The "privileged" use the "prejudiced" as "pawns" to protect their wealth

[slojim240]

and position. It's been that way all through history and nothing is different in the USA. There is just no other way to explain why so many lower income and ill-educated people will vote against their own best interests to support Bush. Just think about what happened during the Civil War. The wealthy cotten merchants were able to get the poor southerners to fight the battle to protect their wealth and property (namely plantations and slaves) by appealing to the prejudice and fears of ill-informed poor people. Think about whose children are fighting right now in Iraq (and whose children are NOT fighting). Whose children fought in Viet Nam, Korea. It's just damn amazing to me.

[TrustingDog]

1. 'cheap labour conservative' link here...

http://www.conceptualguerilla.com/blurbs.htm

thanks to someone here at DU for posting this the other day. Sorry, I cannot recall who it was.
Excellent read.

[BeHereNow]

2. Thomas Frank Book

is about this very topic-
I saw him on C-span book TV and was riveted by
his talk. Pointed out how people were cheering for
the political leaders responsible for destoying their
very way of life.
I think the book is called, What's the Matter with Kansas.
BHN

[shrdlu]

3. Thanks,

I needed that...

[oscar111]

4. to weaken racism, jobs for all, and guarantee house value

races fight over scarce jobs, and rednecks fear house value loss if blockbusting.

Cure:

http://www.njfac.org

jobs for all- Clinton's Rbt Reich, sec labor, is advisor to njfac

..and we need a fed program to guarantee the value of all homes.. prob best to nationalize housing.
Ending landlords would be an ultra nice side effect. Who wants them? No one. House dictators are what ll's are.

[welshTerrier2]

5. Norma Rae

there was a great scene in the movie Norma Rae where the corporate bosses told the white workers that if a union was voted in, it would be controlled by the blacks and the white workers would get bossed around by them ...

the name of the game is divide and conquer ... they pit Northerners against Southerners, race against race, religion against religion, men against women, old against young, and of course, Americans against the rest of the world ... and people wonder why we remain a nation divided ... and a world divided ...

things will change when we blow their fat lazy asses off their plantations ... you can never win a game where evil people are making the rules ... as citizens feel their jobs and their lives become more and more at risk, they too often cower and succumb even further to those in power ... just at a time you would hope they would awaken to the truth, they withdraw hoping merely to survive ...

in the end though, they will learn that you simply cannot get there from here ... we need real change ... we need people to understand that it really is all about class warfare ... too many have come to believe that their inability to earn a decent living is because they haven't worked hard enough or haven't gotten enough education or just haven't gotten "the breaks" ... but in most cases, that's not where the blame lies at all ...

you cannot win in an economic system controlled by the very wealthiest shareholders ... you cannot ... it really doesn't matter how hard you work or what you do ... your job can disappear in seconds ... even your career can disappear ... until workers understand how they're being exploited, nothing will change ...

it should be our mission to wake people up to this reality ... we have great insights here on DU ... but we have yet to truly awaken the masses ... I hope someday we do ...

[slojim240]

6. You would think people with just common sense would have figured this

out by now and stop playing the game. For all its wealth, technology, and churches, America is a really ignorant on the human being level.

[DeepModem Mom]

7. You're exactly right -- it's tragic... n/t