff!
"Class is not a useful framework for understanding the two party system in the US. This is not intended as a jab at Marx, class consciousness, or anything of the sort, just a remark on its relevance. The Democrats and Republicans were not founded on a class basis, do not operate on a class basis, and their political ideology isn’t class based."
I disagree. Team D is the political manifestation of the class consciousness of the Prfessional Manager Class, with various grievance groups as junior partners. Lanyard people. Email jobs.
Team R plays a similar role with regard to Local Gentry, with white evanglicals as their sidekicks. That guy who inherited or bought his dad's muffler shop and parlayed that into a regional chain of muffler shops. Patrick Wyman describes the type well.
In this, their historical antecedents were the Whigs and Tories in the UK.
I disagree. For lack of a better the dirtbag left has said this line about the Dems, but it doesn't go far enough and is at least part of why I wanted to write this series of essays. The biggest problem being that this assumes the PMC are anything other than marginally better off salary men, mandarins with a little power other than excessive education. This PMC, in so far as it exists, is a key segment the Democratic brand is marketed to but it certainly is no expression of their class power. Certain tastes must be pandered to in order to effectively market the party to this segment but only a fool would mistake this for actual control. I know the brawling between the Sanders voters and the lanyards made this possible, but this salarymen are mostly a scapegoat and those of us on the left should know better.