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- iHaveNet.com: Politics
by Jonah Goldberg
Earlier this month, the left-wing magazine The Nation highlighted Joe Therrien as a symbol of the Occupy Wall Street movement. A New York City public-school drama teacher, Therrien was frustrated with the shortcomings of the school system. So he quit his job and "set off to the
Therrien joined Occupy Wall Street, constructing giant puppets and "figuring out how to make theater that's going to help open people up to this new cultural consciousness. It's what I'm driven to do right now."
I think I speak for everyone when I say: Good luck with that.
One other thing: He may not realize it, but Joe the Puppeteer may be for Democrats what Joe the Plumber was for the
Thomas Edsall writes in the
After decades of trying, the white working class is now "an unattainable cohort," according to Edsall and a slew of Democratic strategists.
The most common explanation for this failure is a self-serving and mossy tale about a racial backlash. The most recent version holds that the "tea parties," which are about as white as the Occupy Wall Street movement, amount to a bigoted reaction to a black president. Never mind that the leading
In a less charged environment, the differences between Obama and Cain would be seen as a continuation of the great philosophical rivalry between W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington. Du Bois, a socialist intellectual, favored promoting a "talented tenth" -- a black progressive elite focused on state-run, top-down reforms -- while Washington preached self-help and entrepreneurialism from the bottom up.
Today's
Their arguments sound economic and empirical, but ultimately they're cultural in nature. The upscale white professionals the Democrats are courting disproportionately share a cultural affinity for government and faith that statist interventions are for your own good. They also believe government needs to help people succeed -- or escape -- the rat race of the private sector. (Remember Michelle Obama's advice to working-class women? "Don't go into corporate America. ... Become teachers. Work for the community.") In his acceptance speech at the 2008 Democratic convention, Obama mocked the Booker T. Washington concept of self-reliance: "In Washington, they call this the ownership society, but what it really means is, you're on your own."
Later, Rep. Nancy Pelosi sold health-care reform as a "jobs bill" because "if you want to be creative and be a musician or whatever, you can leave your work, focus on your talent ... your aspirations because you will have health care," she explained as if speaking straight to Joe the Puppeteer. "You won't have to be job-locked."
That might be a compelling message to the white left represented at Occupy protests. The question is whether it sounds condescending or aloof to the rest of the Democratic coalition that wouldn't mind being "job-locked" right now.
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