I Wish We Could Work With Working-class Whites

Wouldn't it be nice to build an alliance between working-class whites (the Double Ws) and working-class people from all races (the Single Ws). I wish we could; but we just can't.

We can't because were not dealing with a demographic group defined by their socio-economic status and reality (like the name "working class whites" impies); but rather a group defined by its insistence to cling onto its 'most favored nation' status.

The family of Representative John Boehner (aspiring Speaker of the House if the Republicans take the House after the mid-term elections) and the Representative himself makes this plain. The Republican Representative grew up with 11 brothers and sisters in a working-class white (double W) home of Catholic Kennedy Democrats in a small Southern Ohio town. According to one of his siblings all 11 became Republicans. I think the sibling was a sister who said when they all started working and saw their paychecks and noticed how much was taken out in taxes they all switched to Republican. I would have felt better (and like we could work with the Double Ws) if she had said her brother had convinced them that the Republican philosophy and approach to governing were superior. But no, she said it was looking at the taxes taken from their paychecks. I thought, funny, but don't they take the same amount of taxes out of all working-class people's paychecks - black, brown, red, yellow and white? Why does it have such a powerful effect on the Double Ws?

Maybe somebody out there can help me out and provide an explanation. One of Boehner's boyhood friends gave a glimpse at an explanation when he mused in an article about the Congressman's small town white working-class social background. He spoke wistfully of their little town in their little corner of the world and noted that they never had to deal with such things as gay rights or abortion rights. He didn't specifically mention it; but he also well implied that they didn't have to deal with a diverse population either. I think he also sheds light onto what else motivates the Double Ws to go Republican. The Republicans don't want to talk about it now because it's gone out of vogue and would lose them the ever elusive "independent" voter; but it is a culture war. Could it be that the Double Ws believe the Democrats have let too many "others" into the tent and these "others" threaten the Double Ws rightful claim (in their minds) to 'most favored nation' status and their illusory American as Apple Pie Culture?

Ya'll maybe they decided first and a long while ago that they just couldn't work with us.