General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: A shout out to "social issues" [View all]BainsBane
(53,035 posts)I think part of the problem is that some assume their experience is universal and sometimes openly deride the concerns of the less privileged. I see it as a quite narrow conception of economic justice that is focused primarily on people who are better off that the vast majority of Americans. For example, much of what passes as "economic justice" around here is anger at Wall Street. They want to see bankers pay for the financial meltdown. Now certainly, I would have liked to see that as well, but with the exception of some civil suits by the SEC, it didn't happen, in part because the greatest crime was that most of what they did was actually legal.
That some are then willing to allow a GOP administration come to office that will cut off food stamps, social security, disability, and other programs that protect the most vulnerable should be clear that their concerns do not encompass economic justice for all.
Then people complain about "corporatist" Democrats. Now, we live in a capitalist country, and we always have. Yet this lexicon about corporatism has only come into fashion in the past couple of years. Our nation was founded on capitalism, and its conception of freedom has always depended on inequality. Yet to hear some around here, you would think this is something new. I expect it is new to some, but for most of us it has always been our reality. Now we are told our lifelong experiences matter less than the recent concerns of downward mobility of the more advantaged. Not only that, we see anger on the part of some of that group that politicians dare to appeal to our interests, interests that mean so little they aren't worth voting for. The anger of the few is meant to trump the life experiences of the rest of us. They assume they speak for all of us, while dismissing our basic rights as inconsequential. And they even pretend issues we care about aren't economic because they aren't in keeping with their own economic interests, which are what really matter.
What we have is a demonstration of entitlement on the part of people who have always seen themselves at the center telling the rest of us who have always been marginalized that they know what is best for us. They are pissed off that they are starting to experience a little of what the rest of us have always lived with, but they assume their experiences and issues are universal because their sense of entitlement allows no space for anything else.
No, people who speak dismissively about my rights do not speak for me. They do not have my best interests in mind, and I do not trust them to look after my rights. Economics is not just about the anger of the middle- and upper-middle class. Economic issues are at the heart of what some here refer to as "social issues," a dismissal that shows they see us as less important. So whether they are the top 1 percent, the top 10 percent or the top 20 percent doesn't matter nearly as much as the fact that they exclude me and my rights, as well as those of the vast majority of Americans, from political consideration. Assuming their concerns are universal may make them feel righteous, but it doesn't make them just. Whenever someone tells me they know better than I what's good for me, I know that I rank no where on their list of concerns.