One of the things progressives often wonder is why average working Americans don't repudiate Republican political-economic policies that privilege the wealthy. One clear reason is that average Americans somehow do not manage to align either their assessments of, say, the actual distribution of wealth or the ideal distribution that they would like to see with what is, in fact, the distribution of wealth in the U.S.; the result is that there is a massive disconnect between motivation, assessment of possibilities and actuality. Is it possible to surmount that predicament? That is the first step in any hope for progressive politics. The second step would be to recognize that the data reported here suggest that the average American hardly is an egalitarian.
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Thursday, April 14, 2011
Is a Reality Based Politics Possible?
One of the things progressives often wonder is why average working Americans don't repudiate Republican political-economic policies that privilege the wealthy. One clear reason is that average Americans somehow do not manage to align either their assessments of, say, the actual distribution of wealth or the ideal distribution that they would like to see with what is, in fact, the distribution of wealth in the U.S.; the result is that there is a massive disconnect between motivation, assessment of possibilities and actuality. Is it possible to surmount that predicament? That is the first step in any hope for progressive politics. The second step would be to recognize that the data reported here suggest that the average American hardly is an egalitarian.
