Sirotablog
David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. David writes about political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties.
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October 18, 2007 8:59 AM
The Dangers of Wearing Bourgeois Class On Our Sleeve
I don't write many meta posts about the netroots and the blogosphere, mainly because I find Internet triumphalism a wee bit self-absorbed. But I just finished writing the last chapter of my upcoming book The Uprising, which includes an analysis of the netroots, and I think lately those in the netroots face a teachable moment of self-reflection.
You may have noticed that the blogosphere has been ablaze about the issue of domestic surveillance. Today, the blogospheric pressure is coming down on Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd (D) to basically use his committee chairmanship to prevent a bill from passing that would retroactively immunize telecom companies from legal prosecution for their complicity in helping the Bush administration unconstitutionally wiretap. The push is good, and valuable and I support it wholeheartedly.
But here's what bothers me. Dodd is the chairman of the Banking Committee - one of the most powerful panels overseeing all the financial and regulatory issues that working-class folks face every single day of their lives. The mortgage foreclosure crisis is just one huge example. And yet, there has been relatively little netroots or blogospheric pressure on Dodd to use his chairmanship for such issues of economic power and class.
Dodd has New England aristocrat politics (not surprising as the son of a senator from one of the wealthiest states in the nation). He has long been thrilled to swim in the ocean of corporate money that envelopes Washington. He has mastered the art of tacking to the left on non-economic-class issues, but staying within the Washington mainstream on the issues of money that really run the nation's capital (though, I should say, he has become a bit better on these issues since running for president...sometimes opportunism bears fruit).
The Hill Newspaper this week detailed a routine shakedown scheme he tried to pull off on Wall Street recently - a scheme whereby he planned to shakedown bankers for cash in exchange for his time discussing the mortgage crisis with them. This is par for the course on many economic power issues for Dodd. You may recall it was Dodd who, back in 1995, "assailed President Clinton for his veto of legislation that would limit fraud suits brought in the name of stockholders," according to the New York Times (Dodd ended up leading the veto override of the bill against major consumer groups).
So perhaps the netroots and the blogosphere doesn't bring pressure to Dodd on economic power issues because we know he is predisposed to conflict avoidance on that set of issues. But I doubt it. I think it has more to do with the netroots wearing its class on its sleeve.
Though there is little in the way of scientific data about the netroots, various bloggers have documented how its demographics trend wealthier, whiter and more male than the rest of the population. And any look across the major progressive blogs and online advocacy groups shows that much of the focus in the blogosphere (beyond pure partisan issues, which dominate) is not on class issues like trade, globalization, wages, health care, pensions and jobs but on non-class issues like wiretapping and net neutrality and Gitmo. There are, of course, notable exceptions like Iraq and like specific blogs, but the trend is pretty clear.
I see this, by the way, in the reaction to my own posts - posts about major issues like trade get very little attention no matter how huge they are, but mention the name of a presidential candidate or Fox News, and the hits go off the charts. I mean, here we have a Congress about to pass a massive extension of NAFTA, and it is barely ever mentioned in the blogosphere - it is stunning.
This isn't to say that wiretapping, net neutrality, media ownership don't have class components or that they are are unimportant - every issue, at some level, has class implications and this set of issues is VERY important. But this set of issues gets a vastly disproportionate amount of time, attention and bandwith from the netroots than the former set of issues - a set of issues that also ALL about class and are important. In fact, most middle and working-class Americans think issues like wages, jobs, health care and pensions are are MORE important.
So, why should we consider this dichotomy? Because if the netroots and the blogosphere is really going to be a part of any broad-based movement (which, I don't think it is just yet) then it is going to have to figure out how to meld its bourgeois focus with the kitchen-table concerns of everyday, non-political-junkie Americans.
Part of that means trying to avoid focusing every single policy debate on Washington, and actually doing the much harder work of exploring state and local issues. This obsessive netroots focus on Senators and House members and the presidency is just downright debilitating when it comes at a time when progressives have real, untapped power to pass things in major arenas like state legislatures.
Another part of that means becoming cognizant that wearing class on a collective sleeve has drawbacks in trying to include and engage the vast middle of the country that just wants to be able to secure a good job, afford health care, and be able to retire without going into poverty.
Strangely enough, bourgeois spokesman Tom Friedman recently captured what I'm talking about in his latest column interviewing progressive leader Van Jones:
"'Try this experiment. Go knock on someone's door in West Oakland, Watts or Newark and say: 'We gotta really big problem!' They say: 'We do? We do?' 'Yeah, we gotta really big problem!' 'We do? We do?' 'Yeah, we gotta save the polar bears! You may not make it out of this neighborhood alive, but we gotta save the polar bears!'' Mr. Jones then just shakes his head. You try that approach on people without jobs who live in neighborhoods where they've got a lot better chance of getting killed by a passing shooter than a melting glacier, you're going to get nowhere -- and without bringing America's underclass into the green movement, it's going to get nowhere, too."
Jones goes on to essentially say that in order for the environmental movement to actually be a broad-based movement and not just bourgeois parlor chatter, it has to have a class-based appeal so that it resonates outside the cocktail party circuit. And the same can be said for many of the biggest causes in the netroots and the blogosphere - and the same questions should be raised about why the core economic issues rarely get netroots attention, other than when they are deemed a good partisan weapon against George Bush.
Some of you may point out individual blogs or blog posts about some of the kitchen table issues, and I fully acknowledge that they are out there. One of the things I say in my book is that it is difficult to address "the netroots" or "the blogs" as a monolith because these are such a dynamic and fast-changing things. But again, the trends are pretty blatant. And every now and again, it is important to reflect on the trends' implications. I consider myself a proud member of the netroots - but I think we do our efforts a disservice if we don't think about how to go from talking to ourselves to talking to America, and about how to go from a gaggle of voices into a cohesive movement.
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About David Sirota
David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. He is the New York Times bestselling author of Hostile Takeover. He lives in Denver, Colorado. His daily blog can be found at CREDO Action. He contributes regularly to the Denver Post's Web site, is a senior editor at In These Times magazine and is working on his second book. He has been profiled in Newsweek and the Rocky Mountain News and is widely known for his reporting on political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties. Sirota serves as co-chair of the Progressive States Network, a 501(c)3 organization that supports state legislators and that is a partner of CREDO.
You can subscribe to Sirota's e-mail newsletter by going to davidsirota.com and signing up in the lefthand corner. To find out more about Sirota, download his official biography or see his recent media appearances. You can e-mail him at sirota@credoaction.com.
The views expressed on this blog are his own, and do not necessarily represent the views of Working Assets (publisher of CREDO Action) or the institutions Sirota works for.
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Discussion
I don't know about this. The issue selection seems somewhat random. The Bankruptcy Bill was a huge deal in 2005, as was Social Security.
Maybe I'm reading Sirotablog too much. I hear a lot about those issues. ;-)
Matt: Pick out individual bills, fine. But the Netroots is just not a class-focused, economic-populist focused medium right now. That's just a fact. Now, if you want to argue that's a good thing, then that's an argument. But to argue that it is class-focused or economic-populist focused - that's just kinda ridiculous.
As someone whose been reading blogs since Markos started DailyKos I'd say you're spot on David. The liberal blogosphere's "A" list seems to be nothing but a watering hole for white upper class liberals and college students when you look at the wonkish crap that they are interested in.
They are not interested in job killing trade deals, off-shoring, in-sourcing or anything that is killing the working and middle-class. It just elicits a yawn from the people that haunt the "A" list blogs.
Nor will you find discussions about our out of control trade deficit, foreign and hostile nations buying our national infrastructure and businesses.
This is why Dodd is only pressured on FISA and nothing on the banking side. They couldn't care less about the massive extension of NAFTA. They don't live in the same world as those who work at the local department store, office or factory.
In many ways todays silence among Democrats on the NAFTA extension is reminisant of when Clinton first pushed through NAFTA. Back then there were only few lone voices like Perot, Wendell Berry and Jerry Mander - stony silence. Today it not much better.
Hell you'd think the liberal blogosphere has morphed into GOP stooges the way they deal with economic issues that affect the working class and the country at large.
Its fucking pathetic.
In short the netroots and liberal blogosphere very class oriented.
BTW the Van Jones portion was spot on. The enviros never brought in the working class and poor in their little crusade and why the movement has died for all practical purposes.
Its elitist spawn lives on in the guise of PETA, Earth First and other moon bat animal rights groups run lunatics and elitists.
The banking side is HEAVILY responsible for the surveillance shit that's being shoved down our throats. Dodd probably knows that but the motherfucker refuses to acknowledge that it's all about the fucking money. The telecomms showed their true colors when they were drooling like DOGS before the NSA ready to grab those JUICY MILLION dollars contracts as if bilking the customers weren't enough ! And of course, the money comes from the US taxpayer money so we're fucking paying the Telecomm TERRORISTS twice altogether !
"The liberal blogosphere's "A" list seems to be nothing but a watering hole for white upper class liberals and college students..." - waltc
Precisely.
Just prior to the NAFTA vote I was debating a lawyer who had worked for the Reagan administration in front of ~150 honors students at an engineering university. Mid-way through this two hour 1v1 event, I realized (and pointed out) that none of these kids had any genuine understanding of how the loss of a factory effects the lives of its workers, because not one of them had a father who's hands had ever been greasy at work.
But not only do these people not understand, and thus empathize with, the Average Joe tradesmen, they fundamentally hold them in contempt. I mean, why would anyone but some loser want these filthy jobs, anyway? If you're not a complete moron you go to college after you graduate from high school, party for four or five year's on Mommy and Daddy's dime, and then get a job in an office somewhere that allows you to sneer at the janitor as he takes out your trash.
This, btw, is exactly how the left lost the working class. My friend will not listen to Air America as he rebuilds transmissions, but Rush? All day, every day.
Oh, and that Reagan lawyer? He's now the Bush-appointed Attorney General of my state.
"posts about major issues like trade get very little attention no matter how huge they are, but mention the name of a presidential candidate or Fox News, and the hits go off the charts." - Sirota
That's because it's not about doing the right thing, or healing our country, it's all about Us vs. Them. Just like it is for the right-wing retards who send death threats to 12-yr-olds and call insightful and honest vets who speak their minds "phony soldiers". Both sides are pathetic because they are in it for the conflict. They only become aroused by "sexy" issues.
If they cared as much about the U.S. or our Constitution as they claim, they would understand that our Constitution will be nothing but a collector's item up for bid at Sotheby's if we do not mind our economy. The Soviet Union did not collapse because Reagan "won" anything, it collapsed because they lost control of their economy.
Cutting the heart out of our economy by purging our manufacturing base, and then allowing all the wealth to flow into the hands of the few, is a recipe for disaster.
But let's get back to the Soliciting Senator in the Stall, shall we?
3rdoption and Sirota,
The only way these arrogant college kiddies will ever learn their fucking lessons is to give them TOUGH spankings and taking away their jobs, ipods, cellphones, etc ... Until the "free" trade laws are rewritten to PUNISH the wealthy elite and until the Supreme Court law granting personhoods "legally" to corporations is overturned, there will only be more ignorant assholes showing contempt for the Joe and Jane sixpack no matter what.
Thank You, Dave, Walt, 3rd
Correct-speak, abandoning workers/parenting and surgically joining at the hips with edubiz, have turned "the left" into stylized pocket lint for corporatists.
Environmental issue need to be framed in terms that hit people where they live.
Toxic pollution by manufacturing plants, and agricultural chemicals will get a hold of more people than polar bears.
For one thing most people think that polar bears are irrelevant to their lives, and for another feel that there's nothing they personally can do about polar bears.
Start talking about cleaning up their atmosphere by cutting emissions, putting in light rail, making recycling easier for them. Then start bringing up the changes in the weather, the droughts in the west and Midwest, the devastating hurricanes on the coasts, the forest fires and landslides caused by weird weather patterns.
Make them feel that part of the solution is within their capability.
They're getting fed lies about ethanol and the prices of food and cattle feed are going out of sight. Better solutions need to be brought out.
For instance, many rural and small town home owners would go for low interest loans, and subsidies, beyond some piddly tax break, for solar and wind generation capabilities that would help with their power bills as well as the environment.
Screw the elite snobs, they are going to wind up flipping burgers when the next round of "free" trade agreements ship their snob jobs overseas. Then they'll learn what real life is all about.
a couple observations...
1) recognizing how messed up the neoliberal economic agenda of the '90s was means recognizing that on nafta in particular and trade ingeneral, clinton and gore were wrong and nader was right. this is pretty hard for the dem activist base (including, i think the netroots) to wrap our heads around.
2) what about the college young people who "got" it enough to protest and work against the the wto/imf/ftaa neoliberal policies? perhaps they show a way to bring together the bourgeois class with international labor, environmentalist and democracy advocates... or am i so hoplessly bourgeois that i'm completely off base?
"2) what about the college young people who "got" it enough to protest and work against the the wto/imf/ftaa neoliberal policies? perhaps they show a way to bring together the bourgeois class with international labor, environmentalist and democracy advocates... or am i so hoplessly bourgeois that i'm completely off base?" - selise
Any college students protesting the failed neoliberal economic policies are to be applauded. Those are not the students David is referring to. He's referring to students who only care to protest on social issues while showing total ignorance on the real issues such as "free" trade and in general our pathetic foreign policy of pitting working class citizens country to country against one another. All these mislabeled "free" trade/market scams and wars for oil have done just that and by continuing to do so, the wealthy and big business elitists will keep laughing their way to the fucking banks just the way the settlers kept having fun at the Native American tribes killing one another until the population was SEVERELY low.
"Screw the elite snobs, they are going to wind up flipping burgers when the next round of "free" trade agreements ship their snob jobs overseas. Then they'll learn what real life is all about." -butte
The elite snobs are trying to do all they can to give themselves communism and protectionism for themselves thereby privatizing peace and prosperity all the while feeding us fake "enterprise" and RIGGED "capitialism" bullshit dogma thereby socializing poverty and terrorism. Frankly, those elite snobs should be shot !
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