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The question that Strangers tries to answer is: why do working-class whites vote Republican? The National Review doesn't answer that, it tells me how conservati
by malz 10y ago
The question that Strangers tries to answer is: why do working-class whites vote Republican? The National Review doesn't answer that, it tells me how conservative elites think. I'm happy to read a primary source by someone in the working class but I haven't found it.
- redthrowaway 10y agoFirst, read Hillbilly Elegy. It's not directly about politics, but Vance is a working-class man who came from a home marked by substance abuse and every other kind of dysfunction you can imagine to become a Yale law graduate who works at an SV VC. It's at times tragic, at others hilarious, but it's always compelling and insightful. And it's hailed by conservatives, from humble backgrounds and rich, as an essential compendium when it comes to understanding the Trump phenomenon. I can't recommend a primary source that answers your question, as I've yet to find one. Vance aside, the white working class is not known for its prodigious literary output. But I found this article enlightening[1]. Granted, I'm a middle-class coastal professional, so my personal ability to discern its truth is limited. And the author injects a little too much of her own progressivism for my taste. But it passes the sniff test for me. [1]https://hbr.org/2016/11/what-so-many-people-dont-get-about-the-u-s-working-class https://hbr.org/2016/11/what-so-many-people-dont-get-about-t...