Previous Post Quote: I assume by working class then you mean the WHITE working class, am I right? Yes. I should have said white working class. Sorry. Here's an article: https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/04/politics/republicans-white-working-class-education/index.html Quote: Anyway... where is this information coming from? For that matter the idea that Trump was elected by the working class seems pretty suspect as a generalization. A good third of people eligible in, say, the last election didn't vote. Would you like to take a swing at what class the majority of those folks belong to? Obviously, if I say the white working class elected Trump, I'm talking about the white working class who voted. The ones who didn't vote made a choice not to be counted. Quote: Where'd you get all these half baked, unevidence ideas about what the working class would do anyway? Are you thinking of a set of studies or is this more your general impressions and shooting from the hip about human nature? Another article: https://theconversation.com/who-exactly-is-trumps-base-why-white-working-class-voters-could-be-key-to-the-us-election-147267 Another: https://hbr.org/2016/11/what-so-many-people-dont-get-about-the-u-s-working-class?referral=00134 Another: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/10/upshot/why-trump-won-working-class-whites.html Quote: Finally (for now) you seem pretty cynical about the concept of democracy generally. When we talk about the working class, of a necessity were talking about the majority of people in the country. If they shouldn't have power, then who should? Philosopher kings? If what you'd prefer is an elite minority, well credentialed and high born to run things, rest assured that's what we have now and have for quite some time. And it led to Trump regardless. Constitutional democracy is a balancing act between rule by the majority and protection of the minority. It is true that the majority should rule, but it is equally true that the minority must be protected. The first of these priorities is fulfilled through democratic voting; the second, by Constitutional rights. Quote: Also, I should say I'm interested in in the underlying political theory in principle. I don't think the idea of preserving, amending, or massaging the Constitution is a particularly relevant or significant political question. We'd probably have better results if we burned it and started over from scratch. That is precisely what we mustn't do. If we start from scratch, there's no telling what we could end up with. It could be far worse than what we have. Start from scratch and we could end up with no Constitutional rights at all.

I mean I think it'd be a pretty useless tactic for the two of us to just keep assigning each other reading, don't you think? I suppose for later perhaps we can trade reading lists, but I don't think appropriate for us to start giving each other Alvaro homework assignments. Suffice to say the Harvard Business Review may not have their finger on the pulse of the working class. I can go line by line if you like, but are there just going to be another article and an article after that?

And to your point about this balancing act I think this point isn't seriously engaged with the political reality. It's an abstract truism. The truth is right now the minority isn't "being protected", they're dominating the vast majority of political institutions, and have control of the vast majority of the material resources of society. And that's THE specific minority of the hyper affluent. All those other identitarian minorities you'd like to gesture towards are also NOT protected under this kind of paradigm. Because while black, queer, non Christian so on might be hypothetically protected INSOFAR as they are of those identities... the VAST majority of POCs, queer people, etc are (again) working class of a necessity. So, they're not ACTUALLY protected in any existential sense.


And the point is those Constitutional rights we are finding are only good as the political constitution of those in power. It's apparently done nothing to prevent the Federalist society from slowly installing 6 justice who have no compunction against perverting the "rights" enumerated in the document. The Constitution without actual institutions and mechanisms which actually empower it to be justly engaged with--which could only mean democratically engaged with--protects your rights about as well a crucifix around your neck will protect your soul.

cheers,
---the late great Donald Blake