In what many observers are calling the first major rhetorical blunder by Barack Obama, last week the Senator made comments in San Francisco that small-town voters are “bitter” over the economy and, because of this, they “cling to guns and religion”. Both Hillary Clinton and John McCain have charged Obama with being an “elitist,” but have steered clear of the more-appropriate “Marxist” label, knowing that no one in Pennsylvania’s Rust Belt knows what that thing is.
Go ahead, call me an elitist, but I think Obama’s comments were right on. Only I would have added a host of other things that small-town folk cling to, including patriotism, xenophobia, and on hot days, the insides of their blue jeans and Nascar t-shirts.
A few weeks ago, an article in the New York Times explored the political leanings of voters in blue-collar Latrobe, Pennsylvania as the presidential primary ever-so-slowly approaches (here). Many of Latrobe’s citizens were only too eager to explain why they would not be voting for Barack Obama: “The Second Amendment is too important to me.” “How can I vote for a president who won’t wear a flag pin?” “I don’t say this because he’s black, but the guy just seems arrogant to me, the way he expects things to go his way.”
That last comment, made by a truck driver, stirred such amused rage within me that I showed the article to Mr. Pinault over dinner that night and ranted. And let me tell you, I called these people worse things than “bitter,” because these are the idiots who voted for George W. Bush because Al Gore is too boring and John Kerry looks like a Frenchman. These people understand abso-effing-lutely nothing about how the world outside their tiny little pinprick towns works, so they react to candidates using childlike logic and primitive instincts. “Where’s Obama’s flag pin? I look for the flag pin every time he’s on television. How can I vote for a man who won’t wear a flag pin?”
Hmm. Is she truly offended because Obama won’t wear a flag pin, or is she just a simpleton who can’t fathom the issues of real political significance that the candidates are discussing and can’t wrap her brain around any issue more salient that a flag pin? Flag pin! FLAG PIN.
And Mr. ‘I don’t say this because he’s black’ is a perfect example of the small-town bitterness of which Obama spoke. This man would obviously prefer a presidential candidate who doesn’t expect things to go his way, who exudes pessimism that matches the glumness that I can only imagine that a truck driver from Latrobe would feel. This man is as bitter as the citrusy adulterated aftertaste of a Rolling Rock Extra Pale.
