What does the class hostility shown by the Obma Campaign, the MSM, and the Hollywood pinheads toward Gov. Sarah Palin mean to YOU? It means they also hate you, your family, and the people around you. When this news gets out, Barack Obama is going to start looking like a one-term president, a fate that America-dissing imposter richly deserves. (More on Wednesday about Palin Derangement Syndrome.)
The hatred displayed toward Sarah Palin by media people, Hollywood types, the Obama Campaign, and the political establishment is less sexism than class hostility.
I got the following comment (below this paragraph) on one of my blogs, and I believe this guy has hit the target right in the center. The people who turned out in great numbers to see Sarah Palin in Beaver County ("guns and God" folks) were largely from union families. Sarah Palin reminds me of some of the girls I grew up with in an unaffluent part of the Rochester, NY area, smart, good looking, very tough, and only marginally middle-class if that. Most of the people who have run for very high office since 1988 have been Harvard and Yale types -- and very wealthy. There's an unspoken rule that middle-class people, especially women, should not run for President or VP. If they are serious about their religious faith, that's another "disqualification." Obama is one of those Columbia/Harvard types I ran into in the academic world, individuals who really aren't all that bright, but the Harvard "shine" hides that reality. The sad fact is that 299-million-plus Americans (out of 300 million) have little or no chance of ever becoming President.
JamesD'Troy has left a new comment on your post "Why Some Conservatives Dislike Palin": What was apparent for me this past election was that the hatred towards Gov. Palin was based upon not only based upon sexism but a less acknowledged divisive issue: Class. The sexism shown towards Gov. Palin has been discussed, less acknowledged is that both Conservatives and Liberals despised her because she was essentially, a working class woman.
I've heard criticisms similar to those made towards Gov. Palin before, only in the UK, from upper class twits from Oxford and Cambridge. The dirty little secret that came out this past election IMO, was that this nation is as much divided by class as by anything else. Take a look at the reaction by the elitist MSM towards 'Joe the Plumber' or more recently, the Tea Parties. The message from MSM members like Charles Gibson (Princeton), Anderson Cooper (Yale), and countless others from NY, LA, and Washington could not have been clearer: Though they want nothing to do with small town Americans who are 'bitter and cling to their guns and God' they still want to rule them.
Note from Steve: Katie Couric is Univ. of Virginia (same thing). Much more on this issue for Wednesday's column.
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6 comments:
Firstly, thank you for thinking so highly of my post that you showcased it. I appreciate the high praise. I'm a little embarrassed that it contained a grammatical error or two though.
As for the issue of class, I've had some debates on another board about this very issue and at the risk of being repetitious, I'll repost what I wrote a number of months ago. It's lengthy and repeats some of what I've written but I feel it addresses many of the issues of class. I apologize if parts of it are sharper but I wanted to end the debate decisively. The person whom I was arguing with has his quotes bracketed with my responses following them in quotations.
[Quote: By what standard is Palin a lower class woman (unless you know something about her morals that the rest of us do not)?]
"Nice assumption, lower class = low morals...lower class wasn’t the right term, more working class-lower middle/middle class if anything. Her husband, Todd is definitely working class-oil worker, commercial fisherman-snowmobile racer-whom she helped for a considerable time supporting. Her own family, is lower middle to middle class-mother a secretary, father a high school science teacher, you should like that part..."
[Quote: Economically, she is quite well off perhaps not compared to McCain or Obama, but certainly more so than your average Joe Sixpack (and much of the elitist "mainstream media" for that matter).]
"Actually, as far as income, at best she’s middle to upper middle class now, rather nice she was able to work up that far, as opposed to her income working for her husbands fishing business, or her salary on the Wasila City Council-$6000.00/annum, Wasila mayoral salary-$75,000/annum, not bad but well within working-class/middle class standards(do you have any idea how much my plumber & electrician made this year?) and not nearly as high as those in the elitist mainstream media. The Palin family’s adjusted gross income of $166,080 for 2007 makes them better off than many Americans but it also puts them no higher than the middle class even by Obama's definition of ‘middle class’ which appears to set the ceiling for middle class at around $250,000 per couple. Even by Washington, NY, LA, or Chicago standards, $166,080 is not a lot of money with five kids. There are ‘journalists’ in DC who make more than the governor's $125,000 salary. True, not all but still a fair number. We can talk about the Palin’s total family wealth(property, fish share rights, et al.) estimated at anywhere from $1-3 million which is not considered uncommon for a working/middle-upper middle class family depending upon the housing market.
Yet, you’re still not grasping the concept of 'class'. Class isn’t solely about income, it’s about education and educational pedigree, social circles, social activities, religion, and occupation.
It’s the difference between public high school, community colleges & University of Idaho(State uni. ) paid by scholarships, financial aid, part-time & full-time work, and bank of Mom & Dad Heath vs. Punahu(private high school), Occidental(private uni.), Columbia(private uni.), and Harvard Law(private grad.) paid by the bank of Grandma & Grandpa Dunham, and racist Saudi advisors c.f. Khalid Al-Mansour.
It’s the difference between choices exercised how to spend money; on guns, ATV’s and dirt bikes/snowmobile racing for off-roading vs. trips to martial law Pakistan, Asia & Africa.
It’s the difference between a non-denominational church vs. Episcopalian(National Cathedral, Washington DC) or for some reason overlooked a racist, anti-semitic black separatist church hating whitey.
It’s the difference between working on a fishing boat with your spouse vs. working at a Law firm and university(Chicago) with your fellow lawyer wife and terrorist Bernadine Dohrn.
It’s about expectations for your children: no college vs. college vs. military service vs. married after high school vs. prep school in tony Washington DC.
It’s about where you live: small town America(Wasila & Juneau-Pop. 30,000) vs. Kenwood, Chicago, Illinois-with neighbors like Bill Ayers and Louis Farrakhan.
Class can be seen in the choices people make from their cars, hobbies, to spending habits, to even the type of dog they own(rottweiler vs. Black Lab.) It’s all more complex than your post allows.
[Quote:
Most of the contempt aimed at Palin was due to her lack of intellect, education, and (most damning, IMHO) curiosity about the world.]
No, most of the contempt was aimed at her perceived inexperience(although vis-a-vis Obama, she had more than him all without the disturbing links to numerous left-wing bigots & Chicago slimeballs), her supposed ethical improprieties(trooper-gate, etc), her working-class background ( How Williams, Couric, and Gibson, and the media loved the Obamessiah European tour!!!), lack of Ivy League education, perceived religious beliefs(the 'evil spirits' prayer), pregnant teen-age daughter(How White Trash of the Palin family!!!! or c.f Andrew Sullivan, was Palin hiding another birth?), allegations about Palin seeking to ban books, and overall alleged lack of sophistication that didn’t meet the elitist standards of the mainstream media, which did not show her in the best light c.f. Charlie Gibson’s(Princeton B.A.) edited and sneering interview vs. the kid gloves treatment Obama received.
More importantly, you should worry less about whether someone has been to Europe or outside the US, and worry more about their records and the responsibilities they’ve shouldered and whether they can do the job. The fact that Obama spent most of his life around people who were left-wing ideologues and/or bigots(mother, bio-father, step-father, uncle ‘Frank’, Chandoo Brothers, Edward Said, Rashid Khalidi, Khalid Al-Mansour, Bill Ayers, Bernadine Dorhn, Michille Obama, Father. Pflegler, Rev. Wrong, Raila Odinga, et al.) sans the last two running as POTUS is something conveniently ignored by the media, and people like you and the Americans who voted for style over substance.
However, what is indisputable is that culturally, economically, and socially, Palin, was brought up in a working class-middle class environment and for most of her life has been part of that working class-middle class social and economic circle, recent history notwithstanding. That makes her set of experiences totally and completely in line with what the majority of most Americans experience and can relate to as opposed to Obama, whose life has been so bizarre and ideologically vested, that the only way one can illustrate the degree to which it is bizarre and ideological is to compare it to a right-wing analog.
In spite of that, it was all ignored because even though Sarah Palin was closer and better representative of the majority of Americans, the media wanted to showcase the narrative of a black man becoming president. In addition, what is also indisputable is that the message sent from the East Coast media, political, and social elite to the nation and especially the white working classes through Palin’s media ravaging was that although they want nothing to do with ‘small town/rural America’, they still wanted to rule over them."
James, send me an e-mail so that I have your e-mail address. I'm at: TalkTop65@aol.com. You are truly onto something important. I'm going to move your comments up to the post space tonight. We have a small Sarah strategy group (that does a lot more of substance than we first imagined) and you should be a member of that group. The MSM is the still the key source of information for most people in the U.S., but that shows signs of changing. One of our goals is to do real damage to the MSM over the coming years, costing them ratings and sponsors. Again, email me at: TalkTop65@aol.com.
steve maloney
ambridge, pa
15 miles w. of Pittsburgh
Thank you thank you thank you. Thank you to James for articulating what I have thought since Palin first burst on the scene in August. Thank you to Steve for posting it.
I told my husband after her convention speech that she was going to appeal to a lot of people just because they can identify with her, she is 'normal'.
On another note, Steve, how do we lose our Congressman in the 4th District? I just went to his 'congressman on your corner' town hall and am more convinced than ever that he has to go!
Dear Suburbanite: Please send me your e-mail address so we can stay in touch. I'm at TalkTop65@aol.com. Yes, I believe James D'Troy has performed a public service in his comments on "class warfare" against Sarah Palin -- and she needs to adopt his points (which are true) in her battle to take the presidency away from Obama. I hope that Lynn Swann decides to run against Jason Altmire, who is a deceitful, cynical self-promoter. He raises vast sums of money from special-interest groups -- and then pretends he's a moderate-conservative. I agree that he must go. Again, I'm at TalkTop65@aol.com.
As a child who grew up with those elitist left coast attitudes and a staunch Palin supporter- I concur with the above,but it is classism as well as sexism- Sarah represents the people not the eastern media or left coast Hollywood- She is not a secular Humanist- not an ivy leaguer or even from USC( people out here look down on UCLA) or Stanford- This is why we the people love her
Bruce, you said it very well, and I hope you'll keep saying it anyone who will listen (and maybe to those who don't want to listen). Send me an e-amil if you will, so we can stick together in the long march to victory in November, 2012. I'm at: TalkTop65@aol.com.
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