Strange Land Stranger People Read Count : 55

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In the recent launch of her book, Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right, Sociologist Arlie Hochschild tackle a paradox in the growing gap between left and rightwing voters in the United States. She focused on different individuals that are tea party voters, who are living and working in minimal paying jobs in one of the most right-wing states and in the second poorest states in United States, Louisiana.

Louisiana is a classic red state. In 2016, it ranked as the second poorest state in the nation. The reason is because the governor steadfastly refused Medicaid expansion, and cutting 44 percent of the state money coming from the federal government. Leading Louisiana  to have the worse health care, education, disrupted families, highest rate on road death, low life expectancy, and worse pollutions. Although, Louisiana residents value the care of others, the residents have firmly opposed to welfare and any time of government support. The problems that surround Louisiana are deal by residents at the personal level, especially emotional labor. For instance, individuals that had a disadvantage childhood, but “never took a dime from the government”( Hochschild, 157), take pride on the hard-working individuals they have grown to be. The fact of them never asking for government assistance, give them the illusion of them never claim themselves as victims. Louisans who do not live according to these cultural customs are considered “poor me’s”. People that is considered “ poor me’s” are mostly women, black people, and immigrants. According to the feminist theory, black women, are the most stereotype as welfare recipients than any other culture (Dillon, 348). Black women asking for help, they tend to be the worse communities. Also, they believe that by accepting government assistance, the individuals tend to have a weak mentality in hard times. The very south states in this case Louisiana believe that individual should  be enduring and growth in hard times.

According to Dillon, the government of advance and advancing industrial societies can secure and maintain itself only when it succeeds in mobilizing, organizing, and exploiting the technical, scientific, and mechanical productivity available to industrial civilization the machine [is] the most effective political instrument in any given society (pg. 209). The growth of industrial societies is crucial. However, Louisianans have chosen to have less government involvement in their communities. Dr. Hochschild explains that many residents don’t believe in the government for the following reason,  “Louisiana government is a bought government and it actually assigns to the states the moral dirty work of pretending of protect people while it doesn’t protect people and so if all government are as corrupted as the one they happen to have to live under to heck with it why they should pay for it” (pg. ). Therefore, the far-right wing- predominantly white voters who hold traditional Christian values, more specific evangelicals which plays a negligible role in determining which republican candidate make the runoff. In the presidential elections of 2016 gave Louisiana working class had  the opportunity to growth their economic capital. However, most of the residents voted opposed to their economic self-interest.

 The introduction of petrochemicals Industries in Louisiana and the lack of government regulations caused the local environment to create a high level of toxic air that introduced  an unhealthy pollution that causes illness from exposure. Oil have become the new plantations to which is the dominant industry and communicates in cultural ways as well as political and economic ones. Although, the unhealthy environment has left many houses empty. The current culture of Louisiana’s right-wings residents is making these individuals paying a high price to maintain their values intact. Also, Louisianans and government have sided with many petrochemicals industries to vote against any type of government regulations of pollution. Dr. Hochschild, explains how many of these individuals voted against these government regulations, because many of these industries promised employment and welfare for the region. However, many Louisianans soon learn it was not true. The industries offshore their manual labor because many of the residents have little to no education, which didn’t qualify for the increasingly available high-tech positions.

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