Tipsheet

The GOP and the "Working Class"

I've always taken exception to the term "working class" used to denote blue collar workers; my dad was a doctor and he was often at the hospital treating patients for 12 1/2 hours per day.  What about that isn't working?

Even so, Matt Lewis (once of Townhall) has an important piece in The Week, discussing the increasing demoralization of the working class (in the traditional sense of the term). It's a topic well worth the GOP's attention, not because "creative destruction" (and the failed lives and towns, etc. that accompany it) isn't an inevitable part of capitalism -- but because it is.

in the Obama (and post-Obama) era, we need to realize that the underlying principles of capitalism are truly under attack. A newly emboldened left will hope to gain continued traction by promising Americans all sorts of entitlements provided by government and funded by high taxes on "the rich."  Conservatives and Republicans need to be able to counter with why capitalism makes more sense -- marshalling arguments about how it breeds both freedom and prosperity.  

But part of convincing Americans (traumatized after long years of economic struggle and stagnation) to shun the supposed "safety" of a government-centered economy is persuading them that conservatives and Republicans are, indeed, sensitive to those who will suffer in a market-based economy.