Political scientists have spent millions of words trying to explain how Appalachia and the South went from staunchly Democratic to staunchly Republican in less than a generation.
Some blame race relations and the Democratic Party’s embrace of the civil rights movement. Others cite religious faith and the hold that social conservatism has on evangelicals in that region.
A big part of the explanation lies in the fact that many in the white working class saw precisely what I did, working at Dillman’s.
Excellent piece. The sad part is that only the few who actually get a job early on in life are those who learn the lesson. My daddy always said, when I would remark on the benefits of a social program, “That’s fine, but who’s going to pay for it?” By the time I got my first part-time job at age 12, I had learned the lesson.
Maybe the NEXT President can initiate another War on Poverty.(LBJ 1964)
Why not,they won’t declare a war on ISIS or Islam, so why not a holy war on poverty, with about as much chance of winning? It would make for great photo-ops.
A big part of the problem is that white cops keep shootin’ the young black guys who were going to be the politicians, doctors and lawyers who’d lead their people out of the wilderness, like L’il Tray-von, Michael Brown, and Freddie Gray.
T-bones, SUV’s with $2000.00 wheel packages, big screen TVs, and weed.
Up next: USS Trayvon Martin, USS Michael Brown, USS Freddy Grey
Anybody want to guess how many billionaires there are on the Six Nations reserve? Yeah, with a “B”.
Hint, more than three.
Is we lurnin’ yet?
when you git paid only about $900K and have a tribe of 90 people to govern, it’s a tuff life!!!
No dude, not millionaires. Billionaires. With a B. Like Bill Gates kinda billionaire.
Now see if you can guess what percentage of the North American cigarette market runs through the reserve.
Remember: ‘B’, not ‘M’.
Tax free. Duty free.
*no, I don’t care if people pay tax anymore.
“no, I don’t care if people pay tax anymore”
Me neither. Let’s Greece the Government.
Show them there is a wall approaching and when it hits them, it will hurt them too.
Lesson being: Don’t kill the goose that lays the Golden Egg because YOU, dear Pols, will be part of the last omelet.
(and your family and your little dog Toto too)
I go through 6 Nations a couple times a week. You can smell the tobacco in the air. If you spend enough time going up and down all the side roads you see lots of nice houses, a few big mansions and lots of crappy shacks. I’ve been trying to find someone who smuggles liquor for about a year. Unfortunately my native friends with connections have left this mortal coil earlier than planned. I will be on the reserve tomorrow and will stop at the park commemorating the locals who died fighting in the wars. You meet some nice people there and they don’t like the way things are anymore than we do. Conservative Natives. Like us they don’t get heard all that much.
We grew up poor. Both of my folks worked. I knew there was a better way, but I also knew it didn’t include welfare. LBJ, (little blow job) declared war on poverty. We talked about it in English class one day. One of the guys that always wore overalls said “I don’t know about you, but I’m fighten’ back.”
Kate you are a saint. Zeus told me last night you are on his top ten list. Where else can read this stuff?
“They’d buy two dozen packs of soda with food stamps and then sell them at a discount for cash.” My mother worked at a grocery store and saw many of the same things. Next to the grocery store in the strip mall of our rust-belt town, there was a state liquor store, where my mother regularly picked up things we couldn’t ordinarily afford because she had cash.
In my previous life I owned and operated a Convenience store. The biggest sales day of the month was on ‘Welfare Wednesday’. Sales of cigs, snacks and lottery tickets went through the roof.
Another aspect of that business that always amazed me were how many kids came into the store each school day with $10 to buy lunch. We had a chicken program and sandwiches but the kids always bought chips, pop and candy. Surprise!
Our 3 kids all worked in our store and I like to think that they got a similar education as that of the author did at Dilman’s. A sad commentary on the human existence but it has been going on for 1000’s of years.
At some point, someone is going to have to cut off the purse strings.
It is not the cigarettes that concern me other than of course the lost tax revenues. But what about all the smuggled weapons!