More Thoughts on Blue Collars

In the last blog I wrote about the declining number of blue collars jobs, hence the decline in blue collar workers. I have thought some more about men who think of themselves as “blue collar” and those who are the “Good Old Boys” macho guys. The former were men who worked in industrial plants; union men who derived a sense of who they were from they were work. The latter are principally guys for whom the macho image is critical to their self definition. Their image is domination of the female and their role as the almighty voice of the father. There have been many changes in the last 3-4 decades that have threatened the macho image, hence its emergence as a campaign issue.

I start with the emergence of women in the workforce, together with the feminist movement that appeared as a direct challenge to the lofty position of the family breadwinner and also to the macho male. The emergence of the white collar work-world created a real dilemma for the old boys macho world. As I shifted from blue collar to white collar work places, it became perfectly clear to me that in these new workplaces there was no payoff for being a “big strong macho man.” When I had worked as a plumber’s helper, being big, strong, and tough was part of the job description. Being strong and tough would not have gotten me in the front door of the Ford Foundation unless I was sent to clear a stopped up toilet line.

With this background in mind, I began looking at who the media and Hillary were talking about when it came to the blue collar issue. Who of the candidates can be most macho? That’s what they are talking about, not men actually working at blue collar jobs. This is a whole other world that was best exemplified this week by John McCains journey into the Dakotas for the yearly gathering of the country’s bikers. And there was McCain up at the podium telling a huge crowd of Harley Davidson nuts to Vroom it up to show they are America. And Vroom Vroom they did; using up a lot of gas while contributing to fouling the air.

“Oh Schrank, that’s all smart-ass college graduate talk. We’re the old boys who really count cause we drink beer, fart a lot and don’t give a shit what some dumb-ass college graduates like you think of us.”

This is who the media and the McCain people are talking about; definitely not the old factory blue collar guys. They were the heart and soul of the Democratic Party that elected FDR four times. The Dems. began to lose them in the Reagan years. That was caused by a number of important shifts in how the society gets its work done.

During the 2000 election, when Bush first showed up on the screens, I said to Kate, “What we have here is Forest Gump for President. And he will get elected.” The opposition, together with the full support of the media, is determined to give the macho male his power by electing one of them to the most important job in the world. That’s what we have had for the last 7 years. And if McCain gets elected, that’s what we’ll have some more of. And the Bikers can go Vroom Vroom Vroom because they're man is back in power and so maybe they get to share some of that. It might even bring us back to those good old days when “Daddy, the breadwinner, knew best.” Dream on old boys, dream on. Those days are over and they ain’t coming back no matter who is in the Big House, no I mean the White House. “Vroom Vroom on baby.”

Having said all that I would very much hope that the Obama folks would find a way to communicate with the blue collars who are out there. They often suffer from the sense that they are no longer relevant and so nobody cares about them. Obama better care or it can cost him the election.

Thank you Kate N.H.W.Y.