The "Grievance Industry"
18/4/14 12:26![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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talkpoliticsMany years ago, just after the end of Reagan’s first term, I was listening to a local Talk Radio host, Ronn Owens, doing a sort of “summing up” of the Reagan administration so far. He brought up Reagan’s question, “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” and he said, “I gotta tell ya. Yes, I am. And everyone I know is better off too.”
Ronn invited his mostly white, middle-class listeners to weigh in. One after another they lined up to chirp about how well they were doing in Reagan’s America.
Then, he got a black caller, who informed the host, “I’m not better off. I’m not better off at all. In fact, things have gotten worse. And I don’t know one single black American who’s not doing worse.”
“Oh now sir,” Ronn said, with the air of someone calming down a hysteric. “don’t you feel you’re being a little myopic?”
I guess the farsighted, non-myopic approach would have been for the caller and all those other black Americans to think happy thoughts about how well Ronn Owens and the other white folks were doing, rather than focusing on their own petty concerns.
There has long been in the United States mainstream the unspoken assumption that a poor, female, gay, non-Christian or non-white person voting in his or her own interest is a form of whining rather than common sense, even though the stakes for these voters tend to be higher than the concerns of wealthy folks who don’t want to pay those extra taxes that could price them out of that second house in the Hamptons. The rule of thumb is, apparently – if you have a real grievance influencing your vote, like “I could lose my healthcare if the Republicans have their way” or “I could end up unable to afford birth control or unable to get access to an abortion” or “As a black American, I don’t want a guy who’s taking advice from Charles Murray deciding policy that’s going to affect my kids” or “My family could go hungry” or “I could end up in jail for having consensual sex with another adult” or “this guy wants to pass legislation that would endanger my right to vote” you are part of the “Grievance Industry.” And that’s a bad thing.
This attitude has recently been kicked into overdrive by the passing of ACA. The right wing is now in full panic mode over the horrifying discovery that people like being able to afford healthcare and are not going to like having that access taken away. Worse, these same people will actually vote in favor of their own physical and civic well-being. The right seems to think this is awfully unfair, and they believe it’s even more unfair for Democratic politicians to point out to these voters how much is at stake.
Joan Walsh at Salon puts it beautifully:
So let me make sure I understand. Telling your voters, accurately, that Republicans are trying to make it harder for them to vote, and are blocking action on pay equity, the minimum wage and immigration reform is unfair “grievance politics”? Likewise, any effort to deal with the scandal of $1 trillion in student loan debt? Oliphant compares it to the grievance politics practiced by Republicans under Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. But that form of grievance politics mainly relied on inflaming white voters’ fears of cultural and racial change with false or highly exaggerated claims about Democrats. (emphasis added.)
The difference between accusations that are accurate and accusations that are highly exaggerated or quite simply untrue is apparently unimportant, as far as some in the media are concerned.
I mean really, it’s all about whether or not they make people get all emotional. All that arm-waving and emoting about “I want to cast a ballot” or “I want my heart medication” or “I don’t want to end up homeless after my unemployment benefits run out” is JUST like those Republicans who said that black people were going to take over and John Kerry didn’t deserve his medals and gay people were going to kidnap your little boy and marry him. So vulgar!
Why can’t people directly affected by these policies stop horning into conversations that should really be conducted as abstract conundrums over cocktails at a DC reception?
*
Ronn invited his mostly white, middle-class listeners to weigh in. One after another they lined up to chirp about how well they were doing in Reagan’s America.
Then, he got a black caller, who informed the host, “I’m not better off. I’m not better off at all. In fact, things have gotten worse. And I don’t know one single black American who’s not doing worse.”
“Oh now sir,” Ronn said, with the air of someone calming down a hysteric. “don’t you feel you’re being a little myopic?”
I guess the farsighted, non-myopic approach would have been for the caller and all those other black Americans to think happy thoughts about how well Ronn Owens and the other white folks were doing, rather than focusing on their own petty concerns.
There has long been in the United States mainstream the unspoken assumption that a poor, female, gay, non-Christian or non-white person voting in his or her own interest is a form of whining rather than common sense, even though the stakes for these voters tend to be higher than the concerns of wealthy folks who don’t want to pay those extra taxes that could price them out of that second house in the Hamptons. The rule of thumb is, apparently – if you have a real grievance influencing your vote, like “I could lose my healthcare if the Republicans have their way” or “I could end up unable to afford birth control or unable to get access to an abortion” or “As a black American, I don’t want a guy who’s taking advice from Charles Murray deciding policy that’s going to affect my kids” or “My family could go hungry” or “I could end up in jail for having consensual sex with another adult” or “this guy wants to pass legislation that would endanger my right to vote” you are part of the “Grievance Industry.” And that’s a bad thing.
This attitude has recently been kicked into overdrive by the passing of ACA. The right wing is now in full panic mode over the horrifying discovery that people like being able to afford healthcare and are not going to like having that access taken away. Worse, these same people will actually vote in favor of their own physical and civic well-being. The right seems to think this is awfully unfair, and they believe it’s even more unfair for Democratic politicians to point out to these voters how much is at stake.
Joan Walsh at Salon puts it beautifully:
So let me make sure I understand. Telling your voters, accurately, that Republicans are trying to make it harder for them to vote, and are blocking action on pay equity, the minimum wage and immigration reform is unfair “grievance politics”? Likewise, any effort to deal with the scandal of $1 trillion in student loan debt? Oliphant compares it to the grievance politics practiced by Republicans under Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. But that form of grievance politics mainly relied on inflaming white voters’ fears of cultural and racial change with false or highly exaggerated claims about Democrats. (emphasis added.)
The difference between accusations that are accurate and accusations that are highly exaggerated or quite simply untrue is apparently unimportant, as far as some in the media are concerned.
I mean really, it’s all about whether or not they make people get all emotional. All that arm-waving and emoting about “I want to cast a ballot” or “I want my heart medication” or “I don’t want to end up homeless after my unemployment benefits run out” is JUST like those Republicans who said that black people were going to take over and John Kerry didn’t deserve his medals and gay people were going to kidnap your little boy and marry him. So vulgar!
Why can’t people directly affected by these policies stop horning into conversations that should really be conducted as abstract conundrums over cocktails at a DC reception?
*
(no subject)
Date: 22/4/14 15:25 (UTC)No, it's not what it means to "face your accuser." Nor does "face your accuser" mean that the victim is treated as being as culpable as the accused.
s: Not nearly as prevalent as some seem to think...
And much more prevalent that many others seem to think. Women past a certain age are usually pretty aware of how prevalent because "rape" has ceased to be something that happens to someone else you've never met. Either you've had friends who experienced it, or you've had at least one narrow escape, or you've experienced it yourself.
s: Work more, get paid more, work less, get paid less.
There are single mothers working two jobs who still are unable to pay for basic necessities. That's not a reflection of how much they work. It's a reflection of how little they are paid.
s: To put this in as simple "non-jargony" terms as possible, their governments have disposable income.
And how have they managed this with their generous social safety nets and shorter work hours?
(no subject)
Date: 22/4/14 20:54 (UTC)Innocent until proven guilty REQUIRES us to consider all accusations against a specific person false until proven otherwise. Anything else would be a legal paradox, not to mention violation of due process and basic rights guarenteed by the US Constitution.
I ask again, Are you, Paft, prepared to stake ruining an innocent person's life on less?
And much more prevalent that many others seem to think.
Yes, but i think you'd be surprised if you knew who the victims were.
There are single mothers working two jobs who still are unable to pay for basic necessities.
And?
And how have they managed this with their generous social safety nets and shorter work hours?
We've been over (http://talk-politics.livejournal.com/1830965.html?thread=145203765#t145203765) this (http://talk-politics.livejournal.com/1838915.html?thread=145434947#t145434947) before (http://talk-politics.livejournal.com/1851460.html?thread=146111300#t146111300).
(no subject)
Date: 23/4/14 15:37 (UTC)That doesn't mean you treat the victim of a crime as if they were as "culpable" as the accused.
s: I ask again, Are you, Paft, prepared to stake ruining an innocent person's life on less?
No, which is why I reserved judgement on cases like the Duke Lacross players who were accused of rape and later cleared. But assuming innocence until proof of guilt is a far cry from the attitudes I've seen reflected in your posts on this subject, which read as though you consider the entire concept of date rape a myth. Most women my age know it is not.
s: Yes, but i think you'd be surprised if you knew who the victims were.
I know who the victims are, sandwich warrior. Some of them are friends of mine.
Paft: There are single mothers working two jobs who still are unable to pay for basic necessities.
s: And?
And so there needs to be either a raise in the minimum wage that prevents fulltime workers from ending up on the dole, or a more generous social safety net.
paft: And how have they managed this with their generous social safety nets and shorter work hours?
s: We've been over this before.
VBG, indeed, and you never did get back to me on how, if Scandanavians on the whole work less hours and take longer vacations than Amercians, they qualify as more hardworking.
Ever going to get around to it, or should we assume that your answer has to do with a certain lack of melanin among Scandanavians?