Why DOn't They Listen to Us? by Lillian B. Rubin

[Ghetta Life]

http://www.dissentmagazine.org/menutest/articles/wi05/rubin.htm

In his intriguing book What's the Matter with Kansas?, Thomas Frank argues 
that culture now trumps economics in the political sphere and offers as 
explanation yet another, if more sophisticated, version of false 
consciousness. "People getting their fundamental interests wrong is what 
American political life is all about," he writes on the very first page. 
"This species of derangement is the bedrock of our civic order; it is the 
foundation on which all else rests." American politics is, he insists,

"a panorama of madness and delusion worthy of Hieronymous Bosch: of sturdy 
blue-collar patriots reciting the Pledge while they strangle their own life 
chances; of small farmers proudly voting themselves off the land; of devoted 
family men carefully seeing to it that their children will never be able to 
afford college or proper health care; of working-class guys in Midwestern 
cities cheering as they deliver up a landslide for a candidate whose 
policies will end their way of life"

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