straight white non-college voters hold no face cards
In the game of contract bridge, a "Yarborough" is a dealt hand of 13 cards with no Aces or face cards -- in other words, your hand sucks. Under the old Goren Point Count bidding system, your hand is worthless. You may as well throw your hand in the trash.
In the US, if you're a straight white non-college voter, your dealt hand sucks. You get no privileges from our 21st Century economy. You're shut out of jobs that don't actually need a college degree, because you don't have a college degree. You don't get any affirmative action or assistance for being POC or LGBTQ, instead you're assailed as a privileged straight white supremacist. You have to compete with immigrants (legal or not) for low-paying shit jobs with no benefits. There's no unions anymore outside of the government sector, and government jobs have been shrinking. The best paying jobs are in cities that are too expensive to live in, so you need a car to get to your job, you drive two hours each way, and need to fill the gas tank twice/week. If you can get health insurance at all, such as via ObamaCare, the out-of-pocket is thousands of dollars before the benefits kick in. The physical labor you do to get by will likely cause a disability before you reach retirement age. The public schools in the neighborhood you can afford to live in suck. There's crime, and drugs, and owning a gun doesn't actually protect your family from the violence and the overdoses. Your children are having mental health crises and you can't find an affordable therapist. Child care, when you can find it, costs about as much as one spouse's take home pay.
Under 8 years of Bill Clinton, 8 years of George W. Bush, and 8 years of Obama, none of the above changed. So when Trump came along, you rolled the dice and voted for him instead of more of the same. But Trump didn't fix things either. And now Biden hasn't fixed things either.
If you don't like the Republicans or the Democrats -- and fewer of you like them than ever -- your other choices don't speak to you either. The Libertarians want to get rid of all government. The Greens sound more worried about other species than about working class humans, plus Greens want to get rid of the police. Every so often a slice of moderate Democrats and moderate Republicans talk about running a centrist candidate ... yawn.
You might have been excited about some things Bernie said, but he couldn't win. Democrats said his proposals would be "too expensive" and that Bernie supporters were "sexist white Bernie Bros". But both Republicans and Democrats have no problem spending trillions on wars. So if your kids can avoid the drugs, can avoid obesity from cheap food, can manage to graduate from their shitty high school, then there's a job for them in the military. The military will provide security, housing, health care, and will eventually pay for college. But there's the chance you'll get killed on the other side of the planet, or that you'll come back missing a couple limbs. If you do come back in one piece, your best friend did not.
-----
Those are the people who cannot afford to live in your gentrified community. But you look down on them. Even as you require their services for your own upscale lifestyle. They deliver stuff to your door or your table. They box your goods from Amazon & Target. They harvest your food. They fight your wars. They cut your hair and do your nails. They stock the shelves and ring up your purchases. They tell you that blouse looks great with your shoes. They clean the office you go to a couple times per week, and mow your lawn.
This is America.
In the US, if you're a straight white non-college voter, your dealt hand sucks. You get no privileges from our 21st Century economy. You're shut out of jobs that don't actually need a college degree, because you don't have a college degree. You don't get any affirmative action or assistance for being POC or LGBTQ, instead you're assailed as a privileged straight white supremacist. You have to compete with immigrants (legal or not) for low-paying shit jobs with no benefits. There's no unions anymore outside of the government sector, and government jobs have been shrinking. The best paying jobs are in cities that are too expensive to live in, so you need a car to get to your job, you drive two hours each way, and need to fill the gas tank twice/week. If you can get health insurance at all, such as via ObamaCare, the out-of-pocket is thousands of dollars before the benefits kick in. The physical labor you do to get by will likely cause a disability before you reach retirement age. The public schools in the neighborhood you can afford to live in suck. There's crime, and drugs, and owning a gun doesn't actually protect your family from the violence and the overdoses. Your children are having mental health crises and you can't find an affordable therapist. Child care, when you can find it, costs about as much as one spouse's take home pay.
Under 8 years of Bill Clinton, 8 years of George W. Bush, and 8 years of Obama, none of the above changed. So when Trump came along, you rolled the dice and voted for him instead of more of the same. But Trump didn't fix things either. And now Biden hasn't fixed things either.
If you don't like the Republicans or the Democrats -- and fewer of you like them than ever -- your other choices don't speak to you either. The Libertarians want to get rid of all government. The Greens sound more worried about other species than about working class humans, plus Greens want to get rid of the police. Every so often a slice of moderate Democrats and moderate Republicans talk about running a centrist candidate ... yawn.
You might have been excited about some things Bernie said, but he couldn't win. Democrats said his proposals would be "too expensive" and that Bernie supporters were "sexist white Bernie Bros". But both Republicans and Democrats have no problem spending trillions on wars. So if your kids can avoid the drugs, can avoid obesity from cheap food, can manage to graduate from their shitty high school, then there's a job for them in the military. The military will provide security, housing, health care, and will eventually pay for college. But there's the chance you'll get killed on the other side of the planet, or that you'll come back missing a couple limbs. If you do come back in one piece, your best friend did not.
-----
Those are the people who cannot afford to live in your gentrified community. But you look down on them. Even as you require their services for your own upscale lifestyle. They deliver stuff to your door or your table. They box your goods from Amazon & Target. They harvest your food. They fight your wars. They cut your hair and do your nails. They stock the shelves and ring up your purchases. They tell you that blouse looks great with your shoes. They clean the office you go to a couple times per week, and mow your lawn.
This is America.