I am a relatively bright guy, but that doesn't mean I like to think about things that make me uncomfortable. Nude lesbian mud-wrestling, sure; the ethics of eating the last piece of chocolate cake, if you want; whether people in my home state exhibit insular and bigoted reactions to economic pressures -- where's that TV remote?
I think that what Obama said is probably true. I have to say probably, because although I live here, I'm as isolated from the people he's talking about as he is, himself. I don't know anyone who's bitter. (I was, when IBM said buh-bye, Billy, but I got over it.) I can easily assume that people are, and given that there are some relatively poor places around here -- check out Steelton, which used to be the local home of Bethlehem Steel, just for starters -- I'm willing to believe there are people who're pretty pissed off with life, generally. I just don't know them. Perhaps more accurately, I don't knowingly know them. I may meet them every day, but we don't discuss finances, job expectations, or any of that. We're doing good to discuss the weather, traffic, and -- well, thats about it.
So is he right? Laying aside how politically dumb it was to deliver this statement (and I admit: if it'd been Clinton who said it, I'd be tickled pink), is he right about people being ticked off, and retreating into the things that give them solace? Certainly, they have reason to be ticked; things are not particularly good in the state. Clinton says that far from being a refuge against reality, she finds religion and hunting to be a vigor-inducing combination. I happen to think even though she's clearly saying it for political gain, she's right -- people around here do get meaning for their lives from religion, from hunting, all of that. I also think that whether you normally buy into those activities or not, when you're up against it, you retreat to core values. You look for the things that can give you solace, and maybe you mutter darkly about the outsiders that have ruined your life. It's not just poor people who do this. Wealthy white people do, too - they just do it in their oak-paneled libraries rather than the corner taproom. Does everybody do it? Maybe. Probably.
It does bug me, that he said it so glibly. The damned thing is, I don't even know if it irritates me a) because it was a political present to the other side, or b) because he's right, or c) because he's wrong. It just irritates me. I guess I don't like being summed up and wrapped up.
This doesn't change my support for him, but it makes me -- respect? Venerate? Appreciate. Yeah. It makes me appreciate him just a little less. It makes him a little bit more of a capital-P politician. And that, I don't like.
4 comments:
I'm really bothered by his words, Bill. I'm pretty much a moderate, and can't make up my mind about who to vote for because none of them seem to be aything different from the standard politics as usual. I will say I've been leaning toward Hilary. Maybe I have a thing for underdogs.
But yep, his words really bother me. Not that I'm from PA, but I am in a small town, a small town that has little to offer in the way of jobs, a small town that has a lot of church-going people, whether they're especially religious or not, it's just the way they were raised, and a small town that is in a rural area where people do hunt, and the privilege of gun-ownership is valued whether they hunt or not.
I was raised up going to church, but I don't much anymore. Religion bores me, but I will fight for anyone else to practice it and not be judged or ridiculed for it. And while I could never shoot an animal for sport, I do have more than one gun for protection, because I'm a single woman living alone in a pretty nice estate neighborhood, and it's not too far from a horribly gang ridden city that is slowly invading to the rural areas, and the crime is already here.
What bothered me about his comments wasn't the bitter part. I suspect that some people proably really are bitter, and I think they have every right to be. But the way he totally dissed and deligitamized the way people live....the way they've always lived...that's what upset me. It's devisive and judgemental, and totally goes against his talk of bringing the the nation together. It smacked of pandering to a crowd of latte drinking, white wine sipping elitists. And even though I'm pretty much one of those wine and latte people myself, I never forget where I came from, or for one moment think that I'm better.
I feel like he insulted my own people, and I'm sick and tired and downright disgusted with salt of the earth, plain living people being talked down by a faction of society that sees themselves as more enlightened than the rest of the country, and therefore seem to think that they should make all the decisions for everyone. Talk like that is enough to send me to the other side, fighting for a focus on back-to-basics and conservative government. If Obama thinks people who go to church or own guns are bitter, it probably has more to do with them being sick and tired of being judged by elitist liberals than it does with NAFTA or joblessness.
Whew! I think I was holding that in or something. I hope I don't come across as biting your head off. I wasn't and didn't intend it that way. I was just trying to explain it from a middle-of the roader point of view.
Here's my final thought. For some one who gives great speeches, he seems to put his foot in his mouth when left alone to talk by himself, and that makes me think he's just as maufactured as the rest of the political machine.
I guess my bitterness and cynicism toward politics is showing ;-)
LC, I just rewrote and expanded what I'd posted, and now I see you put it better than I did:
"I feel like he insulted my own people, and I'm sick and tired and downright disgusted with salt of the earth, plain living people being talked down by a faction of society that sees themselves as more enlightened than the rest of the country, and therefore seem to think that they should make all the decisions for everyone."
I think you hit it right directly on the head.
I don't think he's as manufactured as the others... but now I do think he's not as great as I'd hoped. Like other comparisons for other things -- he's just better than the alternatves.
Ohhh...I thought you had deleted your post. When I submitted my comment it said the post wasn't there anymore.
I think you said it very well, Bill.
Lmao at you getting ethics and nude lesbian mud wrestling into the same sentence. Hey, maybe everyone needs a little cake and mud wrestling to relieve the tension. Let's mix it all up and make it Mississippi Mud Cake wrestling. Fun all around!
But if you men get lesbians, then I'd like some hot men to watch too :)
Seems only fair -- and hey, isn't that a good working definition of 'politics'?
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