Note: The executive committee for Jonathan’s Newsletter has decreed that this week will be Frame week. Yesterday, Peter Beinart devoted his newsletter to a discussion of “populism.” His basic argument was that while the American right has run hard against snobby, effete, educated coastal cultural elitists - consistent with one understanding of what it means to be populist - it has also been firmly on the side of oligarchic business interests. This is true, for example, in Brookwood, Alabama, where unionized coal miners have been on strike for over 500 days. Coal miners are supposed to exemplify exactly who the allegedly pro-working-class right says it’s fighting for - predominantly white, blue collar laborers in a legacy American industry far from the country’s cultural and financial centers. In fact, though, all of the state’s major Republican leaders have sided with the bosses.
The Populist Frame
The Populist Frame
The Populist Frame
Note: The executive committee for Jonathan’s Newsletter has decreed that this week will be Frame week. Yesterday, Peter Beinart devoted his newsletter to a discussion of “populism.” His basic argument was that while the American right has run hard against snobby, effete, educated coastal cultural elitists - consistent with one understanding of what it means to be populist - it has also been firmly on the side of oligarchic business interests. This is true, for example, in Brookwood, Alabama, where unionized coal miners have been on strike for over 500 days. Coal miners are supposed to exemplify exactly who the allegedly pro-working-class right says it’s fighting for - predominantly white, blue collar laborers in a legacy American industry far from the country’s cultural and financial centers. In fact, though, all of the state’s major Republican leaders have sided with the bosses.