They need money
by digby
Ronald Brownstein unpacks the data in a recent poll which asked people how the economy is doing. It’s mostly good news. But I couldn’t help but notice this:
While the disenchantment over wages and living standards was broadly based, one group stood out in its especially stark level of discontent: white women without a college education. Just 10 percent of those women, who are often described as “waitress moms,” described the situation in wages or the cost of living as excellent or good. On each measure, just over one-third described conditions as only fair and about half picked the most negative option—poor. By contrast, no more than about 40 percent of either college-educated whites or noncollege white men picked the most negative option on either measure.
Donna, a part-time cafeteria worker who lives near Evansville, Ind., and asked not to give her last name, vividly expressed their discontent. “Most of the people I know only have part-time jobs. They don’t make enough money working to even cover their bills, so a lot of people get some kind of assistance,” she says. “Almost everything here is around minimum wage. Even working 40 hours a week—that’s not enough to support yourself, much less a family.”
If the frustration over stagnant living standards represents a slow-motion earthquake rattling support for all of America’s institutions, working-class white women like Donna may be at its epicenter.
These people are pretty much invisible in our national dialog. But there are a whole lot of them and they’re looking for more than a daddy figure to keep the terrorists from invading our shores. They need money. The right isn’t going to do a damn thing to make it possible for them to get some. (Tax cuts for millionaires isn’t exactly responsive…)just Despite their alleged love of independence and freedom they tell women they need to get married or go begging for help at church. They don’t even think they should be able to buy affordable health insurance if they work two part time jobs or that it should cover their birth control (much less an abortion!) Poor women shouldn’t be having sex in the first place.
Democrats are for a raise in the minimum wage so that’s good. (The great “centrist” hope Jeb Bush is against it, btw.) But as Donna said, the higher minimum wage is not enough to pay the bills. When working full time will not support a single worker, there is a big problem. So, what else are they offering this group of Americans? I mean, I realize that it’s the loss of the white male blue collar vote that really bothers most Democratic strategists, but it seems to me that there are just as many white female blue (and pink) collar workers out there who are making shit wages and working long hours and cannot get ahead. Perhaps they might be the subject of some concern as well. It could be good for the party …
.