Elitism As I See It

The Obamas speak as though their humble or middle class beginnings discredit them from being elitists. The arrogance of elitism has nothing to do with upbringing for everyone presenting that behavior. So, Barack came from humble beginnings, raised by his mother, abandoned by her and raised by his grandmother in Hawaii. He went to private school on scholarship? So? Still the world of private schools. I would think that was quite encouraging of his personal attitude.

Michelle sounds like a whiner. That's harsh but it is how she sounds to Obama's opposition. She had a perfectly respectable upbringing from the accounts I've read. She was taught right from wrong and her mother is now helping care for the two young daughters so Michelle can hit the campaign trail. Fine. Then you hear Michelle's speeches or read her thesis from Princeton. You would think that the woman hasn't benefited from her opportunities. She has student loans? So? Took her and Barack a long time to pay them back? So? That's a part of the elite lifestyle she chose for her educational path. A state college in Illinois would have been easier to finance. The point is she was free to choose and did so. Then we hear her say America is a mean country, and she just now finished paying back those loans, and she was waiting on Barack's trust fund to show up. "Where's the money?" she said in a speech, relaying a conversation with him.

Barack has a posture where he holds his head at an angle that appears as though he is looking down at the listener. He's practiced his stance, one used in debates to intimidate the opponent. No big deal but it's there and when he tells Hillary "you're likable enough" in a debate, the voters in the next primary let him know how he came off to them. She won New Hampshire after that and a few tears.

Their elitist attitude is self-made. It has nothing to do with background. It has everything to do with attitude and choices made. I don't begrudge them taking opportunities as they arise. Anyone would. They just lost the humility along the way. Barack can put on the bowling shoes and drink the local beer but then he goes out and relaxes with the ones he is truly most comfortable with, the swells in San Francisco. He was caught and now can't understand why the regular folks were troubled by his behavior. He tries to 'explain' those folks back in small town Pennsylvania. And, they just nod along and agree. It's how they think, too.

His elitist attitude shows in his church. He goes to a church validating black supremacy. Supremacy. We are told how prevalent this kind of cursing and yelling is in black churches. Political screeds from the pulpit. Maybe. But, if so, it's time to amend the tax free status of churches. The few black churches I visited as a child were in the South and there was joyous, loud music and singing but no swearing and political speeches condemning the President and others of a different political party. This church is racist and anti-Semitic.

The last Democrat President, Bill Clinton, was also raised by a single woman, had an alcoholic step-father, influenced by his grandparents and educated in the Ivy League and at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. He was the same in rural America as he was on either coast. He could make me cringe when he wasn't the most mannered person on television but we knew who he was. The same with the current President. They are who they are. They aren't trying to be all things to all people.

John McCain? I think he is a very humble man. He had a privileged life as the son of an Admiral, the grandson of an Admiral. The old school military kind of privileged life. He's the first to say he hasn't led a perfect life. But, when called upon, he makes the right decisions. And, he doesn't use the military service of his two sons with Cindy for his political gain. Or the fact that he adopted a child orphaned in Bangladesh, a black child they named Bridgette. His daughter Meghan is on the campaign trail with him and Cindy, now that she has graduated from Columbia University and does a blog on campaign life in photos and some verbiage. He is mocked for his age yet points to his very active, vibrant 96 year old mother on the campaign trail with him. I feel really good about his candidacy.

Hillary? Sociopath. Habitual liar. Self-aggrandising. Huge sense of entitlement. But, I don't think she's getting the nomination so I find myself sticking up for her when that is the last thing I thought I'd ever do. I can't stand the woman.

Long political season.