If you want to understand how America as a social democracy basically came apart, the destruction of organized labor is a huge part of that. I keep bringing things back to that because I think that’s … you know, what’s happened to unions and organized labor in this country is a very critical part of the story of inequality. THOMAS FRANK: The professional class tends to be … right, right, but they tend to be very liberal on an issue like that, whereas you take an issue that has to do with raw economics like, say, organized labor, and I can’t tell you how many members of the professional class … I mean, people who are good liberals and vote Democratic … they just can’t stand organized labor. Of course if affected working women, too. PAUL JAY: Just to back up a second, for example, the abortion issue affected women from that class. When it comes to economic issues, they tend to be fairly conservative, as conservative as, you know, Republican billionaires, any one that you care to name. They tend to be liberal about things that don’t affect them. THOMAS FRANK: Yeah, or things that are … or you might put it this way, things that are far away. PAUL JAY: It affects how they live themselves. Among other things, professionals tend to be very liberal on culture war issues, social issues. THOMAS FRANK: I don’t want to downplay the differences, because there are important differences between these Republican rich people and Democratic rich people. He’s well known for the book “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” And most recently, “Listen, Liberal.” In section one we talked about the sort of alliance between what you call the meritocracy, or this professional class that has educated and earned their way into privilege and power, and how they ally themselves with what in your book you call the plutocracy. PAUL JAY: One more time, Thomas is a political analyst, a historian, he’s a journalist and columnist for The Guardian. We’re continuing our discussion with Thomas Frank, but before I introduce him again, here’s a little bit from the book, “Listen, Liberal.” “The Democrats are a class party in the most basic sense of the phrase, and that the socioeconomic group whose interests they represent most enthusiastically–the satisfied and prosperous professional class–simply doesn’t care all that much about income inequality.” Now joining us in the studio is Thomas Frank. PAUL JAY: Welcome back to Reality Asserts Itself on The Real News Network.
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