White Trash For Obama

Nothing spruces up a reliable shitbox car quite like a White Trash for Obama bumper sticker side by side with the classic automotive statement of support for Real Change. I voted for Kerry and Gore, but didn't have the requisite emotional investment those times around to crap up my bumper with their names. This time, it's different.

The question of why poor people often vote Republican, against their economic interest, has perhaps been best addressed by Thomas Frank's What's The Matter with Kansas? Frank argues that the Democrats have abandoned the field on economic justice, leaving the path wide open to a redefinition of class politics by the right in demagogic cultural terms.

Think the 2004 RNC attack ad. "Howard Dean should take his tax-hiking, government-expanding, latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Volvo-driving, New York Times-reading, Hollywood-loving, left-wing freak show back to Vermont, where it belongs." Pure class resentment, reframed to hit the left.

While the electoral re-alignment of 2004 was fueled by Democratic candidates who embraced economic populism, the party as a whole remains largely in the back pocket of big money

At this point, however, people still have more reason to trust Democrats with the economy than Republicans, who seem entirely preoccupied with raiding the larders of a sinking ship. Today's New York Times' Economic Unrest Shifts Electoral Battleground brings welcome news of how the economic meltdown has blown open an Obama lead. While anything can happen between now and November, including a stolen election, martial law and the suspension of the election entirely, or a terrorist attack that returns America to full-on politics of fear, qualified hope springs eternal. In this car, anyway.

Reason for Revolution #347

During a conversation yesterday morning with Rich Lang, the pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Ballard, the subject of passion arose. As Thomas Frank notes in What's Wrong With Kansas, right-wing evangelical Christians care enough about their issues to work on them 24/7 and maybe even take out a mortgage on their house if it would make the difference. They have a counter-cultural community that gives their lives meaning and focus.

Liberals, on the other hand, and affluent liberals in particular, don't have that. Our real religion, said Lang, is consumption. I thought of that tonight as I came across this photo essay by Brian Ulrich at the Mother Jones site, which was selected from his Copia project.

"In 2001, citizens were encouraged to take to the malls to boost the U.S. economy through shopping," he says, "thereby equating consumerism with patriotism. The Copia project, a direct response to that advice, is a long-term photographic examination of the peculiarities and complexities of the consumer-dominated culture in which we live."

What's striking to me in these photos is the blankness in people's faces, and the desolation of the landscapes. This, to me, is the perfect metaphor for consumer culture. It's the cure to the disease that never quite delivers, and always leaves you wanting more.

Each weekend, it's my job to do the Costco run. I go with the girls, and they sit next to each other in the dual seat in the enormous shopping cart. They always seem to have a nice enough time of it. I'm used to the place. Its enormity doesn't seem odd anymore. What does feel strange is the overwhelming ennui I always see in my fellow shoppers.

Life is suffering said the Buddha. That's not news. But must it also be boredom and dissatisfaction? I don't think so.