![]() ![]() They wield tremendous power when they unite as a political force. In fact, the common folk are alive and well and just helped their preferred candidate take the White House. Vance’s book is supposedly an “elegy” to a dying culture. In fact, perhaps it’s time to stop trying to speak for lower-middle-class Americans and let them speak for themselves–if and when they choose to speak–without judging them. There may come a time when the members of the white underclass decide that they do not want or need nice liberal ladies, who get so much wrong speaking about them, to speak for them.”Īlthough I’ve often disagreed with Williamson, he is correct in this instance. As for the people, they’re mainly just evidence to be mustered against the Great Satan that is American capitalism, or else, like Sarah Palin, characters in Isenberg’s white-minstrel show version of history. By her own telling, her interest in the subject is rooted in To Kill a Mockingbird (the film, not the book), and her work is full of such information as can be had from Google or in a classroom in Madison. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy…There is no sense of knowing this culture and its people. Her book inevitably will be compared-poorly-with J.D. “ Isenberg teaches at Louisiana State, having studied at Rutgers and the University of Wisconsin. ![]() ![]() Kevin Williamson of National Review, who himself has argued that it would be a blessing if small-town America would just die out, criticizes White Trash: Or, in the case of Isenberg, they are outsiders who write about rural Americans as though they are monkeys in a zoo. They are often people who “escaped” the culture and have no desire to return. However, writers of such books often indulge in pity, caricature, or derision. Vance, and White Trash, by Nancy Isenberg, make bold assertions about folks in flyover country. Two books published last year, Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Without question, there’s been a renewed interest in lower-middle-class white Americans as a political constituency and topic for serious study. We’re not stupid…even if we are rednecks.” In my article, “An Academic Redneck for Trump,” I said the following: “Just as it was foolish for pundits to have dismissed Trump in the primaries, it would be equally unwise to dismiss his supporters. However, over a year ago, even before Donald Trump secured the Republican nomination, yours truly cautioned against writing off blue-collar voters. Ever since the white working class proved decisive in the 2016 presidential election, both major parties are re-evaluating their relationship with an “embarrassing” voting bloc they believed they could ignore with impunity. I think I am only slightly exaggerating when I say that being a redneck is sort of fashionable right now. ![]()
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