Letters to the Editor
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Salon's Pro-Hillary Bias
For years I've looked to Salon for intelligent, unbiased coverage. This past two months has been a disappointment. It seems like weekly we are seeing one biased piece after another about how Obama is unsuitable, unprepared, elitist, blah, blah, blah.
Barack Obama is a rare politician, one who is willing to *lead* rather than follow the stifling triangulation of pollsters and what the mainstream media (guided by the right wing media) considers the 'pulse of the nation'. His comments about small town American are correct and appropriate. He is not an elitist, he is intelligent and willing to speak the truth. This is why he inspires us and Hillary bores us. His words strike a resonant chord with voters, Hillary's carefully crafted and triangulated statements are empty and represent the failed 'drift to the center and be a Republican Lite' approach pushed by Terry Mcauliffe and company for years.
The Democratic party needs to return to it's progressive, populist roots. Barack Obama gets it. And Salon needs to return to its tradition of quality, unbiased journalism. It's time Joan Walsh gets that message.
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A Guessing Game
So what's the difference between the lowbrow shot and beer Democrats vs the bomb 'em kill the abortionists Republicans?
Are "they" going to change because the smart rats know so much better?
In politics, isn't the game finding those who will vote for you so you are elected?
Isn't this the way it's been since the beginning--when Washington had more votes than Adams because more soldiers knew his name?
If the elites are so damn smart how come they don't recognize it, and stop grumbling about the way the democracy they prize so much works?
If the Clintons win, will they complain about them as if they were Rove appealing to the backwoods fundies? But is it the the same thing this time, when another GOP war is not only killing the patriotic, but bankrupting the country and destroying its standing in the world?
The role of the conscientous regardless of whether they went to Harvard or failed high school is not so complicated this time. There is no choice but getting the warmongers out of Washington. There is no status that matters. There is no sense trying to manipulate what cannot be manipulated.
It's time for a new coalition across the spectrum. By definition, that's what it's going to take. Once it wins, it can be defined and nurtured, but until that time it's a guess who they will be. The Republicans already have theirs and they have proven their loyalty to the party.
It only matters what side they are on.
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well...
It's not yet clear that these comments have had a negative effect on Obama's popularity. so far the only people excited about them are the Clintons, the Republicans and the media.
These comments, while ill advised, are absolutely correct in their substance. do the facts matter? I believe that Barack is since in his discussion of this issue, as with others. The real fraud elitists are McCain and the Clintons. people aren't bitter in those areas that have been devastated economically over the last 25 years?
for a greater understanding of these issues, if you haven't already, please read "what's the matter with kansas". I don't think that there is anything wrong with trying to understand why huge swaths of the american people are duped into voting for the Republicans against their own economic interests. if voters go ahead and ultimately choose McCain over Obama, it will be yet another example of how you can fool most of the Americans just about all of the time...
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Hey, Barack forgot to mention something
He should have added, while he was at it, that small town working class folk, in addition to relying on religion and guns and hatred, further cope with their pain by drinking themselves to death. Hey, it works for me! :)
In all seriousness, I think Obama came off as less than smooth with his remarks. Personally, I find this lack of smoothness endearing, but the fact he did it (in this particular way) in front of an elite San Francisco audience is unfortunate. I think just maybe, possibly, he just might be trying to understand the problems of people unlike himself, and is willing to wade through some awkwardness to do so. That is definitely commendable.
The problem, ONCE AGAIN, is his supporters. Unlike Obama, my impression of too many of his supporters is that they ARE elitists, straight up. Rednecky white people with an affection for Nascar are objects of contempt. Their stupidity and inferiority knows no bounds. I have to say, I'm beginning to see how the Republican Party wins over the rednecks, despite the fact that by voting for Republicans rednecks are essentially screwing themselves. Sometimes, the need to tell snobbish people to fuck themselves, and to vote accordingly, supercedes all else. You'd think that, smart as they think themselves to be, elitist Obama supporters would know when to shut up. The bloggers, quoted in the article, seem especially adept at kicking themselves in the face.
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my advice for Obama
I have a sister who works as a volunteer for Obama in Union County, Pennsylvania. She's done phone work, contacting people registered with the Democratic Party.
She has told me that among her callers, misconceptions are still rampant about Obama- such as that he's a Muslim, and that he won't pledge allegiance to the flag.
She has told me that demographically, Union County is the "whitest county in Pennsylvania"- a fact that I wouldn't make much of, or even bring up- except for the fact that it indicates that many of these folks have never had so much as a single conversation with a black person.
I'd like to see Barack Obama do some personal outreach to address that.
I think he should make some time in his schedule to put in a low-key appearance in a small town or two in central rural Pennsylvania on some Sunday morning- somewhere in the town hall or a city park or other gathering place- even a shopping center- perhaps with a church near enough to get some foot traffic after services. He should simply set up a folding table, and invite the local people to speak to him. The format: he listens to them speak their piece, and hears them out. About anything. He talks to them, but they talk first.
He could do this in one of those little towns on Route 45, like Mifflinburg- or maybe a few miles west, where on the north side of 45 at a bend in the road, there's a small marquee, simply reading in block letters "BUSH LIED, PEOPLE DIED." Last I saw, that sign had been up there for more than a year's time.
(I realize that sorta throws a monkey wrench into the stereotypical image bank for some of you readers, but it's true. "Stereo" means "solid" in Greek...ever wonder about that?)
I think Obama ought to do this even if he can't arrange an appearance until after the Pennsylvania primary. Win or lose. He ought to do it even if he gets trounced there.
He'll get a lot of respect for showing up, either way. Because meeting and greeting those folks close up will be giving them respect, and he'll get it back, even from conservative Republicans.
I know he was at State College already. But this isn't about pulling a big crowd, or appealing to a college town demographic.
It would be about something else- going past the pundits who presume to speak for those folks, and hearing the views of the people themselves.