was seldom entirely clear about what was meant by tradition,” admits Sherman, but the
rural whites she interviewed were all for it. For them, it meant both rural rootedness and
family values, which meant the two-parent family, the stability of family life, and the high
value placed on family caregiving.^67
For people whose jobs deny them prestige, “family comes first” is a common refrain. As
a retired mill worker told Sherman, in his life everything was built around family. Having
a “successful nuclear family was one of his life’s greatest achievements,” notes Sherman.
Connecting to tradition through aspirational family structure allows working-class whites
“to claim moral and personal success when they have few other opportunities to achieve
some version of the American dream,” she concludes.^68 This is why family values are so
resonant.
The high value placed on traditional family values creates another clash with the
professional class: among elites, a key way they show sophistication is to signal comfort
with avant-garde sexuality, self-presentation, and family dynamics. The avant-garde
arose in the early nineteenth century as an artistic movement that “pushes the boundaries
of what is accepted as the norm or the status quo, primarily in the cultural realm.”^69
What began as transgression among nineteenth-century European artists now defines the
cultural world of the twenty-first-century American elite: it’s a point of pride not to be
one of those petty bourgeois who’s shocked by sexual transgression. I knew I was born to
live in San Francisco when, driving down Market Street, I spotted a man sporting sturdy
shoes—and nothing else. I was uncomfortable—and delighted.
Securing approval for a new range of sexualities is a cause now embraced by progressives
and mainstream conservatives alike (as evidenced by the partnership of Ted Olson and
David Boies in arguing a landmark marriage equality case). Ted Olson’s championship of
marriage equality in the Supreme Court dramatized that mainstream conservatives have
joined the progressive elite in embracing acceptance of formerly transgressive sexualities
as being open-minded and sophisticated rather than narrow and provincial.
The professional class seeks social honor by embracing the edgy; the white working class
seeks social honor by embracing the traditional. The focus on character, morality, and
family values is a key expression of class disadvantage; we all choose baskets we can fill.
This attachment to tradition is part of what the white working class shared for so long
with Burkean conservatives.^70
All this is crucial background to understanding why working-class whites resent
- Why Does the Working Class Resent Professionals but Admire the Rich?