Joe Bageant

The workers are not yet unhappy enough

Hey Joe!

In response to the anonymous political consultant ("Life in the Post Political Age") who believes the United States public is supporting Obama because we are in a "post-political" era where style matters more than substance, I begin with a few choice quotes before more general analysis.

"How valuable an asset can experience be in a culture where knowledge, wisdom, and history are frowned upon?"

"His very presence, the color of his skin, the very strangeness of his name is the best guarantee of his betrayal of the expectations of the constituencies that will vote to elect him."

Life in the Post Political Age

Every now and then I am fortunate enough to communicate with someone who has near complete insight into our political process, why things happen and where it seems likely to be headed. Recently I received this analysis from a high powered political consultant whose name is withheld for obvious reasons. He/she has to live and work in the political world and for either party. In any case, I found it breathtaking in its fundamental analysis and its clarity -- clarity being no easy thing to accomplish in the swamp of media-consumerism-politics. Here it is:
-- Joe Bageant

By an anonymous political consultant

Much has been written by political pundits in their attempt to explain the unexpected victory of Senator Barack Obama over Senator Hillary Clinton in this year's Democratic Presidential Primary. When looking at the results of this race, none of the conventional political math that would help one handicap the outcome would make one conclude that Senator Obama would win this contest.

Southern liberal woman speaks her mind

Dear Joe,

Regarding the letter "McCain, Obama, whatever, hold your nose", where does this Republican-loving "Mike" come from, and what does he know about people and their politics besides what he's sucked from the tit of right wing radio?

Would somebody please tell me where to find a Latte Liberal? I've claimed the label of Liberal, Progressive, and Democrat since I reached the age of reason, and I never waste my money on overpriced espresso and milk. My daughter's a coffee addict, but she gets her lattes from machines at the Sunoco, that well known hangout of the liberal elite.

McCain, Obama, whatever, hold your nose

Hi Joe,

I recently discovered your site and I agree with much of what you have to say, but I've got to disagree on one thing: how do you figure that the people of Winchester are voting against their own best interests by voting Republican?

Fact is, the Democratic party has been taken over by bunch of liberal elitist snots who don't give two shits about economic issues, class issues or poor white people. In fact, they utterly despise us. All they care about is identity politics. If the people of your town all turned into crippled, black drag queens the liberals would be down there in a New York minute protesting about how badly they've been fucked. But as it is, they're ordinary white folks, and thus personally responsible for every atrocity committed by white people since 1492. So the liberals smugly look down their noses and snicker at them while sipping a latte and ordering another $100 plate of sushi. It makes perfect sense for the people of Winchester to vote Republican, the Bushes and McCains of the world at least leave their guns alone and at least pretend to like them.

Charities take advantage of volunteers

Joe,

That was an interesting letter ("Confessions of a lazy dumpster diver") from the reader about Habitat for Humanity. They're actually OK in some other countries (they're run locally) but it's no surprise the US branches are screwed up.

I did a lot of volunteering around my burg for a while. I did a stint for Catholic Charities, until I threw my back out. I picked up all their donations, and I noticed after a while that I was the only person in the office not getting paid, the only person doing actual physical work on a regular basis, and I'm not even a Catholic or a church-goer. There are maybe 100,000 Catholics around here, but I did all their volunteer heavy lifting.

Easier to choose Hooters over Hobbes

Joe,

I have just found your article "Ghosts of Tim Leary and Hunter Thompson", and you have hit the nail very nicely on the head. Why is no one warning the American people about the vegetables that they are becoming? Is it money and power? Yet money and power must surely be inherently boring things, if we are to judge by the dullards who are attracted to them as well as the emotions they inspire within me. I have only ever known one millionaire who was worth talking to, possibly because the combination of his advanced age and his great fondness for recreational chemicals caused his brain to work.

Unfortunately, the general public seems to equate wealth and power with wisdom, even when confronted with such stark examples as Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, and a squillion other of the gilded brain-dead, spread across the social pages like smeared excrement. Were you aware that a year or two ago, Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie (or Lindsay Lohan or someone) were guests on some Fat Camp reality TV show, giving enemas to the participants on US TV?

Confessions of a lazy dumpster diver

Hi Joe,

I have only recently discovered your site and I wonder why it took two years of being connected to discover such wisdom and truth. I found you by linking to links that linked to links. I know that younger people call it surfing, but I think of it as panning for gold in a polluted river. Dip after dip into the Internet river, one finds the remains of a once towering mountain of freedom ground into pebbles and dirt under the relentless march of the glaciers of corpo-government. Mixed in with the debris of our freedom is a large amount of unidentified stuff that passes for political thought that has the suspicious odor of fish and frog shit. But the fishy smell of political lies is lost in the overpowering stink of societal and physical toxins that we are forced to bathe in and drink by our corporate masters. The flavor of the brew is getting so vile that it is difficult for even the most thoughtless to keep calling it Kool-Aid.