Criticize the president's economic plan, and here's what happens: The Bushies accuse the critics of engaging in "class warfare." And they spit it out as if the term were a pejorative of the worst kind.
It's not.
Class warfare is as American as perversion of the tax code. Class warfare is a consequence of stuffed seats in a posh suite at the football game for some, the nosebleed section for others; a Lexus for some, public transportation for others; shopping at the exotic food boutique for some, food stamps for others; access to the political elite for some, abuse by the political system for others.
Class warfare is our history, tradition and culture. It is -- to complete the cliché -- as American as apple pie.
And it's not an empty phrase, even when it's an epithet used to dismiss critics of a manipulated political system that guarantees goodies for some and the dirty end of the stick for others. It has legitimacy and substance because its meaning is rooted in 300 years of the American experience.
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We are a nation of classes. We revel in the fraud that we're not, but the evidence says we are. Income disparities today are wider than anytime since the 1920s. It takes more hours on the job today to pay for basics -- food, clothing, shelter, education -- than it did just 30 years ago. The cost of higher education would be out of reach for most middle-class families (there's that "class" thing again) if it weren't for loan programs that result in -- what? -- a debt load at graduation that would make our grandparents shudder and puts young graduates at an immediate financial disadvantage.
Class and class warfare have been endemic to North Dakota's history since before statehood. The populist movement that spawned the Non-partisan League was a class struggle that pitted dirt farmers against railroad barons and Minneapolis grain millers. The most tangible (and lasting) results were the state bank and state mill -- unapologetic socialist responses to perceived abuses of the working class (farmers) by upper class capitalists.
North Dakota's political culture remains steeped in that populism. Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan is its most eloquent champion, often leading the charge against corporate "bigness."
But it's not a partisan instinct. For example, Republican conservatives in the state's grain trade are fighting the old battle against railroad grain shipping rates and have found an ally in a Republican, Ivy League banker, Gov. John Hoeven.
That's a class struggle, too. The big, bad railroad against the country grain elevator. And it's good politics to be on the right side -- the populist side.
Class warfare? Hey, it's what we do. It's who we are.
So when the president's toadies opine that critics of his economic policies are waging class warfare, the proper response is: Damn right. It's what Americans are supposed to do -- what they've always had to do to secure a small slice of the American apple pie.
Zaleski can be reached at jzaleski@forumcomm.com or (701) 241-5521.
