I could hardly bear to watch this scene. That same rage at palpable injustice has filled me at those times over the years when I've watched the success of the Republicans at waging class warfare -shifting the tax burden down the social ladder, dismantling social protections, removing obstacles that were erected to protect the public interest from the free play of mighty economic powers-and then clobbering anyone who protests with the charge that they are waging class warfare.
The equivalent in American politics to Abbott's ploy - "We're buddies aren't we, in this together?"-- is the notion that America is free of the politics of class, that we're perhaps even a classless society. America is supposed to be the land of opportunity where a fair game is played on a level playing field. "Class warfare" has been seen as part of the corruption of the Old World, while the land of the free has no use for the pinko politics of the resentments of the oppressed.
That's what gives the "accusation" that someone is waging "class warfare" such power in America: the deep-seated notion that calling attention to differences in class interests is un-American. We're buddies, aren't we?
Lately, however, there's been growing evidence this "class warfare" ploy is losing its long-standing power to intimidate. The evidence lies in who it is that brings the phrase "class warfare" into the political debate: over the course of this year, for the first time, it's the liberals.
In previous years, among liberal columnists, the phrase "class warfare" simply did not appear. But lately, one finds it being used -often with irony-to call attention to the reality that much of the power now being wielded in Washington is indeed being used by one class to gain advantage over other classes.
Why now? My guess is that it is that in recent years the conservatives have simply overreached. Overreaching seems a tendency of the right in today's America.
Several years ago, its overreaching in an attempt to destroy Bill Clinton ended up fortifying his public support. Now some of those same people are overreaching by so blatantly using their political power to aid the privileged in their class warfare against the middle and lower strata of American society.
And perhaps the effect of this blatancy is to enable those who protest these injustices to turn at last the rhetorical cannon of "class warfare" around and fire it in the other direction.
The equivalent in American politics to Abbott's ploy - "We're buddies aren't we, in this together?"-- is the notion that America is free of the politics of class, that we're perhaps even a classless society. America is supposed to be the land of opportunity where a fair game is played on a level playing field. "Class warfare" has been seen as part of the corruption of the Old World, while the land of the free has no use for the pinko politics of the resentments of the oppressed.
That's what gives the "accusation" that someone is waging "class warfare" such power in America: the deep-seated notion that calling attention to differences in class interests is un-American. We're buddies, aren't we?
Lately, however, there's been growing evidence this "class warfare" ploy is losing its long-standing power to intimidate. The evidence lies in who it is that brings the phrase "class warfare" into the political debate: over the course of this year, for the first time, it's the liberals.
Why now? My guess is that it is that in recent years the conservatives have simply overreached. Overreaching seems a tendency of the right in today's America.
Several years ago, its overreaching in an attempt to destroy Bill Clinton ended up fortifying his public support. Now some of those same people are overreaching by so blatantly using their political power to aid the privileged in their class warfare against the middle and lower strata of American society.
And perhaps the effect of this blatancy is to enable those who protest these injustices to turn at last the rhetorical cannon of "class warfare" around and fire it in the other direction.
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