November 3, 2010--That Elitism Thing

Since the presidential campaign more than two years ago people in the media and over beers and coffee have been thinking, talking, and writing about Barack Obama's alleged elitism. Most recently in an article in the Sunday New York Times. (Liked below.)

This is even more important to confront now, the morning after the Republican tsunami, if Obama and the Democrats are to have any chance of rebounding in 2012.

The charge is that since President Obama went to fancy schools and likes to share sociological ruminations (for example, how "ordinary people" cling to their religion and guns) he is an elitist and when he acts like one turns off much of the population. According to this perception, since being elected, in his every scripted utterance and by the tenor of his interactions with the public he in effect has been saying to the "unwashed," "I know what's good for you even if you don't."

As a result he has been slipping further and further out of favor and contributed to bringing his fellow Democrats down with him.

Ironically, Republicans both in political life and in the right-wing media, more in service to the corporate elites who are much more powerful than the so-called educated class, have been doing a better job than the Democrats of obscuring their own elitism.

So much so that they have somehow managed to snooker their most fervent followers to pour out into the streets and polling places in support of continuing tax breaks (and the resulting piling on of trillions in more debt) for the wealthiest five percent.

How anyone struggling to get by, as most people are, can be convinced that their own fortunes are linked to people who really have fortunes is beyond my comprehension. But there you have it.

And though it grieves me to say this, Obama almost daily stands exposed as the elitist that he truly is and is thus a major contributer to the political debacle.

Just last month, and a high-end fundraiser in Boston, Obama said, "Part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right now, and facts and science and [rational] argument do not seem to be winning the day . . . is because we're hardwired not to always think clearly when we're scared."

When word of these remarks leaked out he was confronted by a chorus of criticism--"Obama the snob" was heard across the talk-radio dial. And not inappropriately.

But then, elitist that I confessedly am, I agree with Obama's off-the-record comments. He is right about the relationship between fear and belief and resistance to change.

But politically he should have stifled his thoughts.

Other elitists on the left (look in on MSNBC if you want a sampling of their views and condescending style) also need to cool their sarcasm and mockery. It may make them feel superior when making fun of the Tea Partiers and the undereducated, but it is turning off the majority of Americans and contributing to the pseudo-populist appeal of those they most revile.

The truth is that folks on the right are no more homogeneous or stereotypical than those on the left. There is considerable diversity at both ends of the ideological spectrum. It wouldn't hurt those who feel they know more about history and human nature to try to understand those they belittle before hurling snide comments.

Also, to defend Obama, as the Times did, by pointing out that he grew up poor and was raised by a single mom who for a time lived on food stamps does not prove that he isn't an elitist.

In many similar cases, quite the contrary is true. Many who are as elitist as they come emerged from similar backgrounds. If they somehow, like Obama, managed to get to a Columbia and a Harvard, once they graduated, out of a mix of insecurity and ambition, they are often prone to feel superior and act accordingly.

Many in the established elite, like Franklin Delano Roosevelt, do not feel the need to parade their status and thus at times are able, again like FDR, to find a way to relate to the real lives of real people and by doing so can accomplish great things.

In these desperate times, this is what we need. Not more snide lectures about what characterizes the underclass. In addition to everything else, as we have just seen, it is a ruinous political strategy.