Elitism, bowling, the fourth estate, and my organic milk.

[phamos]

It's very hard for me to comment on the Obama "bitter" flap, because I consider myself to be something of an elitist, or at least to exist in an elite situation. I went to a private high school; I have degrees from two of the finest universities in the country, as does my husband (and mine are almost vanity degrees -- seriously, a Human Rights degree isn't actually necessary for a productive career); I live in a lovely apartment (that we can barely afford, but still); I have a gazillion shiny consumer devices; I am able to spend a ludicrous amount of time running my mouth on the internet; I am at this very moment drinking overpriced locally-produced cruelty-free organic milk; I am personally acquainted with famous people; I can't bowl for shit. Sure, economically we're nowhere near the elitist-of-the-elite, and it's not like I have dinner with Bono all the time -- but culturally, we fit the stereotype just as well as Obama does. Well, Obama pre-book deal; we're not gonna be bringing in a million dollars anytime soon. I don't drive a Volvo, and I don't drink lattes, but pretty much everything else, yeah, I'll fess up. So it probably does more harm than good for me to say that I get exactly what Obama was trying to say, and I agree with it wholeheartedly. I'm just another elitist, right?

What burns me up is this ridiculous attempt by Clinton and McCain to position themselves as anything but elite. YOU ARE UNITED STATES SENATORS. YOU ARE MULTI-MILLIONAIRES. YOU ATTENDED TOP-TIER ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS. (Sure, McCain graduated at the bottom of his class at the Naval Academy -- but it's still on his resume.) Hillary, your daughter went to Stanford and Oxford and works at a hedge fund. John, your daughter went to Columbia and wears designer jeans and posts Muse songs on her personal blog. (Actually, I think I'd probably like Meghan McCain in real life. Probably more than Chelsea.) You've written best-selling autobiographies. You live in mansions and drive fancy cars and I'm guessing have had a Starbucks or two in your lives. So SHUT UP. You are the very DEFINITION of the political, cultural, and economic elite in this country, and it's absolutely disgusting to pretend to be anything but. Hillary the lifelong hunter? McCain the populist? Give me a goddamn break.

But, once again, the real issue at play is the media, and the fact that every tiny misstep in this campaign is just fodder for more roundtable pundit idiocy to sell ads. That Obama has once again not backed down in the face of this silliness (seriously, the fact that he wanted ORANGE JUICE makes him an ELITIST? WHY ARE YOU STILL TALKING, FOX AND FRIENDS??) and let his campaign be shrunken into yet another soundbyte-friendly homogenous politics-as-usual vomitfest is just one more point for him in my internal tally. Again, you can disagree all you want with me about how sincere he is about his desire to do things differently, or how effective he'll be. (Or, you know, rationalpassion, about whether or not he will cripple this fine nation with his Marxist welfare statist Obama Youth personality cult and we'll all be speaking Farsi by 2012.) It's not like he's politics-free -- he's pandered to a certain extent on free-trade, on Israel, and with the bowling. (Personally, though, if I were stuck in rural Pennsylvania for a month and a half and someone suggested bowling might be a good photo op, I'd totally do it -- at least it was a fun way to spend an afternoon, even if he sucked. Hell, bowling's more fun when you suck! And there's rented shoes!) I just love that he won't play by the media's rules, and it is making their brains run out of their ears, and proving to the American public at large, more so every day, that our media isn't conservative or liberal, it is idiotic and lowest-common-denominator and entirely built around profit rather than any sort of journalistic responsibility to the citizenry. So that, at least, is helpful, if absolutely miserable to sit through.

Comments

[thatabbygrrl.livejournal.com]

seriously - to see all this brouhaha in the same week that it came out that condi, cheney, and even bush had approved torture, including waterboarding, even after abu ghraib was the ultimate proof that the media is covering something other than actual news.

[phamos818.livejournal.com]

I KNOW. That's so fucking horrifying. They're just not even bothering to pretend like they're paying attention to anything important -- the horse race makes for great TV! Except it DOESN'T, it makes for EXCRUCIATING TV, and yet I cannot tear myself away and they KNOW it. Ugh, you know, I've tried just to stop reading the blogs because every new non-story they talk about makes me madder and it's just feeding into the ridiculousness of the whole thing (even if the blogs do really serve a wonderful function fact-checking the crap the MSM throws out there), but it's like an addiction.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_katiekins/]

What I love about Obama is that he talks about stuff like race and class. No one wants to talk about those uncomfortable issues, and he puts it right out there. I wholeheartedly agree with everything he said in that speech--and there's plenty of sociological evidence to back it up, too. It just made people uncomfortable and so everybody reacted with the insult that seems to be so popular these days in politics: OMG HE'S AN ELITIST! He didn't say it in the best manner--I don't think anyone wants to be referred to as "bitter"--but the content was right on. It's completely ridiculous that McCain and Clinton are now trying to paint themselves as all down-with-the-working-class-everyday-folk. Please, give me a break. They're all elite. I wish we could just all accept that and move on.

[kiwikat.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, yes and thank you.

[magpiegirl.livejournal.com]

Geez! Hillary is totally not an elitist!

Also, I am 6 feet tall.

pinocchio

[phamos818.livejournal.com]

Wow...you've grown a lot since last I saw you! As has your nose! ;)

Re: pinocchio

[magpiegirl.livejournal.com]

I couldn't resist. Hillary trying to portray herself as not an elitist is as asinine as me trying to tell people I am 6 feet tall. A quick glance at her educational background, income, or that whole having been a governor's wife/first lady/senator sort of rules her out as being one of the common people. I can't believe she of all people is doing "Elitist! Elitist!" finger-pointing. It is ridiculous.

I still cannot stand any of the candidates. I have no idea who will get my vote in November.

Since I was mentioned...

[rationalpassion.livejournal.com]

http://rationalpassion.livejournal.com/33430.html

[awesomecow.livejournal.com]

Jon Stewart pretty much summed up my thoughts on the whole "elitist" thing.

[rationalpassion.livejournal.com]

For you consideration, a piece by Michael Lind analyzing the campaign at this juncture:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/04/15/elitism/index.html

I went to the same school as the progressive blogger quoted in the story (David Sirota), the William Penn Charter School, though I never knew him because he graduated four years ahead of me. I was in the same grade at Penn Charter--and graduated with--the son of current Pennsylvania Governor (and Clinton supporter) Ed Rendell.

The point of bringing these facts up is to say I have no problem whatsoever with "elitism." And my recent posts are not meant to suggest that *I* have a problem with elitism. The problem Democrats and left-liberal elites have is that they claim to speak for the poor, dispossessed masses, while they condescend and (implicitly) insult such people. The problem with Obama's remarks is that he seems to be saying that, when the government delivers more money and jobs to such people, they will not feel the need to cling to their guns, their fundamentalist religion, their hatred of "the other."

Well, I support gun rights, passionately oppose fundamentalist religion, and think the propriety of hatred of "the other" depends on who "the other" is. In short, I don't have any particular interest in doing anything for these people. But Democrats and left-liberals claim to care about them--they claim to want to help them. Well, the first step in helping them is to treat them with dignity. Do not assume their views are mere epiphenomena of their poor economic opportunities. Because while they may, in fact, be thoughtless rubes, people don't like being told that they're thoughtless rubes.

[ndykman.livejournal.com]

You know, I think I get why politics bum me out. It is because you can't appear in any way to be elite. Which is exactly what I want. I remember somebody I knew at LLNL that was voted for Dubya because "Al Gore seems like a know-it-all." Ok, this guy was from Texas, but what is the deal with being smart.

Gore, for all his faults, does seem to have the ability to take complex issues, analyze them, and create ideas to address them, and make them understandable to the American Public. Obama does this quite well. Hillary less so, but has tackled some thorny issues. I know little about McCain, but he can't be worse than Dubya in this regard.

But, you can't appear to be too smart, or a know-it-all. And what is worse for me is that it seems to be is a cardinal sin to even suggest that you may know what is good for people from a policy standpoint.

I hate to say it, but I wait for the day when get a leader that can say to people: "Get smarter or get more productive, or get the hell out of our way." and doesn't pander at all to, well, idiots.