"Some on the left have always tried to introduce a more class-conscious style of politics. These efforts never pan out. America has always done better, liberals have always done better, when we are all focused on opportunity and mobility, not inequality, on individual and family aspiration, not class-consciousness."—David Brooks, in his latest garbage column for the New York Times.
LOL. Shut up, David Brooks.
Dean Baker's response to this hogwash is perfect: "Funny, I thought Social Security, the Fair Labor Standards Act (i.e. the 40-hour workweek), the National Labor Relations Board, and other products of the New Deal were pretty big accomplishments. Much of this was done quite explicitly with a sense of class consciousness. These were all measures that were backed by mass movements that sought to ensure that working people got their share of the economic pie."
Brooks wants us to stop talking about class and start focusing on "individual and family aspiration," because then we can keep having terrific conversations about how some individuals and families aren't "aspiring" hard enough, or don't have the right aspirations, or whatever.
It's a lot tougher to victim-blame when you're not tasking individuals with finding solutions to systemtic problems.
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