On Class Warfare

These are words that most Americans don’t want to hear. If they’re Republicans, they don’t want to hear them because they’re doing very well out of class warfare, thank you; if they’re Democrats, they are too, though some of them might feel a teeny bit guilty about it. The kinds of people who talk about it or even think about it are regarded as crackpots, holdovers from the sixties, or outright pinko commie bastards.

We were musing this morning on why Marxist rhetoric gets people so uncomfortable here, when the rhetoric of fundamentalist crackpot capitalists is hardly noticed. I think George Lakoff would argue that it’s because the Republicans have done a good job with their framing, but I think there’s more to it than that.

The stark images of destitute African Americans made homeless in the wake of the hurricane in New Orleans are a clue.

It’s tied to race, but it’s not just race. It’s tied to class, but it’s not just class.

We went to see the San Francisco Mime Troupe in Davis today. These people, at least, are not afraid to take on class warfare, or American imperialism, or the evils of globalization.

Refreshing.