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Nov, 20, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: Bronfman's blindness

The Kosher Gourmet By Linda Gassenheimer: Portobellos add a hearty flavor to pasta with pesto

Nov, 19, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : Spread the wealth? Jewish tradition and income equality

Elliot B. Gertel: 'Mad Men': Tackling prejudices or reinforcing them?

Nov, 18, 2008

Dr. Debby Schwarz Hirschhorn: The End of the Age of Reason

Jonathan Tobin: Does Barack + Bibi = Disaster?

Nov, 17, 2008

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The End of the Age of Reason

Diana West: Gulling Americans into making terror legit?

Nov, 14, 2008

Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: The Power of Spiritual Inertia

Caroline B. Glick: The perils ahead

Nov, 13, 2008

Stratfor Intelligence Briefing: How Bush and Obama together could change the Middle East dynamic

The Kosher Gourmet by JeanMarie Brownson: Sweet and savory, crispy and meltingly tender bestilla

Nov, 12, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : Tyrannical Co-Workers

Michael Doyle: High Court to consider today donated monuments that may have religious messages in public parks

Nov, 11, 2008

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Will Obama stop government officials considering institutionalizing financial jihad?

Jonathan Tobin: They Will Decide Their Own Fate

Nov, 10, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: $8 billion, modern-day Tower of Babel being built?

Barry Rubin: A letter to the president-elect from a Middle East realist

Nov, 7, 2008

Rabbi Francis Nataf: Of Children and Immortality

Caroline B. Glick: Livni's Obama strategy

Nov, 6, 2008

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: How I tricked a classroom of apathetic students into grasping the fallacy of moral relativism

The Kosher Gourmet By Gina Kim: Tips for making the perfect soup --- includes recipes

Nov, 5, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Destitute Debtors

Bruce Weinstein: 'Religulos': Bad title,even worse movie

Nov, 4, 2008

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Treasury Dept. submits to Shariah law

Frida Ghitis: A surprise for Obama in the Middle East

Nov, 3, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: Who says Jews are Smart?

Jonathan Tobin: Was He Wrong About Everything?

Oct. 31, 2008

Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: Our Immutable Noble Essence

Caroline B. Glick: Running against Bush

Oct. 30, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: The End of the Special Relationship?

Steve Lipman: 'Kid Kosher' Gets A Title Shot

Oct. 29, 2008

Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: GET US THE TAPE THE L.A. TIMES REFUSES TO RELEASE, AND WE'LL GIVE YOU CASH!

Dr. Ari Korenblit: Making The Write Choice for President

Oct. 28, 2008

Mona Charen: Denial runs through American Jewry

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Sell-off to capitalism or sell-out to Islam?

Oct. 27, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Are tax deductions for charitable donations moral?

Jonathan Mark: The Mystery Of The Arab-American Vote

Oct. 24, 2008

'Why aren't all religious people vegetarians?': Response by Miriam Kosman

Caroline B. Glick: Testing Obama's mettle

Oct. 23, 2008

Daniel Pipes: Obama Would Fail Security Clearance

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: A fast chicken dish with an Asian accent

Oct. 20, 2008

Gary Rosenblatt: Still One Torah

Jonathan Tobin: Government 'Gifts' Are Not Free

Oct. 17, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: Sukkos and the Great Meltdown

Caroline B. Glick: The disappearance of law

Oct. 16, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Copying DVDs: RIP OR RIPOFF?

Cal Thomas: Blaming the Jews (again)

March 22, 2007

J-Rhythms with Avraham Rosenblum: JWR's cutting-edge music program showcasing performers -- singers, song writers, musicians, and bands -- who learn and live the Torah lifestyle (OUR NEWEST IGODCAST !)

Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review July 29, 2008 / 26 Tamuz 5768

Class in America

By Paul Greenberg


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Why do politicians pride themselves on being working class, or at least having working-class origins? For the same reason 19th-century presidential candidates were almost required to have been born in a log cabin. Seven of them actually were. Then there were those who would like to have been for political purposes. It was a way of identifying with The People.


The People, not The Masses. In this country, we don't have Masses, unless you write for the Daily Worker. It would be un-American.


Also unrealistic. Americans may be farmers, but we've never been peasants. (Slaves, maybe.) It probably has to do with having skipped the feudal period. The very first Europeans to observe this strange new species of man in the New World tended to comment on our lack of subservience. Which cheered some, but horrified others.


"What then is the American, this new man?" Crevecoeur asked in his "Letters from an American Farmer" (1782), and answered: "He is an American, who, leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds. He has become an American by being received in the broad lap of our great Alma Mater. Here individuals of all races are melted into a new race of man, whose labors and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world."


A forerunner of Tocqueville when it came to analyzing/diagnosing this new kind of man, Crevecoeur tried to sum us up, but it's an impossible job. If we left behind old prejudices, we soon acquired new ones. And we've turned out to be less a new race than one that hasn't congealed yet, and may never, what with new ingredients being added all the time. Let's hope not.


It's always been a myth that America is a classless society, though it's a myth that has its uses. For what begins in myth may end in reality. If we pretend class doesn't matter, maybe one day it won't. At least not as much. Let's just hope we never reach the point of glorifying poverty, of extolling downward rather than upward mobility.


But romanticizing the poor has always been a staple of American discourse. William Henry Harrison, he of Tippecanoe and Tyler, too, used the log cabin as his campaign emblem. And he set the fashion.


Working class may be a term of opprobrium in some societies; here it is a term of approbation. At least publicly. It's the one class Americans feel free not only to recognize but laud.


A presidential candidate (Hillary Clinton) can risk sounding like a sociologist as long as she's identifying herself with the working class. Or at least claiming that it identifies with her and not her opponent. As when she asserted that "Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again," while whites "who had not completed college were supporting me." At least she didn't use euphemisms like "blue-collar majority.''


It's hard to imagine a presidential candidate, at least one with any political sense, running as the Candidate of the Upper Crust. ("I was born in a plush penthouse on Park Avenue....") Instead the lower crust is shamelessly flattered. It's the contemporary version of the old log cabin theme.


Something else hasn't changed: Much as the Andrew Jacksons and William Henry Harrisons extolled log cabins, they weren't about to live in one. Any more than today's politicians are about to take a vow of poverty.


I live for the day when some politician comes out and admits that, while being poor is no shame, it's no great honor, either.

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JWR contributor Paul Greenberg, editorial page editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, has won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. Send your comments by clicking here.

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