Then and Now

Our textbook barely mentions Benjamin Disraeli, noting only that he was a “shrewd Conservative,” and that he was convinced, for whatever reason, that the newly enfranchised demographic of the so-called “aristocrats of labor,” or skilled workers, would vote Conservative. The outcome of his bet was that the 1867 Reform Bill passed. As the text puts it, “the responsible working class had been deemed worthy to participate in the affairs of the state.” The text completely dismisses Disraeli’s thought process, however, given the overall outcome of the reform bill, which was an undeniable surge in liberal feeling in England in the decade or so after the Reform Bill was passed. But it makes me wonder: why? Why did Disraeli assume that these new voters would become Conservative? Was it just his own Conservative bias, assuming that these voters would automatically see what in his mind was the obviously correct way to vote? Or did he assume that they would, having been given the privilege of voting for the first time, become so changed from their less-privileged fellow workers, that they would want to hold onto their newly found status and all that that entailed? Did he think that they would be so overwhelmingly grateful that they had been allowed into this exclusive club that they would not think about their own interests any more and would feel that they owed the Conservatives who had helped pass the Reform Bill their vote? It’s interesting to think about, because immediately after reading it, I found myself considering today’s American politics, and times when a whole group of voters has become more Republican (generally, as far as I’ve seen, in the face of a perceived threat to security or property and wealth). I found myself thinking that, when a group gains privilege in some way, they generally want to hold on to it and lose their vested interest in the improvement, with the help of the government, of the lives of the less-privileged – the poor, the hungry, the unemployed. Thinking about it that way, it’s nice to think that these newly enfranchised skilled workers continued to push for reforms, that they helped to pave the way for socialist and labor politics towards the end of the century, remembering where they came from and what they stood for. On the other hand, maybe my assumptions don’t apply at all, because I haven’t in my lifetime seen a group given this sort of privilege – not of property or monetary wealth but of the ability to have their voices heard. Nevertheless, to think that these voices were unspoiled by such a fundamental change in their lives and in the makeup of the political system of the time, surely means something, no matter the situation.