This past week I had the chance to talk politics with every day, working class Americans in three separate states: New Hampshire, California and Michigan. My travels which began in Manchester, New Hampshire and took me to San Diego, California and finally to Detroit, Michigan revealed a serious disconnect between the real life issues affecting the lives of the working people of those cities and the political agendas being offered by the various presidential candidates.
For example, an employee of NorthWest Airlines, at Manchester Airport, explained to me that the presidential candidates don't seem at all interested in issues that impact working class people. She noted that her experience as an airline attendant has been like one long rollarcoster ride. She expressed her anger at what she described as the inhumane abuses perpetrated by airline management. She noted that as wages have been slashed and hours increased -a general pattern for American workers since 1973-workers have had no place to turn to. Even the unions, she said, have been co opted and its leaders given a priviliged status within the corporate power structure.
On an over night stay in Detroit Michigan, a black taxi-driver revealed a similar sentiment with regard to the sad state of working America. He noted that Detroit provides for an appropriate illustration of America- extreme poverty on the one hand and extreme wealth on the other. He cited the struggles that he has had to endure in raising two children on his own in a hostile environment. He explained how violence in Detroit has escalated as a result of the perpetual economic underdevelopment and the subsuquent lack of opportunities in the inner city. Finally, the taxi-driver explained that his ultimate goal was to find a way to send his children to college- a dream that many upper middle class Americans take for granted.
In San Diego, California, a convenience store clerk revealed how land in San Diego was parceled out according to wealth. He explained that it was impossible to own property or a house in the city if one did not earn an income upwards of $ 100,000. The clerk-with no fault of his own- seemed to accept the classist propaganda hammered home by American political elites-namely that the poor are rightfully confined to the permanent status of tenant and the rich privlidged to a living style of luxury.
None of the candidates -save for Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul- seem willing to fully address issues such as economic revitilization of the inner cities and workforce housing, fair trade and corporate accountability. America is desperately in search of the candidate of the people.
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