In a recent bloggingheads diavlog, David Frum expresses notes the level of resentment in conservative talk radio:
Maybe part of the explanation can be found in passages like this:
Oh, I see, the while middle class has just stubbornly refused to upgrade its skills. I wonder why that is…
Ah, so if the critical thing is whether one graduates high school on time, then the story really isn’t that adults are stupidly failing to respond to economic incentives, but that 16 and 17 year olds are dropping out of high school. Most likely because they do not have the social capital in their families to support them doing so. (I should note that Frum here is speaking about Hispanic immigrants, but the same would apply generally).
But, in perhaps the most offensive passage, Lindsey blame social conservatism for the plight of the unskilled worker:
First of all, I seriously challenge the notion that one can make more in real wages (and other compensation) as a hotel desk clerk today than as a UAW worker on the assembly line at any point in the history of the auto industry.
Secondly, maybe it’s because I grew up in the blue-state northeast, but would call myself a social conservative, yet my idea of “being a man” includes doing whatever it takes to provide for one’s family. And if that meant kissing the rear end of someone I didn’t think deserved it, then that’s what needs to be done. I also thought “being a good team player” was very much a part of how men have been socialized throughout our history in competitive sports.
Thirdly, while hostility between labor and management is likely part of the blue-collar culture, I don’t see that it is this all-encompassing disposition that would render one incapable of being polite when the situation calls for it.
All in all, I am sympathetic to people like Frum and Lindsey, if the alternative is talk show umbrage taking from the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin.
But what I hear them saying to those with economic resentment is, “If only you would invest in yourself and go to college, then you would have enjoyed the economic boom. But you’re stuck in your outmoded views of what it means to be a man and not improving yourself, so you shouldn’t expect much better than what you’ve got.”
There’s probably some truth in that vision, but it’s not the whole story. Yes, some people have done very well in the last few years, and most of them were college-educated. But I think that’s more of a correlation than a causation.
First of all, people who are smarter tend to go to college, and people who are smarter will be better able to to take advantage of globalisms opportunities than those who aren’t so smart. Not simply because they have an education or piece of paper in their hand, but also because they have the mental agility and entrepreneurial spirit and a family safety net to take risks.
Secondly, I don’t think the story is that those with education were winners and those without are losers. There have been a few extreme winners that pull the averages up. Some were winners because of their own hard work and self-investment; others frankly got lucky. I think most college educated people are still not getting ahead, but treading water. So I think it would be wrong to tell frustrated blue-collar workers that if only they would educate themselves, they could play too. Most college educated people aren’t playing either.
That doesn’t mean that the right thing to do is to indulge and stoke resentment as the conservative talk show hosts do. But conservatism has to have something better to say to folks who are currently losing than, “Go to school.”
