{"id":3011,"date":"2002-11-09T07:07:14","date_gmt":"2002-11-09T07:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.armedliberal.com\/?p=410"},"modified":"2002-11-09T07:07:14","modified_gmt":"2002-11-09T07:07:14","slug":"schooling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/?p=3011","title":{"rendered":"SCHOOLING"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matt \u0093unarmed\u0094 Welch (Matt \u0096 Living in L.A., do you really want to announce that?) comments below and takes me to school with links two columns he wrote years ago<\/u> on the Culture War. In case you\u0092re too sleepy this morning to go click through, I\u0092m excerpting them here. Go read the real things and get reminded of why he gets paid<\/u> to do this stuff (while I get to buy a free CD on Amazon every three months from my referral fees).
\nFrom here<\/a>:<\/p>\n

There was a time in our politics, and in most countries’ politics, where a natural two-party divide would gather around Capital and Labor. I am not at all sad to see that grouping dissipate, since it led to the kind of mutual distrust and rancor that countries like France still suffer from (endless and frequently pointless strikes, the mistaken notion that all Business is Evil).
\nBut there is definitely room in post-ideology politics for a party that is supposed to stand for — and articulate — the needs and rights of the working class vis-\u00e0-vis those who hold more power in this country. Unfortunately, what we get instead is a dispiriting divide based around abortion, guns and code words masking attitudes toward race.
\nSo now the privileged young gather around Al Gore out of tired habit and aesthetic allegiance (except, fleetingly, when John McCain shook them out of their lethargy), while working class whites spread the vote, but still based on issues that have precious little to do with the condition of their lives. It’s not surprising that American politics are giving people the same feeling they have after a long day of barbecuing — tired, filled with crap, and ready for a long nap.<\/I><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

and from here<\/a>:<\/p>\n

I, like I guess a lot of people, have that incredible red\/blue county-by-county presidential vote map on the wall in front of me, the one where Bush country is basically everywhere except the 100 miles along either coast and the banks of the Mississippi. It has been tempting, living here in L.A. and watching the Beltway\/New York teevee shows, to dismiss the “flyover zone” as some kind of vast, inbred swamp of gun-waving Bible nuts with no brains, despite my personal experience to the contrary.
\nBut I wonder if the real Cultural War in this country is actually the Great Frat Divide. After all, even San Francisco is full of bright sports bars pumping out Coors Light, and the GOP talent pool would be mighty shallow if it could only draw from Utah and Kansas. Anyone who thinks Hollywood is overrun with rich gay leftists hasn’t been to a rock club thick with “industry people” — invariably guys named “Marshall” who always look like they’re late for the next intramural flag-football game.<\/I><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Look, even Matt wasn\u0092t even the first to write about this (read The Emerging Republican Majority<\/A> by Kevin Phillips) and I\u0092m sure that an hour spent going through the books on my shelves would come up with four or five others.
\nBut read what Matt has to say.
\nAnd take it damn seriously.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matt \u0093unarmed\u0094 Welch (Matt \u0096 Living in L.A., do you really want to announce that?) comments below and takes me to school with links two columns he wrote years ago on the Culture War. In case you\u0092re too sleepy this morning to go click through, I\u0092m excerpting them here. Go read the real things and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3011"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3011\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}