I'm Still Bitter

For more on the woman who was invited on the ABC debate to ask Obama if he really loves America, and how it all came about:

talkingpointsmemo.com

The primary issue here is the fact that ABC sought out this anti-Obama citizen, tracked her down, and had her ask one of the only three non-moderator questions. mcclatchydc.com That's her story, in her own words, of her serious economic and social hardship.

So here's my question: why is Obama being attacked for his remark that sometimes voters vote against their own economic self interest--when what we have is a real live voter who is, by her own account, a person in need of economic assistance--and who is going to cast her ballot not on any major issue, but based on whether someone wears a freaking lapel pin! Hello!

And for the record, I'd like to ask her if I love America more than her because I have an American flag bra that I wear close to my heart.

And another point along the same "elitist" and "bitter" lines, that are my own opinion and not anything to do with Obama's original remarks: why is it so terrible to talk about poorer/rural white people but it's not equally frowned-upon to disparage "city folk"? Any day on any conservative talk radio you can hear them insulting "latte-loving" city people/elites. Why all the sensitivity around not insulting the "values of middle America"? Why aren't the values of other Americans equally as valid? Like, do rural whites have a lock on patriotism and family? Somehow because I was an urban dweller who drank lattes and explored vegetarianism and don't believe there's such a thing as a "gay agenda," that my values aren't just as patriotic as Nash McCabe, Blue Collar White American? So how does she get carte blanche to say that someone not wearing a lapel pin does not love America (which is a pretty monstrous charge, is it not?), but I don't get carte blanche to say that someone obsessed with lapel pins is a moron? It's tautological: I'm an elitist because I don't share her opinions; when I express that I don't share her opinions, I am displaying my elitism. I therefore am a snob. It's a fight you can't win, unless you're working class and white.

I would posit, instead, that Nash McCabe is the snob. Think about it: A snob, guilty of snobbery, is a person who adopts the worldview that some people are inherently inferior to him/her for any one of a variety of reasons including real or supposed intellect, wealth, education, ancestry, etc. Quote from McClatchy: "But to understand why Obama rubs McCabe wrong is to go beyond the question of what a flag pin has to do with patriotism — it's not really about the flag pin, she said in a telephone interview Thursday — and consider McCabe's life. It's no Hawaiian prep school and Ivy League story, unlike Obama's....In Obama, she sees someone who rose like a rocket, always has a smooth explanation for everything — whether it's about his former preacher or the flag pin — and who makes it all look too easy. That's what upsets me about Barack Obama," she says. "He takes everything so nonchalantly." She admits that she's more likely to give Clinton the benefit of the doubt while looking for fault in Obama."

She's 100% entitled to vote for whomever she pleases. But for ABC to pretend she was just a voter on the street, and for her to pretend that she's not looking down her nose in, yes, reverse snobbery, is my issue. And for me to be considered an elitist if I disagree? THAT makes ME bitter.