Letters to the Editor
-
Maher's Best!
That's saying a lot, given his consistently beautiful takes.
But this column takes the cake.
-
There's nothing wrong with believing in your own eliteness
Robert Franklin writes:
"If liberals want to cease being marginalized in this country, we'd best understand the powerful anti-elitist sentiments here and stop talking down to the huge numbers of people who naturally distrust us because they perceive that we think we know better than they do what's good for them. Maher's piece suggests they're right."
Of course we think we know better than they do what's good for them. And they think they know better than we do what's good for us. There's nothing wrong with promoting your point of view and criticizing other opinions. I'm tired of people advising liberals to soft-pedal their message. Sure, honey may catch more flies than vinegar, but there's a difference between finding the right way to frame your message and modifying that message to be inoffensive. Liberals will continue to be marginalized not because we're so offensive, but because we've confused inoffensiveness with persuasiveness. Nobody listens to a wimp.
-
Bill--
Amen, amen, amen!
-
Who cares?
Of course we all want smart people to run our country. The concern of most people when it comes to the so-called elite is not about how smart they are. The concern is that they may be out of touch with the people they would represent. Is it too much to ask that the candidates we elect should be both smart and have an idea of the day to day issues that concern most of the country's citizens?
President Bush was just as out of touch as John Kerry or Al Gore, I'm not going to pretend otherwise. He had a priveleged childhood and young adulthood. He probably has as little of an idea of the cost of milk as Rudy Guiliani. He got elected because his campaign staff managed to package him as someone who cared about the problems of every day Americans.
Most of us in this country dream of success. We wish our children could go to Ivy League universities. Sometimes we can't manage that. Instead kids go to the flagship state university, or another state university closer to home. All with the hopes of a brighter future, they go off to a private university or college that offers them the best financial aid package.
Sure, it's great to be a part of the 10% of applicants who got into Harvard. But it doesn't automatically mean that you are predestined to determine policy for this country, or that the issues that matter to you are the only ones that matter, period.
As a recent college drop out, I cannot pretend that I'm qualified to have a voice in policy in any department or level of government. But I do have the right and privelege to attempt to determine if a candidate in my district cares if I can afford to buy a gallon of milk tomorrow, or if I can pay my rent. It is my duty and responsibility as a citizen to attempt to elect candidates who want to make life better for all their constituents, no matter what university they attended. I will vote for the person who seems to care about my life the most, who will work hardest for me, and who cares if that candidate is a Democrat, a Republican, a third party candidate, a Harvard graduate, or the recipient of an online degree.
The best teacher I ever had in high school earned her B.A. from a correspondance school. She wasn't the smartest teacher I ever had, but she was the one who tried her hardest to make sure her students succeeded. She was the one there after school every day, late, and on Saturdays for almost no money as the advisor of the Speech and Debate team.
Democrats can preach about the benefits of elitism as much as they want. But until they understand that boasting about Harvard educations doesn't win them sympathy in the minds of most Americans, they are not going to start winning landslide elections. If the presidency of George W. Bush has taught us anything, it's that you have to at least pretend to care.
-
Bill Maher? "Elite?"
Since when did anyone accuse Bill Maher of being an elite anything?
What law school did he attend?
Bill Maher isn't even an elite comedian.
He doesn't need to be concerned with anyone mistaking him for an 'elite.'
-
Had enough yet?
Put me down as someone who doesn't want the education department run from a correspondence school, the justice department to administered by a law school from the bottom tier, the pentagon to be run by military contractors or a President that doesn't understand the difference between noblesse oblige and a bank vault left ajar.
-
Yes, a 67% bar passage rate is dismal
When compared to other schools. I go to a tier-one school with a passage rate in the 90-percent range, but still, think about it, if this school didn't teach anyone anything, you'd think they'd have a much lower passagae rate than 67%. I said in my original post that Regent is not the best law school in the world, like, AT ALL. It's tier 4, etc. But to equate it with "no law school at all" is also not fair. And I have to point out again, it is accredited. Not every law school is accredited.
Anyway, I'm willing to let that slide for the sake of humor. Am I willing to let the vague equalization between being female and being a bush Yes-woman and incompetent? No, not really. There's absolutely no basis in fact for it, it's just sexism on Maher's part.
-
Elephantman
Bill Maher has a television program. He has had a few.
Everyone in these parts knows who Bill Maher is,
He doesn't have to work a regular job to get by.
You are responding to an article by him.
I'd say he qualifies as one of the "elite" but so does Paris Hilton, George Bush, Condeleeza Rice, Bill Clinton and Don Imus.
-
The "Fighting Christies"?
I'm not sure what Maher is linking to with that. I believe Messiah College refers to it's athletic teams as "Falcons", but I could be wrong on that. Aside from that, I really get why Bill Maher resonates with such a wide range of people. What I like about him best is most likely the very thing the Robertson-Falwell-Haggard-Dobson crowd hates about him most. He doesn't try to buy someone's loyalty or devotion on the cheap by telling them what he thinks they want to hear. For a long time, it seemed like Maher was the only one I ever saw on TV with enough guts to go on record stating he thought how big of a disservice that "people of faith" have done to our society.
What I admired most was that he challenged these "elites" at the height of thier power and no matter how hard they try to suppress his opinion, he always seems to land on his feet and emerge even stronger than before. As for the "Fighting Christies", maybe it's time they stopped fighting against a woman's right to choose, the teaching of evolution, gays wanting the same rights as any other taxpayer and Terry Schiavo's husband. So many of them seem to believe the rationale for the Iraq War that the current administration they feverishly helped get elected, maybe they should form a brigade and go fight over there if they truly believe in the cause.