The Elites and the More Elite

Written by: Tom Bearse on Apr 15, 2008 5:08 PM EDT

The more I've thought about it, the more I've come to accede that Obama is a cultural elitist.  People have offered that he mistakenly phrased what he meant to say, but I believe his problem was he said precisely what he thought.  He committed, in other words, a "Dean gaffe."

Not only that, but I think I am a cultural elitist as well.  I think all of us here are.  We discuss politics and segments of society with clinical detachment, like subjects in school.  The topics of social problems and solutions interest us.  It stands to reason, since demographic sampling reveals that both Dean and Obama supporters are a relatively well-educated, affluent group.

Of course the Bush base, the "haves and the have mores," aren't cultural elitists.  They're just elites.  They have no reservations about extolling the virtues of Christian worship, NASCAR, hunting and gun ownership, although these aren't their ordinary activities.  They just appreciate their worth as reflections of values.  Their activities tend more to be golf at the country club, yachting, and attending the opera, parties and galas:  essentially, living like Bill Buckley because they're traditional and conservative. 

It's rank insincerity, which is the delightfully ironic element of Obama's situation, because it's Democrats and Democratic candidates who get smeared with the insincerity epithet for their allegedly phony embrace of homey values like religious fervor; even a twenty year congregation member like Obama.  It's a trap that all of us liberal elitists walk into blindly.

Howard Dean was absolutely correct when he said that Republicans always win when they talk about guns, God, gays and abortion, divisive cultural issues that bitter, downtrodden Americans cling to out of frustration born from the economic duress that prevents them from joining country clubs and owning yachts like the Republican ruling class.  

Yet when Dean said Democrats deserved the votes of white people who drove pick up trucks with Confederate flag decals on them, he was attacked by a bunch of plaintive Democrats who accused him of being an elitist.  Ha!  What an outpouring of phony empathy from as elite a bunch as you could cobble together, blasting Dean because he spoke the truth about the distinction between smokescreen issues and issues of genuine importance.  I can practically make out the image of Hillary Clinton in their midst.

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