Obama the elitist?
For several days we've been inundated by comomentaries bemoaning the missteps of Barack and the supposed elitism of he and his wife, Michelle.
One point I've gatherred from the pundits' is their dislike (amazement?) that he has the temerity to actually try to understand the pov of so-called Reagan Democrats and the guts to explain his understanding to them. He said they were bitter because of chronic under- and un-employment, foreclosures, runaway skilled blue colloar jobs. He said that rather than them turning to active politics to retake control of their lives, they grip tight their guns and their God.
What an unpardonable sin...He saw something and didn't keep it to himself. He wanted to talk about it. And he's not apologizing.
Oh my.
Maybe he was serious about engaging America in a dialogue about class, race and generational change. It can be argued that this is a mental pursuit engaged by the Eastern Elite for mental mastubation purposes. However, I recall Sen Patrick Monyhan doing the same thing in describing the so-called generational pathologies of the Black underclass. Indeed, his descriptions resulted in very real legislation that impacts the criminal justice system and social welfare safety nets to this day (recall the "permanent underclass").
Obama has had a life-time of living with, studying, analyzing working class folks. His matriculation and graduation from Harvvard is the ultimate working class "pull himself up by his bootstraps" exemplar.