IRT to Cyranicles
I have been mulling over the possibility that Tom has recently brought up as well: the idea that a unique brand of racism is at work here in this presidential election. While I don’t disagree with Tom’s analysis and I agree that there is probably a significant amount of that sort of racism, I think there is something else that is also boosting Palin : classism. The Republican tactic seems to be “suggest that Obama is one of those ‘elitist’ and ‘highfalutin” Ivy Leaguers that doesn’t understand what you and your family is going through.” That line of attack completely ignores the fact that Obama is from a multi-racial family, he lived on food stamps for a while, and comes from a broken home. How quintessentially American is THAT? THIS is the guy they are painting as “out of touch?” Really? Sure, not everyone spent part of their time growing up in Indonesia - I will grant that. However, a lot of Obama’s background story ought to resonate with people. What I find most interesting is the fact that the rural sort of voters (the sort of people that populate the Bible belt for example, or Alaksa) seem to have this sneering anti-intellectual/anti-achievement streak. As if going to Harvard automatically makes you perceive yourself as “better” than everyone else and magically makes you out of touch. One one hand, Bush went to Yale. Kennedy went to Harvard. Many of our presidents and government officials went to Ivy League schools. However, that is magically forgotten when it comes to guys like John Kerry or Obama. With Kerry, the charge was that he was also “elitist” because he liked hobbies like windsurfing and was married to money. They also attacked his war record when the man had THREE purple hearts! However, now you have Republicans ditching any semblance of consistency and getting their panties in a twist when a respected general (Wesley Clark) suggests that getting shot down over Nam doesn’t automatically qualify you to be president, which was NOT an attack on McCain’s service and wasn’t REMOTELY comparable to the smears made against Kerry by the Swift Boat Veterans. Now you have the Republicans ignoring John McCain’s 8 houses and the fact that he ALSO married into money. Where does this inconsistency come from?
I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that Democrats are always pushing for change - whether it is in the domain of civil rights, corporate accountability, women’s rights, gay rights, etc. The Democrats aren’t perfect at all. In fact, they are FAR from ideal. However, they have a vision and they are honest about it. They say, “We want universal health care” and they try to go out and get it. Republicans on the other hand say, “Damn big government spending and pork barrel politics” and then put the QUEEN of pork on their presidential ticket and have expanded “big government” past the excesses of even their Democratic counterparts!
I’m not naive enough to suggest that the Democratic politicians only care about the people whereas the Republicans simply care about ruling. However, the Republicans have painted themselves into a very nasty corner by supporting the shift towards authoritarianism and Orwellian style world views. By constantly playing up on fear politics (“soft on crime” and “soft on terrorism” or “soft on national security” style attacks on ideological opponents) and the more cynical side of human nature, they limit their capacity to TRULY carry the mantle of “change” or progressive politics. By pandering to the religious right and the religious right’s end times theology and religious dogma, they place themselves in a position where they can’t support science, women’s rights, or a whole variety of things that effect Americans. As a result of the Republican party being hijacked by the hawks and the religious right, the principled fiscal conservatives get lost in the shuffle and the people who want to see the Republican party go in a different direction can’t get any momentum because the Republican party would have to lose a LOT of face to get any traction. For example, they would have to admit that they were wrong to let the religious right dictate their agenda. They would have to say, “You know what? Gay people aren’t all that bad.” They would have to say, “You know what? We dropped the ball when we started supporting education that is ideologically driven by wackos that think that the world was created 6,000 years ago.”
One thing that seems to be true about politicians of ANY orientation is that they hate admitting wrong doing because of their super sized egos and they will do just about anything to avoid addressing the mistakes that got them into the particular quandary they face. So, the Republican party is essentially stuck in a position where they have to beat the war drums, play fear politics, and make you scared of God’s wrath whether they want to or not. The only way this works is if they constantly undermine any hope for change. Yes, the Republicans have embraced an approach that makes them the party of “There is no Santa Clause.” Yes, they have become the party that constantly seeks to shove your face in the dirtiest reality they can create. With enough disillusionment, they can actually govern from the unenviable positions they have created (the anti-rights/anti-science positions) because they have stomped on people long enough and hard enough to do so without fear of reprisals. By embedding the “you can’t fight city hall” mentality into our brains nearly every day with the latest ethics allegations, indictments, secrecy, and coverups…they create a world where their twisted worldview becomes more and more normal. Yes, the Republican party has created a context in which they have a disincentive to be honest, progressive, or decent.
The more the nation eats straight out of the bullshit trough, the greater the cognitive dissonance and the more insane our world looks (I mean that literally). For example, note the irony of Republicans bashing “Harvard elitists.” Republicans all over the country always want THEIR kid to go to Harvard. They always strut around the block and proudly point out that THEIR kid got into an Ivy League institution just like any parent from any other political orientation would. Heck, they even point out the kid down the block who is “going places” in order to motivate their kids to achieve and “go big.” The simultaneous sneer of “elitism” and the relentless desire to BE an elite is a connundrum that speaks the very psychology of this nation. We are a nation of people that often don’t have hope. A nation of people who have been burned too many times to trust in “change” or politicians. A nation that would rather go with the predictable drunken asshole that is going to slap mom around than take a chance on being vulnerable and putting things on the line for some “new guy” or “unknown” that wants to show us a different alternative.
I think that is why “hockey moms” can have their little Johnny and Janie filling out Harvard applications while simultaneously saying things like, “Well, I don’t know about that Obama. He seems like just one more of those elitist east coast Ivy League politicians. He can’t be in touch with us ‘regular Americans.’”
I think the underlying psychology that I’m talking about combines with the sort of unique racism that Cyranicles talked about.
We have one hell of a mess on our hands as a country.
-E
