What's The Matter with With Pennsylvania?

Barak Obama stepped in it a while back by suggesting that rural Pennsylvania voters cling to their guns and churches as proxies for their declining economic fortunes. Sen. Clinton rapidly jumped on the comments as "elitist" and un American. Hmm... here is the quote with the supposeldy controversial part highlighted:

So, it depends on where you are, but I think it's fair to say that the places where we are going to have to do the most work are the places where people feel most cynical about government. The people are mis-appre...I think they're misunderstanding why the demographics in our, in this contest have broken out as they are. Because everybody just ascribes it to 'white working-class don't wanna work -- don't wanna vote for the black guy.' That's...there were intimations of that in an article in the Sunday New York Times today - kind of implies that it's sort of a race thing.

Here's how it is: in a lot of these communities in big industrial states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, people have been beaten down so long, and they feel so betrayed by government, and when they hear a pitch that is premised on not being cynical about government, then a part of them just doesn't buy it. And when it's delivered by -- it's true that when it's delivered by a 46-year-old black man named Barack Obama (laugher), then that adds another layer of skepticism (laughter).

But -- so the questions you're most likely to get about me, 'Well, what is this guy going to do for me? What's the concrete thing?' What they wanna hear is -- so, we'll give you talking points about what we're proposing -- close tax loopholes, roll back, you know, the tax cuts for the top 1 percent. Obama's gonna give tax breaks to middle-class folks and we're gonna provide health care for every American. So we'll go down a series of talking points.

But the truth is, is that, our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there's not evidence of that in their daily lives. You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. So it's not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations. Um, now these are in some communities, you know. I think what you'll find is, is that people of every background -- there are gonna be a mix of people, you can go in the toughest neighborhoods, you know working-class lunch-pail folks, you'll find Obama enthusiasts. And you can go into places where you think I'd be very strong and people will just be skeptical. The important thing is that you show up and you're doing what you're doing.

You really cannot deny that the white working class, be it urban or rural, is in severe distress. On the one hand, their economic fortunes have been devastated by free trade, policies that favor big business at the expense of small business, that favor management over labor, and policies that choked investment in infrastructure. These forces are largely the creation of Republican policies (to which Democrats meekly assented), and any time anyone talks about them, they are accused of class warfare.

On the other hand, the Republican Party has very successfully convinced the white working class that their way of life is under siege by gays, feminists, racial minorities, secularists and abortionists. (Sound familiar Tom Franks). This strategy effectively distracts voters away from the real issues that effect their fortunes and leads them into a bogus culture war.(Let's face it, more working class jobs have been lost to foreign outsourcing than to affirmative action or illegal immigration.) It is this dynamic that Senator Obama identified in his speech. It is the phenomena that leads many working class folks to vote Republican because Republicans "won't take their guns away" even though they will take your job away.

The mistake Obama made is making it sound as though the white working class has been buffaloed by Republicans. They have, of course, but you really have to be careful how you say it. No one likes to be identified as a rube. So I score it this way:

Sen Obama -- + 5 for calling out Republicans on this issue. -5 for being ham handed and making potential voters sound like fools rather than victims of a very comprehensive political strategy. The better strategy would have been to say something like, "For years the GOP has told voters that Democrats want to take their guns, their children, and their religion .. all while their policies are stealing your jobs and your children's future. Its time we stopped being distracted and started looking at the real fox in the hen house and not the mythical fox created by our opponents. Its time we asked ourselves, who took my job, why can't I afford college for my child? Is it because of affirmative action and abortion, or because of outsourcing and the gutting of programs that benefit me and my family? What is a bigger threat to my community, the credit crisis and the War in Iraq or gay marriage? I think the answer is clear."

Sen. Clinton: -2 for being opportunistic and jumping on the Senator from illinois even though she knows he is right. Moreover, she lost an opportunity to call out our real opponents on their bogus culture war and educate voters on the impact of their choices. What she could have said, "I credit my opponent with recognizing how working class voters have been manipulated by Republicans. The question remains though, who is better able to stand up for the livelihood of the middle class in the face of constant attacks from the right. Who can fund our schools, protect our jobs, and check the corporate interests that take a dime for every nickel spent on people? Who will stand up and say the wealthy do not need another tax break? Yada yada...."

And we have to be honest. The message is not going to stick with some. We all know too many people who vote Republican because Republicans are "pro life" and Republicans pay lip service to religious values while their policies take or devalue human life all over the globe. There is a certain group who drank the kool aide. But you are not going to get their votes anyway. So you may as well speak truth to power and hope for the best.