‘Class Warfare’

The pair of articles on American political parties in the April 2021 issue of the PAW has few if any precedents, if memory serves. But as I am now into my ninth decade, it may have betrayed me once again. Ryan T. Anderson ‘04 seeks to wrap the Republican Party in the mantle of the Judeo-Christian moral tradition while, at the same time, accusing “the left” (with a small “l” of course) of engaging in “class-warfare rhetoric.” Nonviolent, nonrhetorical class warfare has been waged very effectively in this country, especially since 1981. It should be crystal clear to all who are even vaguely familiar with the numbers which class has been winning. And when it comes to genuine class-warfare rhetoric I seem to remember an often-quoted Christian spokesman saying this: “How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a rope to go through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” Now that’s real, bare-knuckled class-war rhetoric!