Elitism, Democrats, Republicans

As I claimed back in 2007 both Democrats and Republicans have narrative advantages, Democrats when it comes to women and race, GOP about the military and security. Another theme/narrative that has burst through in the past few years is the concept that Democrats are the rich/elites and the GOP are the blue-collar Joes. Naturally, this is incorrect to the point of being insulting and even evil (given that the GOP under Bush has acted as a kleptocracy hell bent on stealing from the middle class to support the super-rich. Don't believe me? Then stop watching Fox News and have a view outside the rectum).

Because I don't watch TV News - as the phrase is almost always an oxymoron - I don't see much of this narrative being drawn in real time. But it is. Here are two stories, the first from 2001 and is referenced by the second which is what sparked this post.

Slate magazine: O'Reilly Among the Snobs: It takes one to know one. By Michael Kinsley, March 2, 2001. Sample:

"Yet O'Reilly, like many other people, clings to the fantasy that he is a stiff among the swells. "

How Blue Is Your Collar? by Paul Waldman:

And the easiest way to show you're still cool with the folks back in the neighborhood is to blather on about how Democrats (and it's always only Democrats) aren't. Had you been watching cable television in the days following the release of Bill's and Hillary's tax returns, you would have seen copious braying about whether the fact that the Clintons have made over $100 million since leaving the White House means that Hillary will have trouble "connecting" with regular folks with modest incomes. But no one brought up the fact that, according to the Associated Press, Cindy McCain is worth the same amount, $100 million. Among the McCains' many homes are a $4.6 million condo in Phoenix (that must be some condo), another condo in Virginia, and their $1.8 million estate on 15 acres in lovely Sedona.

But the default assumption for the press is that Republicans, no matter where they summer or who their fathers were or where they went to school, just relate to honest, hardworking folks. For Democrats, on the other hand, the assumption is just the opposite. Would any Democrat whose father was a president and whose grandfather was a senator, and who attended Andover, Yale, and Harvard, have been able to get away with George W. Bush?s down-home reg'lar fella routine without the likes of Matthews and Russert ridiculing them mercilessly for being not just an elitist but a phony to boot? Not in a million years.

This is a battle over the 'Reagan Democrats' but it's also one of the fiercest ironies of the current political landscape - that blue-blooded jillionaires successfully make the claim that they represent the 'little guy' whilst simultaneously screwing said little guy out of money, benefits, and protections. I don't have any predictions as to when this bubble will burst, but if/when it does, I hope it will have the same devastation as the other bubbles of our recent history.

Pic from here of the most true blue collar worker ever. And jokes on us, he's an undocumented immigrant from Belgium. Backpost finished 2009-12-07.