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.
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Date: 2008-04-15 07:19 pm (UTC)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.