Gifted article. I’m curious what folks think of this reporting about a 33 year old white guy union electrician from rural Georgia whose reading of Emerson leads him to vote Democratic. As someone who grew up in a similar sort of place that now votes 70/30 Trumpy Red, the person described in this article is a recognizable type—someone whose largely self-guided reading of the American canon and US History leads them toward anti-authoritarianism and anti-racism. https://wapo.st/3hSmViC
@sethcotlar
Thanks for the insights. I saw a lot of what you describe growing up in Ohio; it used to be that there were a great number of self-educated readers, even of serious poetry. A former father-in-law had an extensive library of sociology, political theory, general literature, and so on, and he was a high school graduate who worked for the C&O railroad. My late more recent father-in-law, the same-- Marine vet, worked as a butcher, and built his own houses by teaching himself how to do it. Took up computers after retirement and became an advisor at a local college.
I think they used to just make 'em different once upon a time.
