The Party of the Overclass

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WSJ Freelink

The GOP is now the party of the working class, Democrats the paternal party of the bigotry of reduced expectations, where no one is held responsible for their own choices as long as they vote right and obey.

Published by Don Tabor

I am a former Chairman of the Tidewater Libertarian Party and was the 2007 LP candidate for the 14th district VA Senate. Previously, I was the Volunteer State Director for the FairTax. I am married 50 years with two grown children and 5 grandchildren.

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40 thoughts on “The Party of the Overclass”

      1. I learned long ago to recognize utter bullshit when I see it. I made it up to the point where the author made the absurd claim that the student loan forgiveness was (a) just for the benefit of the white middle class and (b) coming out of the hides of working people. Both points are stupid and/or dishonest. I was not interested in reading the rest of a dishonest partisan hit piece. So I stopped.

        I know, but the author either doesn’t or doesn’t care, that a great deal of that student debt was incurred by people seeking marketable educations from for-profit “universities” similar in many ways to Trump University. President Biden ran based on a promise to try to do something about student debt. He won decisively. Now he has done what he can.

        I notice you did not have anything to offer that the GOP has done for working people. When they had full control in 2017-2018 they cut taxes for the rich. And famously failed to repeal the Aff0rdable Care Act. That is about it.

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          1. “Then I have no interest in your comments on articles you did not read”

            Fair enough, but I was commenting on your silly comment . . .

            “The GOP is now the party of the working class, Democrats the paternal party of the bigotry of reduced expectations, where no one is held responsible for their own choices as long as they vote right and obey.”

            And I see that once again you are unable to identify ANYTHING that the GOP has done or tried to do for ordinary working people.

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  2. Immigrants taking our jobs. Yes, because Americans won’t work for the low pay, no benefits and no security that illegals endure just to send money home to family. But we digress.

    As an aside, I joined a golf club decades ago. A few of us joked that there were about 6 liberals out of several hundred members. One of the Democrats was a union painter. Nice fellow and I played quite a few rounds with him until he left the club and moved out of town when he retired.

    During a rare political discussion, he was asked what he liked about the Democratic Party. Not everything, he said. But, “the Republican Party has done nothing for the working man”. So he voted Democrat.

    The current Trump supporters from the White working classes are there mainly due to cultural issues and a real concern about being left behind economically by the “elites”. It is the second reason that baffles many. Wages have not kept up with productivity, yet management has reaped huge fortunes. Recessions decimated the working classes and the 2008 crash was the topper. Promises to revive coal never materialized. That was a pipe dream. Big Agra hired illegal labor, and still does.

    Trump promised to raise the fortunes of the “beleaguered “ White working class. But did he really? Of course, that is moot now since the slit is almost all cultural. God, guns and gays.

    Poor healthcare access in most red states. But CRT takes center stage.

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    1. I don’t remember Trump saying anything about the “white working class.” Projecting again?

      Prior to the Black Swan of COVID, Trump’s economy was the first to raise the median income since Eisenhower.

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      1. Don’t please don’t act surprised. You know full well that the core of MAGA is White working class. Trump may be a lot of things, but he is not going to say “I represent the White Workers of America.”

        But he will call out BLM, kneeling “thugs”, Mexican rapists, refugees…the usual populist dogma favored by demagogues for centuries.

        Trump was handed a nicely recovering economy thanks to the hard choices made by the previous administration. If he couldn’t continue that trend, he would have been booed out of office.

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        1. Again, prior to COVID, American Blacks and Hispanics were enjoying record employment and wage growth. Results matter.

          Was Trump supposed to praise BLM mobs burning down their own neighborhoods? Was he supposed to ignore criminals crossing the border among those simply seeking a better life?

          It is fantasy to attribute the Trump economy born of deregulation and lower taxes to the rebound from the collapse of the housing bubble that created an illusion of success under Obama.

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      2. “Prior to the Black Swan of COVID, Trump’s economy was the first to raise the median income since Eisenhower.”

        Leaving aside that Trump mangled the response to the pandemic, your “fact” is simply FALSE. The median income when President Obama took office was $5o,303 (2008). When he left office it was $59,039 (2016). In 2020 Dollars it went from $60,624 to $63,683.

        https://www.creditkarma.com/insights/i/average-american-income#median-household-income-by-year

        Here, in the real world, that wonderful Trump economy he lies and brags about was nothing but a continuation of the trends and the economy that he inherited. Even with massive deficit spending he failed to change the trajectory upward.

        It is quite remarkable how frequently your posts are larded with easily disproven “facts.” How do you explain it? Are you dishonest? Or easily fooled by sites or people (Trump?) telling you things you want to hear?

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  3. The GOP and their cult leader installed a Supreme Court that is making it impossible for poor women to get abortions. But that wasn’t bad enough. Now that same Court has agreed to take up a case that will “blow a hole in the social safety net.” This case is to Medicaid what Dobbs was to abortion. I can hear Republican and Libertarian champaign corks popping already.

    https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/supreme-court-medicaid-section-1983?fbclid=IwAR2_6ak06Am4le27Qq4toBPfY2PKzdLhR7RKD6BpXW6u_S-ljoegwotAjQk

    As for not holding people responsible for the choices they make, the Republican Party gave up the right to speak on that subject when they supported a man convicted of trying to extort a foreign leader for political favors; incited a riot that trashed our Capitol because he lost an election; and stole highly classified documents (damage to national security still being assessed). And that’s the short list of his irresponsible actions. I’m not even going to get into his bankruptcies, sexual misconduct, or election tampering.

    So, when this new reformed, working-class GOP comes out in favor of a higher minimum wage, or a shorter work week, or paid sick leave, or, by God, even decent public transportation, I’ll believe they exist. Until then, they only exist in the minds of people who can’t look at reality without feeling uncomfortable so they invent a fantasy world where people are only poor because they “deserve it.”

    To quote my old granny, “party of the working class, my Aunt Minnie’s hind leg!”

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    1. Please explain to me how the Dobbs decision has changed access t abortion in Virginia.

      The decision doesn’t outlaw abortion, it lets the states regulate the procedure. Most will strike a reasonable consensus, and the others will likely follow, but have the right to go their own way.

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      1. “Most will strike a reasonable consensus, “…

        Delusional clap-trap. Yes, abortion was not outlawed by Dobbs. However, if the PEOPLE of the several states where bans are being considered were afforded to vote the way the citizens of Kansas were, there would be actual consensus. But the legislatures going for bans NOW are doing so regardless of what the people have to say. Put it to the people and THEN the legislatures can act in accordance with those wishes.

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          1. You are missing my point. Kansas put the vote on the matter to the people BEFORE the legislature took any action. Most state legislatures are moving forward with their changes without LISTENIING to the people.

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          3. And the legislature was ready to tee-up complete bans on the procedure. The PEOPLE were allowed to voice their choices at the ballot box PRIOR to that happening. The other states are just moving forward, voters be damned.

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  4. “ Progressives push to release mentally ill drug addicts into working-class communities where they prey on vulnerable people of color—while they themselves live in nice neighborhoods with astronomical rents, polishing their halos.”

    I don’t know what that really means or if it is even true across any significant places. But Big Pharma unloaded billions of opioid drugs into working classes in places like W. VA and other rural enclaves while the executives lived in gated communities and reaped billions. That we do know is true and we are paying dearly for that now.

    Is the working class supposed to cheer that as helping them?

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    1. You seem to have a logical glitch in which you think that wrongdoing by someone you perceive as Republican excuses wrongdoing by Democrats.

      I really don’t know the Perdue family’s political association, but I’m confident they bribed Democrats as well.

      It does not change the truth, Democrat policies make poorer neighborhoods hell holes, while the elite Democrats wall themselves off from the consequences.

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      1. “I really don’t know the Perdue family’s political association, but I’m confident they bribed Democrats as well.”
        And neither does she.

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      4. “I really don’t know the Perdue family’s political association”…

        Trying again because my post from yesterday disappeared.

        There are a lot of folks addicted to chicken wings. Could be addiction is the Purdue family business. 😇

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  5. WSJ’s piece is succinct, and brilliant.

    Throughout history there has always been a tension between the ruling class and the people. Most people think it is better to be ruled than it is to be unruled, and they may be right.

    The problem is, when a people decides to be ruled, how far are they willing to go in their servitude, and what should the consequences be when the rulers go too far?

    The comments in this thread suggest to me that few commenters appreciate the fundamental observationsz at hand:

    Student loan forgiveness benefits the ruling class.
    Open borders benefits the ruling class.
    The green agenda benefits the ruling class.
    Drug addiction benefits the ruling class.
    Covid has been good for the ruling class.

    The point WSJ tries to illustrate — for those who will see — is that the big pattern of events in our time is all good for the ruling class.

    You have to decide whether these patterns are good for you. I can say they haven’t been good for me.

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    1. As late as the 1950s, the wife of a plumber or carpenter didn’t have to work outside the home. Her job was Mama.

      Now, working class families are lucky if both have full time jobs is enough.

      As government grew to absorb more of the economy, like an invisible tax, the working class became poorer and the elite raked in the benefits.

      And we don’t even see it for what it is. One parent in a household works entirely to support the government.

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      1. “As late as the 1950s…”

        You obviously never heard of the Reagan Revolution which marked the beginning of the end of the economic rise of working people. Your blaming the economic changes we have suffered as a result on the government while ignoring the ripping up of the economic safety net and the crushing of the union movement marks you as someone living in a fantasy reality.

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    1. Wouldn’t do any good.

      The problem is the cost of government is embedded in the price of everything we buy.

      In the 1950s government at all levels consumed under 20% of GDP, Now it tops 45% That cost is hidden in every good or service you buy.

      Arbitrarily raising wages at any level above their market value is no different than another tax.

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  7. Don, yes, something strange is going on with posts disappearing lately. I posted something a while back and it disappeared. I thought maybe I had hit a wrong button publishing it, but now I don’t think I did.

    I also can’t find the comment that apparently sparked a question about the Perdue family, but yes, they are Republicans. David Perdue was the Republican Senator from Georgia 2015-2021.

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