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Roseanne Conner Is Not OUR Working Class Hero

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | March 30, 2018 |

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | March 30, 2018 |


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I never had any illusions about Roseanne Barr. We’ve been writing about what a garbage person she has become for several years now. I had no illusions about Barr — she’s racist, Islamophobic trash.

But the show? It wasn’t just nostalgia. It wasn’t just a fondness for Dan and Darlene and Aunt Jackie. A lot of people are saying, “There are better shows than Roseanne about the working class right now, like One Day at a Time,” and they are absolutely right. One Day at a Time is a better show, but it has a different mentality: It’s warm and fuzzy, a feel-good show about poor people that will make you cry. Roseanne took a “fuck you, we’re poor, now deal with it,” approach with which I could better relate, the same approach that The Gallaghers take on the much better, not racist Shameless.

The Roseanne revival, however, is creating this uncomfortable narrative, where a lot of people are painting all poor people with the same broad brush. That the working-class poor are all Trump supporting racists, and Roseanne is their working-class hero.

Fuck that.

From the NYTimes:

During a Television Critics Association panel promoting the show, Ms. Barr said, “it was working-class people who elected Trump.”

This myth persists, but it is only a myth. Forty-one percent of voters earning less than $50,000 voted for Mr. Trump while 53 percent voted for Hillary Clinton. Forty-nine percent of voters earning between $50,000 and $100,000 voted for Mr. Trump while 47 percent voted for Mrs. Clinton. The median income of these voters was $72,000, while the median income of Hillary Clinton voters was $61,000. A significant number of middle-class and wealthy white people contributed to Trump’s election.

Don’t blame poor people for Trump. Blame suburban white moms, like Roseanne Conner, who lives in a two-income household big enough to support half her extended family, and if more people like her had voted Democrat maybe they could afford all their goddamn medication. Immigrants didn’t take your job, Roseanne. George W. Bush’s shitty economic policies did, and Barack Obama got most of those jobs back. Besides, it’s not Hillary’s fault that you couldn’t manage your lottery winnings.

All I’m saying is: Don’t lump all poor people in with Roseanne. More people suffering actual economic anxiety voted for Hillary Clinton, and those people didn’t hide behind “jobs.” Not every poor person is a racist Trump supporter, and don’t let Roseanne — who benefits from Trump’s tax plan as much as any multi-millionaire — suggest otherwise. The Democrats are the party of unions. The Democrats support the social safety net, healthcare for all, and drug prevention. Not all of working-class America works in the coal mines and supports The Wall. In fact, there are as many or more poor working class people who look like this …

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… than look like this:

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Poor people can and will fuck your shit up plenty without voting for Donald fucking Trump. Count on it.