What's the Matter with White People

How scapegoat politics is dividing America and bankrupting the middle class

The size and stability of the American middle class was once the envy of the world. But changes unleashed in the 1960s pitted Americans against one another politically in new and destructive ways--while economically, everyone fell behind except the wealthy.

Right-wing culture warriors blamed the decline on the moral shortcomings of "other" Americans--blacks, feminists, gays, immigrants, union members --to court a fearful white working and middle class base with ever more bitter "us" vs. "them" politics. Liberals tried but mostly failed to make the case that we're all in this together. In All for None and None for All, MSNBC political analyst and popular Salon columnist Joan Walsh traces this deeply disturbing dynamic as it has played out over the last forty years, dividing the...

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