> Nothing curtails corporate power. It's also why the focus of politics is on being divisive on social issues. This is to distract the voters and prevent class solidarity of the working class.
I think you’re misdiagnosing the cause. Nearly everyone I know—my circle skews highly educated and well compensated—cares more about social issues than economic ones. It’s telling that, in this crowd, Clarence Thomas gets exponentially more hate for the ways in which he’s a typical older Black man from a working class background (his views on social issues) than for the ways in which he starkly departs from that background (his economic libertarianism).
While these folks would deny they’re acting in their class interest, the effect is identical. Working class people, being less educated and less cosmopolitan, are naturally going to be more socially conservative. By making politics more about “rights” and “justice” than “wages” and “government services” you’re naturally going to divide the working class and have a powerful club to use against them.
I think you’re misdiagnosing the cause. Nearly everyone I know—my circle skews highly educated and well compensated—cares more about social issues than economic ones. It’s telling that, in this crowd, Clarence Thomas gets exponentially more hate for the ways in which he’s a typical older Black man from a working class background (his views on social issues) than for the ways in which he starkly departs from that background (his economic libertarianism).
While these folks would deny they’re acting in their class interest, the effect is identical. Working class people, being less educated and less cosmopolitan, are naturally going to be more socially conservative. By making politics more about “rights” and “justice” than “wages” and “government services” you’re naturally going to divide the working class and have a powerful club to use against them.