With the media largely ignoring last week's revelations that President Bush and his senior staff personally approved and even directed the torture of War on Terror™ prisoners, something has to fill all that airtime on 24-hour cable news. And so the media jumped to the task when Barack Obama said what so many of us are feeling - that many Americans are "bitter" over being left behind in today's economy.
"You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them," he said. "And it's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
For his admittedly badly-phrased trouble in pointing out the bleedin' obvious, Obama has been tarred as an "elitist" by everyone from Hillary Clinton (who made over $100 million in the last eight years) to John McCain (who reportedly owns eight houses) to Fox News. The TV talking heads fill the airwaves with speculation that Obama is a "fake populist" who secretly looks down on the people whose support he's trying to win.
Not to leave well enough alone, others waved the red flag and brought us back to the days of the Cold War. William Kristol compared Obama to Karl Marx in his New York Times column, Joe Lieberman wondered aloud whether the candidate is a full-fledged Marxist, and Karl Rove fell into line with the same theme.
This is, of course, standard operating procedure. The accepted response to anyone who asks why the American economy leaves so many Americans struggling is to attack mercilessly, accusing the questioner of latent Communism and fomenting "class warfare." Naturally, the people attacking Obama for his supposed elitism are hardly the epitome of the working class, making millions and living the high life.
Turning away from the hoopla back to what Obama actually said, why shouldn't we be bitter? In the years of the supposed "Bush boom," the vast majority of us have seen prices for health care, housing, energy and education skyrocket while wages have stagnated at best or fallen at worst. The only people who really flourished during the Bush years have been the ones at the very top.
Once upon a time, Americans who weren't wealthy could work hard and be assured of a comfortable life. We could send our kids to college, afford a nice house and look forward to a happy retirement. My grandparents, who both taught in public schools, were able to send their children to graduate school and afford a second home in Florida.
No more. In the pursuit of ever bigger profits, companies have sent jobs overseas and eviscerated what used to be the economy's manufacturing base. American workers are pitted against each other in a war of all against all for an ever-smaller slice of the pie. And in this latest "recession," it's always the people on the bottom rung of the economic latter who pay the price. We live in constant fear of layoffs, foreclosure and bankruptcy, and the government just doesn't care.
And people wonder why we're bitter.
"You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them," he said. "And it's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
For his admittedly badly-phrased trouble in pointing out the bleedin' obvious, Obama has been tarred as an "elitist" by everyone from Hillary Clinton (who made over $100 million in the last eight years) to John McCain (who reportedly owns eight houses) to Fox News. The TV talking heads fill the airwaves with speculation that Obama is a "fake populist" who secretly looks down on the people whose support he's trying to win.
Not to leave well enough alone, others waved the red flag and brought us back to the days of the Cold War. William Kristol compared Obama to Karl Marx in his New York Times column, Joe Lieberman wondered aloud whether the candidate is a full-fledged Marxist, and Karl Rove fell into line with the same theme.
This is, of course, standard operating procedure. The accepted response to anyone who asks why the American economy leaves so many Americans struggling is to attack mercilessly, accusing the questioner of latent Communism and fomenting "class warfare." Naturally, the people attacking Obama for his supposed elitism are hardly the epitome of the working class, making millions and living the high life.
Turning away from the hoopla back to what Obama actually said, why shouldn't we be bitter? In the years of the supposed "Bush boom," the vast majority of us have seen prices for health care, housing, energy and education skyrocket while wages have stagnated at best or fallen at worst. The only people who really flourished during the Bush years have been the ones at the very top.
Once upon a time, Americans who weren't wealthy could work hard and be assured of a comfortable life. We could send our kids to college, afford a nice house and look forward to a happy retirement. My grandparents, who both taught in public schools, were able to send their children to graduate school and afford a second home in Florida.
No more. In the pursuit of ever bigger profits, companies have sent jobs overseas and eviscerated what used to be the economy's manufacturing base. American workers are pitted against each other in a war of all against all for an ever-smaller slice of the pie. And in this latest "recession," it's always the people on the bottom rung of the economic latter who pay the price. We live in constant fear of layoffs, foreclosure and bankruptcy, and the government just doesn't care.
And people wonder why we're bitter.
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