The question this book attempts to address is why do those on the right resent and reject government? The author, a Berkeley sociologist, decided to try and discern the answer from deep in the south, in a hard-right state, very poor and the most polluted in the country - Louisiana. The state is 49th of 50 on quality of life measurements and receives a striking 44% of its budget from the federal government. Although it has served the petrochemical and oil industries by not regulating them, Louisiana's reward is a horribly polluted environment. The author moved to Lake Charles, La. and spent five years trying to understand the members of the Tea Party and what she calls the Great Paradox. Why do people that the government helps, or wish to help, hate it?
Although they are impoverished and live in 'Cancer Alley', the Cajuns of southwest Louisiana put God and family first and do not wish to see their taxes (they hardly pay any) go to "non-working, non-deserving people". There is no one in their world - the local churches, the state of Louisiana, the companies there, Rush Limbaugh or Fox News - who does anything to question the certainties of this bias.
The author discusses the concept of 'line cutters'. As the aging white population pursues the ever elusive American dream, it is not globalization and technology that are the enemies, the creators of income inequality, it is those who have cut ahead. They are blacks, women, immigrants and anyone else the government has helped. One of the leading cutters, in the eyes of the Tea party folk in Louisiana, is President Obama.
"For the Tea Party around the country, the shifting moral qualifications for the American Dream had turned them into strangers in their own land, afraid, resentful, displaced, and dismissed..."
This book is one of those recommended to the stunned, informed elite last November, to help understand the election. In that regard, it is good and helpful. I have lost all touch with the blue collar world that has seen its wages stifled for the last forty years. The concerns and anxieties articulated here are real and it is easy to be personally sympathetic. The plight of the Cajuns is compounded by the amazing environmental abuse inflicted on them. Thus, I am not inclined to conclude they are ill-informed or overly tribal. They are victims. One person said "Pollution is a sacrifice we make for capitalism." What an appalling conclusion to come to. In this story, it is the huge oil and petrochemical companies that have been given a free ride that are to blame. Their handmaiden, former Governor Bobby Jindal, reduced what little oversight the state imposed, cut taxes for industry, reduced social services and stood by while the polluters laid it on. This book is only 241 pages and a relatively easy read.
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