David Frum demolishes Palin's supposed working-class-ness

[Linus Van Pelt]

From an overall good piece on Sarah Palin's unpopularity among Jews:

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http://www.frumforum.com/do-jews-hate-palin

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Good stuff, yes.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

"Palin’s father was a high school teacher, her mother a public school administrator"

sounds like working-class to me

[Verily]

"Palin’s father was a high school teacher, her mother a public school administrator"

sounds like working-class to me

The latter, definitely not; that's white-collar, often six-figure (depending on administrative position, but principal/vice-principal would be in many areas). The former, not by the traditional definition of working class (manufacturing).

[© tweed]

"Palin’s father was a high school teacher, her mother a public school administrator"

sounds like working-class to me

both meet varying degrees of middle-class professional, the former towards middle-middle class and the latter, as Verily pointed out, upper-middle.

[minionofmidas]

Teaching is one of the traditional avenues out of the working class. Which also means relatively (compared to other people on the same income) working class values.

Although

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does not sound as if that was the case at least for Palin's mother's family.

Oh, also: The author is giving way to much credit to Nixon's maudlin "I'm not a millionaire's son" shtick. He wasn't that unpalinlike either.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Oh, also: The author is giving way to much credit to Nixon's maudlin "I'm not a millionaire's son" shtick. He wasn't that unpalinlike either.

True, but then the author is David Frum...

[minionofmidas]

True, but then the author is David Frum...

Lord Mandelkitteh has considerd ur request 4 considerayshe of this fact.

He thinkz it wuz extremely brave proposal.

U will be sorely misd.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

True, but then the author is David Frum...

Lord Mandelkitteh has considerd ur request 4 considerayshe of this fact.

He thinkz it wuz extremely brave proposal.

U will be sorely misd.

There is at least one other Lord Mandelkitteh lolcat, btw:

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

Teaching is one of the traditional avenues out of the working class. Which also means relatively (compared to other people on the same income) working class values.

Although

You must be logged in to read this quote.

does not sound as if that was the case at least for Palin's mother's family.

Oh, also: The author is giving way to much credit to Nixon's maudlin "I'm not a millionaire's son" shtick. He wasn't that unpalinlike either.

the profession of Palin's uncle has little to nothing to do with how Palin grew up....as to the profession of her mother and father, maybe I don't understand the definition of the working class as the term "working” describes many people of differing income levels…to me it simply means those who must work for their living.

[Brittain33]

the profession of Palin's uncle has little to nothing to do with how Palin grew up....as to the profession of her mother and father, maybe I don't understand the definition of the working class as the term "working” describes many people of differing income levels…to me it simply means those who must work for their living.

That would loop in the vast majority of the middle class, include east coast professionals and educated elites and the like. This negates the meaning of a term like "working class" as it is commonly understood as distinct from "middle class." Very few people have enough in savings to live off of their investments. A college professor married to a lawyer and currently making $240,000 are not working class because their lifestyles would decline to nothing if they quit their jobs.

Sarah Palin is good at hitting working class cultural buttons without actually having the background. It's one of her great strengths.

I have a good perspective on this because my father is a contactor so he reads as blue collar to everyone in his personality and tastes, BUT he is a trained engineer and successful businessman who makes as much or more than many professionals. So it's not all about wealth. But in Palin's case, she is neither working class in lifestyle OR in the wealth with which she was raised.

[Beet]

Jesus H Christ.

It's less interesting whether Palin is "working class" than the fact that the Commentary, a well known conservative magazine, is publishing a speculative, stereotyping article by a female conservative writer entitled "Do Jews Hate Palin"? Not to mention that a Jew made Palin.

[12th Doctor]

From an overall good piece on Sarah Palin's unpopularity among Jews:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

http://www.frumforum.com/do-jews-hate-palin

I don't appreciate the swipe at Adams... mainly because it contains about this much truth.  The English didn't like Adams because of who he was, and he was a working man; he worked on his own farm as a laborer, being a lawyer was really a side job for him.  And John Adams was not a particularly wealthy man.  I think what he resented more was that the English treated him with such disdain, even though he had defended the British soldiers (successfully at that) in the Boston Massacre Trail.

As a critique of the main topic of the article, all those circumstances don't necessarily mean that the Sarah Palin's family was not "working-class".  At the same time she was growing up, steel workers in Pittsburgh were making $50/hour, with full pension, and benefits... but inspite of that luxurious union salary, which most people don't even know about, steel workers would be considered "working class".

[Brittain33]

As a critique of the main topic of the article, all those circumstances don't necessarily mean that the Sarah Palin's family was not "working-class".  At the same time she was growing up, steel workers in Pittsburgh were making $50/hour, with full pension, and benefits... but inspite of that luxurious union salary, which most people don't even know about, steel workers would be considered "working class".

A steel worker had a blue collar job at a white collar wage.
Sarah's parents had white collar jobs at white collar wages.

[Sam Spade]

Sometimes I have to wonder out loud if there could actually be dumber people than David Frum.

Since my father's entire family (not just his sister, but her too) would easily qualify as east Texas "white trash", does this mean that I qualify as "white trash"?

My impression of Sarah Palin's growing up surroundings were of rural, small town America, which is not working-class or white collar by any stretch of the imagination, especially not where she was.

[useful idiot]

I don't understand the point he's trying to get across. That Jews don't like her because she says she was working class? And so by proving she was actually rich and well to do that will make Jews like her? WTF does that say about Jews?

In any event, having two public school teachers as parents doesn't exactly make you Paris Hilton, it makes you lower middle class. She probably grew up in a town where a lot of people were commercial fisherman, loggers, truck drivers(big money in AK) and a lot of them probably worked in the oil industry. All those groups make waaay more money than teachers. I lived in Alaska, and it was funny because the people with the working class jobs tended to get paid more than the people who worked more standard middle class jobs.

[Brittain33]

I don't understand the point he's trying to get across. That Jews don't like her because she says she was working class? And so by proving she was actually rich and well to do that will make Jews like her? WTF does that say about Jews?

His point was that the original article was full of sh!t in too many ways to count.

[Linus Van Pelt]

Sometimes I have to wonder out loud if there could actually be dumber people than David Frum.

Since my father's entire family (not just his sister, but her too) would easily qualify as east Texas "white trash", does this mean that I qualify as "white trash"?

No-one has ever claimed that Sarah Palin herself is working-class; I hope we can agree at least that Governor is a white-collar job. The question is whether her background is, and Frum is responding to an article claiming that Jews dislike Palin because of her working-class origins. Similar claims were widely made about liberal educated Americans (not specifically Jews) during the campaign as an explanation for their dislike of Palin; yet her background is in fact no humbler than that of many other politicians whom the liberal upper-middle class seem to have no trouble with.

[Rob]

Since my father's entire family (not just his sister, but her too) would easily qualify as east Texas "white trash", does this mean that I qualify as "white trash"?

I thought you were black

[minionofmidas]

Sshhh Rob, it's supposed to be a secret.