# Robert Reich on Bitterness and the Press - Host: [dailykos.com](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/hosts/dailykos.com/) - Saved: April 14, 2008 (2008-04-14T18:07:00Z) - Record: https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/f9d8beca6960/ - JSON: https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/f9d8beca6960.json ## From the page (probably an excerpt, not Jamie's words) In response to the fuss over whether it was elitist of Barack Obama to observe that some people are bitter that their jobs have been eliminated and replaced, former Clinton labor secretary Robert Reich writes: I was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, 61 years ago. My father sold $1.98 cotton blouses to blue-collar women and women whose husbands worked in factories. Years later, I was secretary of labor of the United States, and I tried the best I could which wasnt nearly good enough to help reverse one of the most troublesome trends America has faced: The stagnation of middle-class wages and the expansion of povety. Male hourly wages began to drop in the early 1970s, adjusted for inflation. The average man in his 30s is earning less than his father did thirty years ago. Yet America is far richer. Where did the money go? To the top. Are Americans who have been left behind frustrated? Of course. And their frustrations, their anger and, yes, sometimes their bitterness, have been used since then -- by demagogues, by nationalists and xenophobes, by radical conservatives, by political nuts and fanatical fruitcakes to blame immigrants and foreign traders, to blame blacks and the poor, to blame "liberal elites," to blame anyone and anything. Rather than counter all this, the American media have wallowed in it. Some, like Fox News and talk radio, have given the haters and blamers their very own megaphones. The rest have merely "reported on" it. Instead of focusing on how to get Americans good jobs again; instead of admitting too many of our schools are failing and our kids are falling behind their contemporaries in Europe, Japan, and even China; instead of showing why we need a more progressive tax system to finance better schools and access to health care, and green technologies that might create new manufacturing jobs, our national discussion has been mired in the old politics. Read the whole post -- it's a Jon-Stewart-on-Crossfire moment that should be on television, not just Reich's blog. ## Facts - Kind: [Page](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/kinds/page/) ## Same host - [Clinton is losing](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/0b0d3f7bcd79/) (dailykos.com, March 13, 2008) - [Newspapers Weigh in on Obama's Speech](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/1bdbc2539e52/) (dailykos.com, March 19, 2008) - [Rifling Obama's passport file](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/b48395138471/) (dailykos.com, March 21, 2008) - [Most unpopular president since polling was invented](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/d0f80a72ab82/) (dailykos.com, April 22, 2008) - [Obama campaign memo to superdelegates](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/2c156353e015/) (dailykos.com, May 7, 2008) ## Saved the same week - [Tips for getting the most out of Backpack on the iPhone](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/7b5c13aeec67/) (37signals.blogs.com, April 14, 2008) - [Check Your WordPress Security](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/126fc4bf79a0/) (red-sweater.com, April 14, 2008) - [Apple TV 2.0.2 Update is here, no one knows why](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/7a539d0fa03b/) (appletvsource.com, April 14, 2008) - [Google Releasing Google Earth 4.3 Today](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/eb504df909e3/) (gearthblog.com, April 15, 2008) - [This is why we love Microsoft](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/d484e17c1b23/) (fakesteve.blogspot.com, April 16, 2008) ## Elsewhere - Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/04/14/495360/-Robert-Reich-on-Bitterness-and-the-Press