Thursday, September 6, 2012

Larry Bartels and the Multicultural Elite Class Must Be Smiling at Bill Clinton's DNC Speech



Bill Clinton and Michelle Obama delivered a devastating set of punches to Mitt Romney at the Democratic National Convention. Both were masterful examples of rhetorical violence. Beautiful. Both made more so by their contrast with the Republicans' failure to tell a compelling story in Tampa--and compounded by Ann and Mitt Romney's epic inability to convince the public that they are "regular folks."

Yes, it is hard to have hundreds of millions of dollars and relate to the little guy and little gal in the time of the Great Recession. Nevertheless, it is not his wealth that is the problem--there have been many old money types in American politics--rather, Romney's failure to sell himself is a function of his naturally cold and sociopathic demeanor. Romney, quite literally, cannot relate to someone not born into his social class.

Two quick thoughts on Bill Clinton's speech.

I always smile when I see empirically grounded, compelling, and rigorous work in political science used to tell a compelling story about real people's lives. Clinton's claims about how Democratic administrations have created more economic growth is straight out of Larry Bartels' book Unequal Democracy. Everyone should read that great text. Bill Clinton certainly did.

Second, racism is a human productivity problem. If you want to understand why American political elites stood up against Jim and Jane Crow during the Cold War, listen to Clinton's speech at the 6 minute or so mark. Historically, the Racial State subsidized white mediocrity by making sure that white men (and women to a lesser degree) had access to jobs that would provide a living wage. This arrangement involved excluding people of color from the same positions as the federal government worked feverishly to create the white middle class.

During the Cold War, American political elites also realized that formal white supremacy was an international embarrassment that gave ammunition, both metaphorical and real, to the Soviets. Jim and Jane Crow had to be jettisoned because it was a dead weight on America's international prestige and influence.

In the present, this dynamic has been somewhat undone and made obsolete by globalization. Old school and aversive racism have also been unsettled by how the elite class came to realize that racial and gender diversity (even if marginal, symbolic, and mostly self-serving) could allow them to leverage more human talent. In essence, reaching across the color line made them more money because they were no longer limited to dredging the bottom ranks of an increasingly shallow bench of white male talent.

The angst of the white "working class" voter is a response to this reality. They are no longer the de facto only choice for all jobs, every opportunity, and guaranteed to win the race by simply showing up. If you have been competing with a ten lap head start, it is quite upsetting to realize that you are not as talented and/or gifted as you were led to believe. For a certain class of obsolete, white semi-skilled labor, their rage at Obama is a direct function of this insecurity.

Clinton's few-second allusion to how the multicultural elite class thinks about human productivity is the equivalent of many volumes of reading and hours of study. It was a wink to those of us in the know. Bill Clinton gave Obama, what in professional wrestling terms, is called "the hot tag." Now, the President has to get the win. Obama could not be in a better position.

30 comments:

Anonymous said...

Vic78

Of course PBO's going to handle business. Romney's locked himself in a room to get ready for the debates. Willard's one of those propped up white guys you were talking about. It's a shame that it might just now be dawning on him.

It's going to be over for the GOP when the Dems finally get organized and develop a sensible strategy. That Repub base is lost to civilized society. The Dems can just let the GOP have them.

As for the speech, I like how Clinton took shots at Romney and broke down policy. It's pretty neat that time limits don't apply to him. With the long speech he's admitting that Obama accomplished more with less to work with. While the jerkoff brigade is talking about Hillary, Their are young lions waiting in the wings. They aren't interested in waiting their turn.

This country would be a different place if they accepted the multicultural thing sooner. Malcolm X and Fred Hampton could've been president under such conditions.

Weird Beard said...

@CDV
Dealing with the obsolete, white semi-skilled labor is an interesting dance currently. I think the dems are harping on Bain capital shutting down plants and outsourcing labor to our 3rd world servants, while the GOP whips these mental giants into a frothing frenzy over immigration. The problem is that ALL semi-skilled labor has taken a huge hit in this country that takes the American dream of using your high-school dimploma to get a solid wage job with full coverage health insurance, retirement benefits, and discounts on vehicles completely off the table. This means to stay middle-class in todays exported playing field, we have to up our game with education to even hope to have a shot at mediocrity. The real burn here is that education is so disproportionate depending on the socioeconomic status of the school district one is in, and upon family socioeconomic status. This is a direct assault on people of color who have been pushed to the margins geographically to shit school districts due to historic and current factors that you well understand. I think this speaks to some of the factors affecting the racially disproportionate unemployment rate. I don't feel this issue is being adequately championed by the dems, and the GOP address it by wanting to defund the department of education and get rid of the minimum wage.

Plane Ideas said...

I have to suspend my bias against Clinton I never respected his slick Willie persona after he executed a retarded brother and played sista souja to appease the white electorate during his campaign run

Nevertheless his remarks were on point from how Obama confronted a clusterfuck of problems and how Romney's math is wrong .

Yet there still lingers with me a sense of giddiness in Clinton who now wants to be done noble sage in his council to Obama when in fact he resents him on many levels ...I betcha Obama is not feelin him either but being the pragmatist that he is Obama understands Clinton still has some juice....

Invisible Man said...

...."Bill Clinton and Michelle Obama delivered a devastating set of punches to Mitt Romney at the Democratic National Convention. Both were masterful examples of rhetorical violence."

No! the only rhetorical violence is you passing off "Go Blue Team, Go Yaaaaaay Team, home coming speeches before the big game delivered to us mopes in the cheap seats still dumbed down to believe that Obama is any thing more than a Corp-orcrat. And how ironic that like mainstream liberal media also manipulated by big business, you did not mention the only Speech that mattered to America, given by Elizabeth Warren and what I bet will be the best line of the whole convention will be.....

""The System is Rigged Against You!"

Can you please try a bit harder of folks will suspect that you're on the democratic payroll

chaunceydevega said...

@invisible. just because i don't echo your thoughts does not mean that i am on the take or otherwise dishonest.

Clinton made some nice moves that I wanted to call attention to. There were other things said too at the convention that were interesting. I chose to comment on the featured speaker.

Hell, where is my money? I wish I had it. Pen your own editorial and perhaps i will feature it here. i am transparent and direct. i support obama. i have never been deceptive about that.

@Thrasher. More than juice. He is there to talk to those angry white men types who still don't like romney but ain't too fond of Obama either. He is one tool in the tool box. You must use all of them to win.

@Weird. All of us are suffering. We can look at deindustrialization and how black folks were the first one's hit because we are least subsidized by the state. However, we are more political astute and sophisticated than the white middle and working classes who actually believe that white elites actually care about them. The wages of whiteness blinded many white folks to the fact that the only color that matters to those who are the shot callers is green.

Vic. He is great on the mic and one hell of an improviser. Michelle really needled Romney. One observer described it as a steel fist in a velvet glove.

CNu said...

The angst of the white "working class" voter is a response to this reality. They are no longer the de facto only choice for all jobs, every opportunity, and guaranteed to win the race by simply showing up. If you have been competing with a ten lap head start, it is quite upsetting to realize that you are not as talented and/or gifted as you once believed. For a certain class of obsolete, white semi-skilled labor, their rage at Obama is a function of their insecurity in this country' economy, and realization (even if subconscious) that "those people" are more talented and gifted than they are.

The real economy has been contracting since 1974 and gone into resource-constraint induced collapse since 2005.

It is a categorical lie to pretend that what is presently unfolding is merely a "great recession".

No, you are all still in the opening phases of the greatest depression and total collapse of many of the economies of the developed world.

The angst of white folks in general is a response to this underlying reality, with outlier individuals going killer-ape in response to what is unfolding.

Cobb takes a stab at trying to delineate the terror of the situation, but he Pajamas Media barred from talking about the underlying root causes (resource-constraints) of the ongoing economic collapse.

Hope and Change are still withheld from all-a-ya delusional peasants until such time as misleadership finds the testicular fortitude, truth, and soul to begin talking about the long emergency which has beset us all.

Until then, carry on with the grinning and greasy-faced sideshow antics...,

However, we are more political astute and sophisticated than the white middle and working classes who actually believe that white elites actually care about them. The wages of whiteness blinded many white folks to the fact that the only color that matters to those who are the shot callers is green.

lol, are true-believers ever going to begin talking about the real drivers of economic collapse, or is that simply not gonna happen until after the crash takes place and a period of genuine chaos sets in? How much cachet do you suppose the racial angle will have when hell-up-in Harlem becomes the rule throughout suburbia?

CNu said...

With all the graduates of higher-ed moving back into their parents homes right now because there are no jobs available to/for them - and with many colleges and universities facing their own imminent demise when the student loan debt bubble burstgs, exactly how is it going to look if Baramney fixes his mouth to follow-up on Bubba's job creation errata - when he won't be able to a single dayyum thing to make it so?

Better pray for WW-III erupting in the middle-east and southern and central asia ASAP to bring an end to the greatest depression in exactly the same way that WW-II brought an end to the Great Depression in the 1940s for killing off 15% of the able-bodied work forces of the developed world.

chaunceydevega said...

@Cnu. you and I both know the global power elite have been prepping for the crash for decades. If I were one of them would I let the cat out of the bag so to speak? Regular folks have to prepare as best we can. Are most ready for the truth? Of course not. That is why the plebes and joe q. public have been bystanders to history.

nomad said...

"Are most ready for the truth? Of course not."

It don't matter whether they're ready for it. Who is ever READY for the truth. Like death eventually it catches up with you.

"Hope and Change are still withheld from all-a-ya delusional peasants until such time as misleadership finds the testicular fortitude, truth, and soul to begin talking about the long emergency which has beset us all."

CNu said...

@Cnu. you and I both know the global power elite have been prepping for the crash for decades.

lol, I get it.

C-razy uncle Nu is free to sit around the barbershop sipping on his bottle of Ripple and hollin bout human livestock management cause that's how respectable barber shops role.

Heads got to get cut, and patrons got to be entertained.

I get it.

I'll continue sweeping naps, sippin Ripple, and infotaining legitimate customers..,

chaunceydevega said...

@Cnu. Crazy uncle cnu is also ready, prepped, armed, got food and skills to survive. I need to learn from him. Next week I am gonna post something that is a great insight into the Turner Diaries 2.0 crowd and how they are fantasizing about the crash.

Plane Ideas said...

The Russians are coming...The Russians are coming... I am still waiting lol lol...observing CNu peddle his tired tale of the great reset/ crash/ awakening/ orgasmic/ movement is really gotten stale besides giving CNu that old sage edge he wants to project that ballon is full of holes and has no merit

Enough already of the boogie man theme !!!

Back to reality this election is clearly in the hands of white folk do they want a weird cult religion leader or a exceptional negro to get them over the hill.

I putting my money on white folk taking the safe route to get back home ....

CNu said...

lol, jiggaboos love to hear themselves talk, but hate to explain...,

How Energy Shapes the Economy

In the beginning, the Master Economist created the Economy. He created businesses large and small, consumers, governments with their regulation, and financial institutions of all types. And the Master Economist declared that the economy should grow. And it did grow, but only for a while. Then it stalled. Then He declared that stimulus of various types should fix it, and it did, for a while. Then He declared that if humans would just wait for a while, it would fix itself, but it wouldn’t.

We all know that the foregoing isn’t the real story about the economy, but what is the real story?

I think if we dig deeper, we discover that energy plays an all-powerful role, just as it does in the natural world in general.

Plane Ideas said...

CNu

It that your best tale..lol,lol,lol..The Master Economist..WTF

Old time wanna be grasshopper sage types all they do is pontificate in a pompous shrill praying that some suckers will take the bait...lol,lol,lol

You got nuttin CNu..What 's next you going to pull a rabbit out of your arse oh great grasshopper..lol,lol,lol

Invisible Man said...


@chaunceydevega, my apologies if I casted any aspersion upon your character, us Chicagoans tend to be quick to brawl often as a necessity. I guess I should have taken another tact, in questioning the bread and circus that masks the disingenuousness of the Democratic Part, now casing itself as Bull Mouse, while ensconced in the hollows of Bank of America.

Any way I appreciate the your generous offer to attempt to run with the big dogs as far as some sort of guest appearance, perhaps I might take you up on the offer when I'm less slue of foot as a writer. But in the mean time, I will keep my pen inked, ready, and trained on you respectable negroes keeping up with the Jones and all the right people ;-)

chaunceydevega said...

@invisible. Bull Mouse or Bull Moose? I think the former is more apt by the way ;)

When you feel like it, write something up, we only get better with practice and public embarrassment.

The two parties are fundamentally the same on many major issues. The areas of difference are not insignificant however. I never brawl. I kill them with kindness.

@Thrasher. The economy is contracting. As a rubric or measure of what is ahead look at some the data about how many tens of millions of Americans are hungry, then go and see how expensive food staples are at the local market, and then compare the amount of food in the same boxes from last year.

This is scary stuff. Add the debt bubble and a decimated middle class together with the student loan bubble and many millions of educated people who can't get jobs and there could be a violent revolution. The only thing stopping it is a high level of faith and belief--what we call legitimacy--in American political institutions. Even that is breaking down--look at Congress' numbers. The other part that is keeping it in place is the national surveillance and security state. They have the plans and will roll and disappear folks as necessary...and have been doing so for some time.

You don't think it is just some bored staffer at the NSA who keeps visiting your site and focusing on specific posts? Nevermind the infiltration of Facebook, Twitter, and other social media that are monitored by increasingly sophisticated algorithms.

Plane Ideas said...

CD

Sorry but your last post reads like a sci-fi plot of a 3rd rate pulp novel..

I remain unimpressed with your reach and faulty inferences years ago I provided marketing services for small business one of my sectors was cleaners often I would encounter Asian owners who told me they had no use for wall street driven marketing services they explained to me the 'hanger equation'

According to them they could forecast the state of the economy by the volume of hangers they would purchase just for the heck of it I called a couple of them ( they loved me) and I inquired about the recent market for 'hangers'

They reported to me the volume was strong and getting stronger...I am hanging excun the pun my analysis on their insights not yours or the crazed nonsense of CNU..

CNu said...

with deep homespun wisdom and insight like that, I cain't belee they threw your free black-ass off the public access channel in bloomington....,

chaunceydevega said...

@thrasher. you know i am not interested in impressing you. i mean that nicelessly. i don't pull this stuff out of the ether, i talk to folks who know more about this and read material from those who have been onto these dynamics for years. read the wapo series Top Secret America or watch the PBS series, then do my test at the supermarket or look at some numbers from the CBO or the UN, the read about some of the root causes of the Arab revolts.

Wake up brother.

Plane Ideas said...

@CD,

I am wide awake more importantly my list of reading materials, network, and of course emperical data and knowledge is as sterling as yours..

I have simply reached a different conclusion than you. It is nothing personal I respect you and your protocols I just don't purchase your outcomes..

BTW I am not interested in your validation/affirmation as well and of I course I mean that in a respected way...

In summary I am not waiting for the 'end game ' the reset 'the big crash' etc etc etc..

I am living and loving life right here and right now and more importantly my seasoned and reasoned analysis as yet to fail me it has instead created for me a good life a long future for me and my tribe..

CNu said...

OT - Kira Davis' tig ole bitties showed out and got bounced at the DNC...,

makheru bradley said...

Performers like Slick Willie are heavily dependent on the historical amnesia of their target audience. This is the same Slick Willie, under whose presidency; more Black men were incarcerated than any previous president. This is the same Slick Willie who “unchained Wall Street” when he signed the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Bill into law. That law eventually contributed to the greatest loss of wealth for people of color in American history via the foreclosure crisis. Slick Willie has no moral authority to criticize anyone.

Plane Ideas said...

MB

Ditto

CNu

What a bore you have become same shick

Obama is da man let 's be there for the brother in spite of his limits much is at stake

Razor said...

CD

Glad to see you have taken a few specks out of your eyes and your vision has improved.

chaunceydevega said...

@Razor. Could always see. Very well. But on occasion I adjust my perspective.

nomad said...

"Could always see. Very well."

Well clue us in. I think we're finally ready for the truth.

nomad said...

On the eve of the anniversary of 911, how do you suppose this 2012 election relates to the (IMO) crime of the century?

CNu said...

AG Holder gots all your smartphone locater service data without a warrant - and - the FBI is more than halfway through with its deployment of next generation facial recognition infrastructure, tightly integrated with your facebook and other social media apps.

George W. Bush's third term has been mightily productive and without causing so much as a ripple wrt to the totalitarian American control systems implemented by the brown face of white supremacy.

nomad said...

Your mission, Agent Barama, should you decide to take it, is to cover up the crimes of the previous administration and normalize and legitimize the police state. As always, should you be caught the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This tape will self-destruct in 5 seconds.
Dnt Dnt! Dntdnt Dnt Dnt!
Dininun! Dininun!

nomad said...

In the game of chess, sometimes one is forced into a situation where one loses a piece, or has no good moves. In such a case You have to take the least bad option. You have no choice. But you never mistake the least a least bad option for an advantage. That invites disaster. Gotta see clear for the sake of the endgame.