Letters

LETTERS Who's Listening? ED. Nom: Several articles in our last issue brought us sharp letters, but Lillian Rubin's "Why Don't They Listen To Us?" provoked an exceptionally broad sampling of opinion, excerpts of which appear below. Editors: As well as asking why working-class voters persist in voting against what Rubin and [Thomas] Frank see as their self-interests, why aren't they asking why well-heeled residents of Manhattan and the West Side of Los Angeles persist in voting against theirs? Consider that the average per-capita income in those two areas (as well as the near north side of Chicago, Silicon Valley, etc.) is probably three or four times the national average, yet voters there consistently elect candidates who are committed to raising taxes on the rich, increasing regulatory oversight on their businesses, and generally poking their thumbs in the eyes of their staunchest supporters. I don't think it's particularly difficult to figure out, and (if you think about it more carefully) neither is it difficult to figure out why Joe Six-Pack is suspicious of the candidates elected by Mr. and Mrs. Chardonnay. DON ANDERSON Oak View, California Editors: I am a non-denominational Christian and I feel certain that I represent many millions of moderate and progressive Americans. I am as comfortable with the works of Durkheim, Freud, Marx, Einstein, Wittgenstein, Derrida as are most people in the academic community. At the same time, I don't really care if the Ten Commandments sits on the floor of a government building or if Moses is in bas relief on the Supreme Court wall. I think spirituality is at the core of what it is to be human and should not be mocked as a recessive meme in intelligent conversation . MICHAEL HAROLD Shreveport, Louisiana Editors: Lillian Rubin's article about the price of silence was interesting , even wonderful. But I suggest that the failure of the left is caused by more than silence. Silence is too passive. One could go much further and argue that much of the left actually hates the working class and that rightwing criticism of "left-liberal elitism" has "legs" because the accusation strikes many people as true. Two generations on the road to nowhere. And the crowning glory now: opposition to the war in Iraq which was indistinguishable in practice from support of Saddam Hussein. It would be churlish not to point out that Dissent is the least guilty of any left organ of these accusations. JOHN MORRIS Toronto, Ontario, Canada Editors; As a friend of mine put it, the left should be speaking in Wal-Mart, not universities, if they want to reach their constituencies.. . . . . The left, which as Rubin points out, is generally populated by highly educated and informed individuals, should remember its constituency is hanging on tenaciously to a precarious hold on economic, social, and political identity. Such folks don't see, and moreover don't have time to see, that letting go could lead anywhere but down. Moreover, progressive policies have to be seen as celebrating working peoples' sense of self-reliance, hard work, and commitments to their families and communities . Criticizing folk's faith, family, and function at work, isn't going to bring them onside. The rhetoric and policies of the left have to reflect this. ADAM VAN SERTIMA Montreal, Canada Editors: Liberal elites . . . are living and working in a rarefied atmosphere , far removed from those of us actually living "on the faultline." Contact (especially with the working poor) is mostly that of a researcher toward a subject of study. ANN ROTHKRUG WARNECKE Amarillo, Texas THANKS TO OUR READERS Many thanks to those of you who responded to our request for the Fall 2004 issue, which is out of print. EDS. To Letter Writers We welcome succinct letters from our readers. But because we have a long lead time for each issue, you have to send us your letter within three weeks of getting an issue of Dissent in order to get it into the next issue. DISSENT / Spring 2005 n 127 ...