Hillary Clinton On Southern Working Class Whites In 1995: "Screw 'Em"

[keep_it_real]

<snip>

n January 1995, as the Clintons were licking their wounds from the 1994 congressional elections, a debate emerged at a retreat at Camp David. Should the administration make overtures to working class white southerners who had all but forsaken the Democratic Party? The then-first lady took a less than inclusive approach.

"Screw 'em," she told her husband. "You don't owe them a thing, Bill. They're doing nothing for you; you don't have to do anything for them."

The statement -- which author Benjamin Barber witnessed and wrote about in his book, "The Truth of Power: Intellectual Affairs in the Clinton White House" -- was prompted by another speaker raising the difficulties of reaching "Reagan Democrats." It stands in stark contrast to the attitude the New York Democrat has recently taken on the campaign trail, in which she has presented herself as the one candidate who understands the working-class needs.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/16/hillary-clinton-on-workin_n_97017.html

[The Magistrate]

1. Apples And Oranges, Sir

The operative words here are 'southern white', not 'working class'.

It is not only possible but often necessary for anyone who understands and works for the needs of the working class in this country to turn a cold shoulder towards white southerners. More than any other group, these are most deeply in thrall to the enemy's 'culture war' propagandas, and can be relied on to act in opposition to the interests of the working class, even to their own detriment, in consequence.

[BlooInBloo]

3. The idea that PA working class won't identify with them is asinine.

[The Magistrate]

7. It Will Not Bother The Urban Mass, Sir, One Little Bit

And that is where the Party's voting strength lies.

[scheming daemons]

4. Wrong.... this is why the center "T" of PA is compared to Alabama....

Southern whites and whites in rural PA are the same thing.

I know.... my inlaws are southern whites... and my family are small-town-PA whites.

[The Magistrate]

6. There Is Some Truth, Sir

To the observation the state consists of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia seperated by Selma....

[PA Democrat]

9. Check out this map of the 2004 presidential election results by PA county

http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/img.php?year=2004&st=PA&type=map&off=0&fips=42&elect=0

Almost the entire state is a swath of blue except for the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh areas.

I live in a PA county near Pittsburgh that had a 63% Democratic registration back in 2004. Kerry lost largely on social issues and guns. When we phone banked for Kerry, you would not believe the people that brought up abortion, gay marriage and 2nd amendment rights.

[chelsea0011]

2. "screw' em".? See. Elitists don't talk like that. She's one of us.

[conservdem]

5. kick from an Obama supporter.

[niceypoo]

8. The term "Reagan Democrats" refers to white working class NORTHERNERS

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reagan_Democrat">Reagan Democrat is an American political term used by political analysts to denote traditionally Democratic voters, especially white working-class Northerners, who defected from their party to support Republican President Ronald Reagan in both the 1980 and 1984 elections. It is also used to refer to the smaller but still substantial number of Democrats who voted for George H. W. Bush in the 1988 election.

Basic research does wonders!!

[azmouse]

10. kick