By: E&P Staff Creators Syndicate columnist David Sirota, in a presidential campaign-related piece for release tomorrow, says much of the mainstream media is reluctant to acknowledge America's major class divisions.
"Barack Obama is contending for the Democratic nomination as a candidate who avoids focusing on economic class," writes Sirota. "He asks us to believe -- nay, to 'hope' -- that the interests of Wall Streeters underwriting his campaign can somehow be 'brought together' with the interests of workers harmed by corporate America's wage, job, and pension cutbacks.
"By contrast, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is competing for the Republican nomination on a call for proletarian solidarity. Next to John Edwards (D), he is the 'classiest' presidential candidate, explicitly deriding 'plutocracy' and 'the Club for Greed' that he correctly says runs Washington."
Sirota says this is "taboo territory. Though the Wall Street Journal reports that America has among the lowest class mobility in the industrialized world, the Establishment stifles discussion about class.
"Why? Because those controlling the debate -- from television anchors to political donors to campaign consultants -- are among the wealthiest members of what Huckabee calls 'the ruling class.' They have an obvious self-interest in pretending class does not exist."
So, continues the columnist, "officialdom" often praises Obama and slams Huckabee. Sirota, by way of example, says "even George Will, the columnist-spokesman for country club Republicanism, effused that Obama is 'refreshingly cerebral' [but] lambastes Huckabee as 'an adolescent' for daring to 'lament a shrinking middle class.'"
Will is syndicated by the Washington Post Writers Group.
Sirota did note that "Obama's underlying policy platform is good for working-class America -- and better than Huckabee's, which is led by a punishingly regressive tax proposal."
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