Letters to the Editor
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Did anyone else read the DailyKos diary to which Joan Walsh links?
Well? I do urge you to read it. For example, the Obama supporter who is lashing out at uppity big city slickers says:
20% of the adult population in West Virginia are low-level readers. Percentages represent county residents who have difficulty reading beyond a fourth grader level. These adults find it difficult to read basic information like road signs, job applications, newspapers articles, and food and medicine labels.
The diarist cites a study from the State of West Virginia, hardly a snobby elitist hippie peace queer group for his statistic.
The diarist also says:
Not everyone has time to learn about the political process, the candidates, or the issues. The less resources (e.g., time, money) you have, the less likely you are to have the ability to understand the political process or the people involved.
These are tonight's Clinton supporters, by the way. The diarist continues:
These are not willfully ignorant people. These are hardworking Americans who are doing the best they can with the hand they were dealt. These are people who are proud to put a union bumper sticker on their car. They hear the word solidarity, and they think brotherhood, not commie bastard. These people bled for progress. If they are ignorant now, it's because we left them behind. If we believe in the 50 state strategy, then it's time for us to stop leaving these people behind.
So if I or some other epicene Obama supporter points out that some of the people in Appalachia are ignorant we are bigots. But someone from Applalachia can say it and that is OK.
Look. No one I know or know of believes that anyone in the country should be written off or left behind. We actually all believe that no child should be left behind, as a matter of fact and not just as a matter of marketing a disastrous education policy.
We face problems such as internet illiteracy (something the diarist also writes about), poor schools, a terrible health care system, the country being bled by the endless occupation of Iraq and I will stop right there. You get the idea.
There are real problems including the fact that some parts of the country have been left behind. Some people aren't as lucky as the San Francisco and Seattle liberals.
Obama supporters do not want to abandon anyone. But we refuse to be in the logically unsupportable position of saying we want to help everyone get ahead, without acknowledging that some people have been left behind.
So, Hillary bitter-enders, cut it out with your willful misrepresentation of Obama and his supporters. If we cannot acknowledge the facts on the ground, well, I guess we ought to believe that Clinton is doing the right thing still hanging around.