Steve Bannon & Chris Arnade
From Robert Draper’s NYT Magazine story on Trump’s legislative agenda:
Up to this point, Ryan had epitomized to Bannon everything that was wrong with the Republican Party. Discussing the two parties’ shortcomings, Bannon later told me, “What’s that Dostoyevsky line: Happy families are all the same, but unhappy families are unhappy in their own unique ways?” (He meant Tolstoy.) “I think the Democrats are fundamentally afflicted with the inability to discuss and have an adult conversation about economics and jobs, because they’re too consumed by identity politics. And then the Republicans, it’s all this theoretical Cato Institute, Austrian economics, limited government — which just doesn’t have any depth to it. They’re not living in the real world.”
Bannon’s not wrong, you know. More:
As [Bannon] would later tell me: “The working class, and in particular the lower middle class, understands something that’s so obvious — which is that they’ve basically underwritten the rise of China. Their jobs, their raises, their retirement accounts have all fueled the private equity and venture capital that built China. Because China’s really built on investments and exports, right? People are smart enough to know that they’re getting played by both political parties. The two may be different on social issues, but when it comes to fundamental economics, they’re both the same. That’s why the American working class is interested in trade. It’s linked to their lives.”
Along those lines, check out these tweets from today by Chris Arnade, whose Twitter account you really should be following:
1. Dems to white working class: “You have structural advantage we will remove, your jobs are obsolete, & your lifestyle icky.” Vote for us!
— Chris Arnade (@Chris_arnade) March 26, 2017
2. When they don’t vote for Democrats. “They are voting against their self-interest. & I have no sympathy for them.”
What can we do???????
— Chris Arnade (@Chris_arnade) March 26, 2017
And then, a tweetstorm:
1. The Democrats are not the party of the working class, but rather the party that “isn’t as awful to workers as the GOP.” pic.twitter.com/qaN72So9ng
— Chris Arnade (@Chris_arnade) March 26, 2017
2. Rather than dismantle huge influence of Wall Street, they have joined GOP & embraced it (& been embraced by it)https://t.co/g37i2wvAoI
— Chris Arnade (@Chris_arnade) March 26, 2017
3. Rather than end the outsourcing of jobs to whatever place is desperate enough to work for crap, they shrug, “Everyone likes cheap iPods.” pic.twitter.com/Fjs9IHGGqn
— Chris Arnade (@Chris_arnade) March 26, 2017
4. Rather than dismantle monopolies that cluster wealth, they weave a neoliberal tale about the goodness of marketshttps://t.co/ul8P9xPtA9
— Chris Arnade (@Chris_arnade) March 26, 2017
5. They got GOP envy, becoming market acolytes who viewed labor as a cost. The result? Inequality ballooned & incomes for most stagnated pic.twitter.com/OaivNiazX3
— Chris Arnade (@Chris_arnade) March 26, 2017
5. They got GOP envy, becoming market acolytes who viewed labor as a cost. The result? Inequality ballooned & incomes for most stagnated pic.twitter.com/OaivNiazX3
— Chris Arnade (@Chris_arnade) March 26, 2017
7. They live in exclusive/segregated hoods in certain cities, or clustered next to elite schools/companies far away from workers & industry pic.twitter.com/ycXtqKOp8Z
— Chris Arnade (@Chris_arnade) March 26, 2017
8. More & more detached from workers — in policy, wealth, & in person — the Democrats went with a “They got no other choice!” strategy. pic.twitter.com/OQAVaIABzQ
— Chris Arnade (@Chris_arnade) March 26, 2017
9. And it kinda worked. They continued getting working class votes because, “Dems aint as far up the ass of shareholders as the GOP!” pic.twitter.com/ytTDi8Hp7J
— Chris Arnade (@Chris_arnade) March 26, 2017
10. Their other pitch? We ain’t racist! Indeed! Their commitment to ending racial/gender imbalances is noble/admirable (& why I vote Dem!) pic.twitter.com/rAGYY87UZd
— Chris Arnade (@Chris_arnade) March 26, 2017
11. Yet they also use it to hide & paper over their economic & cultural elitism. (Look! Working class women & minorities like us!) pic.twitter.com/ECn2rQEAFi
— Chris Arnade (@Chris_arnade) March 26, 2017
12. And to disingenuously paint anyone who doesn’t vote for them, or who questions their views, as racist or dumb. pic.twitter.com/MqLleGJfvQ
— Chris Arnade (@Chris_arnade) March 26, 2017
13. This has all left many workers dangling by thinner & thinner thread, where everything/everyone can be seen as threat to cut the thread pic.twitter.com/BHDDJIb79h
— Chris Arnade (@Chris_arnade) March 26, 2017
14. And when, after decades of dangling & worrying, many working class voters finally turned on the Democrats. pic.twitter.com/1StDgjY2rM
— Chris Arnade (@Chris_arnade) March 26, 2017
15. Did the Democrats blame themselves for selling the workers interest out? Nope. It was the workers’ fault for being dumb. Or racist. pic.twitter.com/zynDSVn6GF
— Chris Arnade (@Chris_arnade) March 26, 2017
16. Or it was the voters’ fault for not understanding their own self interest (a stunningly arrogant notion). So why bother with sympathy pic.twitter.com/3EBkDpYbDZ
— Chris Arnade (@Chris_arnade) March 26, 2017
17. That reaction completes the cycle of detachment. Treat voters like captive fools, and when they finally turn on you, call them fools. pic.twitter.com/YUI9ajgbmZ
— Chris Arnade (@Chris_arnade) March 26, 2017
18. And pre end with thishttps://t.co/faW46gHCJE
— Chris Arnade (@Chris_arnade) March 26, 2017
19. And this https://t.co/1Q8p95AHil
— Chris Arnade (@Chris_arnade) March 26, 2017
20. And really end with this. pic.twitter.com/jkSf5pAfx0
— Chris Arnade (@Chris_arnade) March 26, 2017
Read more and follow @chrisarnade here.
A Republican version of this would not be hard to come up with. I bet Steve Bannon could come up with a Hurricane Katrina of a tweetstorm laying into the GOP like Chris Arnade lays into his own party here.
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