Blogcast w/Chris Graham: Poverty of imagination

New book project

I’m working on a book, working title: Poverty of Imagination, that I’m imagining as a sort of liberal answer to Hillbilly Elegy.

If you know that book, in essence, a look by a working-class white Republican who clawed his way up the socioeconomic ladder at why working-class whites think and vote Republican, what I aim to do with mine is explain as a working-class white who also clawed his way up the ladder and became a liberal Democrat why I think it is that Democrats fail to connect with working-class whites who end up thinking and voting Republican.

It’s a lofty goal, to be sure, and I doubt I will end up achieving what I aim to: dragging Democrats into the perimeter of wisdom with what working-class whites actually need.

My help, if I’m ever able to help, is clearly desperately needed. Two local activists have announced for next year’s General Assembly elections, and both are saying that the number one issue facing rural voters is broadband Internet.

Whoever in the consulting class in Richmond decided that this needs to be the message in Rural Virginia needs to be sacked, but of course won’t be, because the Democrats who write the checks like to write them to consultants who, if they actually knew anything, wouldn’t be consultants, but actually doing something tangible.

Anyway, two or three people at best will one day read my book, declare it to be genius, then go back to social media to complain about whatever it was that Trump tweeted that morning, because that’s how our world works.