Elitism Charge is a Smokescreen

I tried to find a full transcript of the comments Barak Obama made a few days ago, in which he discussed the "bitterness" of those who "cling to guns and religion." It's hard to locate.

But let's cut to the chase here. I heard the full transcript today, read by Randi Rhodes on her new flagship, The Nova M Network. As is typical where Barak Obama is concerned, his comments were anything but off-handed and ill-chosen. Mr. Obama spoke of things that he felt he needed to say, and he said them in a way that few public speakers in our time care to or dare to match.

Obama is erudite, but that is only a surface description of his character. Notice that I didn't say, "that is only the surface of his charm," or "that is only the surface of what attracts us to him." This comes down to character. And it is very important that we realize it is a distinct difference from what makes him electable or un-electable. That is an entirely different concern.

Beyond Barak Obama's intelligence is his ability and his propensity for honesty. Pardon the inappropriateness of this, but I have to say that Barak will call a spade a spade. In fact, I am pretty darned sure that any time he makes a public apology for his, or a compatriot's, comments, it is by sheer force of his campaign management team. Reverend Wright was right. And so is Obama in his assessment of America's working class. Some of the words, phrases, and sentiments of both Wright and Obama are hard pills to swallow, but that makes them no less true. In fact we ought to listen to their message all the more.

Hillary Clinton, standard bearer and apologist for the Neo-Conservative Right, latched on Mr. Obama’s wise comments and turned them around, entirely out of context, and accused him of being elitist. John McCain, so close on Hillary’s heels that the appearances are of a single camp in lock-step solidarity, seconded this accusation.

And ever since, the media has been either, a) accusing Barak of this elitism, b) asking if this charge of elitism will affect his candidacy, or c) defending his elitism, either by trying to prove that it wasn’t elitist, or by trying to show that elitism is what we need to turn the corner on an America gone horribly off-course.

Okay, so much for preamble. Here’s the rub.

The press has fostered the assumption that Clinton’s and McCain’s elitism charges are aimed at discrediting Obama’s campaign. This is a reasonable assumption; Hillary wants to beat Obama at all costs regardless of the harm to the Democratic Party, and McCain wants to run against Hillary because the Republican machine has fully stocked arsenals with Clinton’s coordinates pre-loaded in the smart bombs’ cross-hairs.

However, neither of these candidates is really concerned with discrediting Obama in this particular instance.

Yet discredit is the game.

Let’s pay more attention to Obama’s message (this is why I tried to find a full transcript of it). Barak took pains to describe the way in which the American populace has been disappointed so often by candidates and by seated representatives. He took pains, not so much as to separate himself from this bunch, but to define them. To his great credit he didn’t spit out platitudes regarding how different he was from that fray. He gave credence to the anger, the skepticism, and, yes, the bitterness, of the American public. He didn’t condescend to them. He said, “this is your voice!” And then he indicated that he believed that together we could change things if we were honest with each other.

And it’s that message both Hillary and McCain want to discredit. Neither of their campaigns stretches very far beyond Washington as Usual in their portrayal of how they will command this country. Both campaigns are about entrenched paradigms.

It takes a hell of a lot of energy to beat inertia, and to beat entropy. Obama knows this. He isn’t unrealistic about the odds of his success. But he is certain of this: you cannot and will not make any forward movement without an honest assessment of the realities you face. You must be willing, and even compelled, to level with the public, and to elicit the public’s reciprocal response, if we are to actually achieve anything that isn’t merely another glossy-looking lie. Another glossy-looking lie like NAFTA. Or another glossy-looking lie like, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

If you respect the citizenry you are asking to vote for you, you have to entrust them with the truth. And you have to respect them with their assessment of the same.

And it is that truth that neither Clinton, nor McCain, can allow the American Public to be privy too. Because both of these inferior candidates are sold out entirely to the vested interests that feather their nests, and that have defined nearly every minute of their sold-out lives.