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Also, methinks I'll be taking a break from the political news for the forseeable future. Just gah.
But having access to blogs again has inspired some thinky thoughts about people and how they perceive things.
On the one hand, my dad, someone that I will readily admit has racist tendencies - albeit, many fewer than his parents, said that he'll be voting for Obama in the general election if he's running against McCain because McCain is dangerous and pretty much Bush 2.0, but possibly with more trigger reactions. He also hopes that Obama picks Edwards as his running mate because he respects him etc. (which, my dad respecting a politician, I'm not sure if that's ever really happened before).
On the other, my friend and her husband that I visited. Yes, pro-Obama as can well be expected for two liberal leaning grad students. However, they vociferously loathe Edwards. "He's a trial lawyer, and you can't be a successful trial lawyer without having a large amount of slime." Or something to that effect. I calmly kept my mouth shut.
I readily admit that there are still race problems in our country. Hell, I grew up around them and tried on a daily basis to change the opinions of my family while being told that I'd "understand" when I got older. I'm still horrified at myself when I speak without thinking and some of the environment that I was raised in leaks out.
However, having been raised in a very blue collar family and exited into much more white collar domains, I can't help but notice the classism that has typified our politics and national discourse for the past ten years or so. One presidential nominee labeled as "out of touch with the comman man" and too "elitist" by his competitor. A competitor that is just as much of a blue blood and took advantage of every single short cut offered by said upbringing his entire life. But you know, he owns a ranch and gets his hands dirty clearing brush so he's obviously more "common" than the elitist candidate. That and he failed all his ivy league classes and thinks its funny.
And then there's the candidate that is labeled "elitist and phony" because he portrays himself as the working class candidate even as he gets a mega-expensive haircut on the runway of an airport. Oh, and you know, made his fortune as a trial lawyer winning cases against corporations and the like. So you know, not only has he had the temerity to aspire and succeed, but really, he's a turncoat and laughing at the common man.
That's the national discourse for better or worse. Yet it's odd to see who buys into what. Many middle class and such bought into the first, but anyone who was blue collar (that I've met anyways) didn't buy into the second. A large part of that goes to the orator abilities between the first and second candidates. One thing you can say about Edwards, he can charm just about anyone, but while he charms you, he never fails to communicate his points in a way that most people can understand. So on the one hand, the people who want most to believe in the American dream admire the story of the person who did pull themselves up by their bootstraps (theoretically at least - I don't want to get into a debate over what class Edwards actually fit into. He's much less of a through and through blue blood than Bush or Kerry though because he's not born into "old" money). However, the solidly upper middle class people, even those with education and liberal leanings, judge Edwards based on how he achieved both his money and his career.
The media (or at least most of it) can no longer openly fan the flames of racism in the news. However, there's absolutely nothing stopping them from fanning the flames of class discrimination. And the political machinery of the nation knows it.
The onus is on Obama, as well as Dean and the DNC, to figure out how to neutralize this because Obama is being attacked with the class discrimination brush at the same time as he's striving to break down the racial mindsets that still silently pervade our culture. Obama has tried to bring attention in the past, but poor word choice (as well as racial opinions in the area he was speaking) made it backfire. Or at least, allowed the media to portray it as backfiring. I'm not saying that he needs to pick Edwards as a running mate - indeed, I'm not sure that Edwards can bring quite enough votes, or serve well in the "attack dog" position of a campaining VP nominee, to justify choosing him as a running mate. But he should definitely hire Edward's speech writer and be careful to NOT deviate from the speech script when speaking on issues of class.
And he needs Howard Dean, and everyone else who can see through the MSM's narrative, to point out how the political machinery in the country does take advantage of any and every possible division - be it race, religion, class or sexual orientation - to maintain both their hold on power as well as their world view.
But having access to blogs again has inspired some thinky thoughts about people and how they perceive things.
On the one hand, my dad, someone that I will readily admit has racist tendencies - albeit, many fewer than his parents, said that he'll be voting for Obama in the general election if he's running against McCain because McCain is dangerous and pretty much Bush 2.0, but possibly with more trigger reactions. He also hopes that Obama picks Edwards as his running mate because he respects him etc. (which, my dad respecting a politician, I'm not sure if that's ever really happened before).
On the other, my friend and her husband that I visited. Yes, pro-Obama as can well be expected for two liberal leaning grad students. However, they vociferously loathe Edwards. "He's a trial lawyer, and you can't be a successful trial lawyer without having a large amount of slime." Or something to that effect. I calmly kept my mouth shut.
I readily admit that there are still race problems in our country. Hell, I grew up around them and tried on a daily basis to change the opinions of my family while being told that I'd "understand" when I got older. I'm still horrified at myself when I speak without thinking and some of the environment that I was raised in leaks out.
However, having been raised in a very blue collar family and exited into much more white collar domains, I can't help but notice the classism that has typified our politics and national discourse for the past ten years or so. One presidential nominee labeled as "out of touch with the comman man" and too "elitist" by his competitor. A competitor that is just as much of a blue blood and took advantage of every single short cut offered by said upbringing his entire life. But you know, he owns a ranch and gets his hands dirty clearing brush so he's obviously more "common" than the elitist candidate. That and he failed all his ivy league classes and thinks its funny.
And then there's the candidate that is labeled "elitist and phony" because he portrays himself as the working class candidate even as he gets a mega-expensive haircut on the runway of an airport. Oh, and you know, made his fortune as a trial lawyer winning cases against corporations and the like. So you know, not only has he had the temerity to aspire and succeed, but really, he's a turncoat and laughing at the common man.
That's the national discourse for better or worse. Yet it's odd to see who buys into what. Many middle class and such bought into the first, but anyone who was blue collar (that I've met anyways) didn't buy into the second. A large part of that goes to the orator abilities between the first and second candidates. One thing you can say about Edwards, he can charm just about anyone, but while he charms you, he never fails to communicate his points in a way that most people can understand. So on the one hand, the people who want most to believe in the American dream admire the story of the person who did pull themselves up by their bootstraps (theoretically at least - I don't want to get into a debate over what class Edwards actually fit into. He's much less of a through and through blue blood than Bush or Kerry though because he's not born into "old" money). However, the solidly upper middle class people, even those with education and liberal leanings, judge Edwards based on how he achieved both his money and his career.
The media (or at least most of it) can no longer openly fan the flames of racism in the news. However, there's absolutely nothing stopping them from fanning the flames of class discrimination. And the political machinery of the nation knows it.
The onus is on Obama, as well as Dean and the DNC, to figure out how to neutralize this because Obama is being attacked with the class discrimination brush at the same time as he's striving to break down the racial mindsets that still silently pervade our culture. Obama has tried to bring attention in the past, but poor word choice (as well as racial opinions in the area he was speaking) made it backfire. Or at least, allowed the media to portray it as backfiring. I'm not saying that he needs to pick Edwards as a running mate - indeed, I'm not sure that Edwards can bring quite enough votes, or serve well in the "attack dog" position of a campaining VP nominee, to justify choosing him as a running mate. But he should definitely hire Edward's speech writer and be careful to NOT deviate from the speech script when speaking on issues of class.
And he needs Howard Dean, and everyone else who can see through the MSM's narrative, to point out how the political machinery in the country does take advantage of any and every possible division - be it race, religion, class or sexual orientation - to maintain both their hold on power as well as their world view.