Monday, April 14, 2008

Obama's Bitter small town Americans comment

Comments he made at a San Francisco fund raiser suggesting working class people are bitter about their economic circumstances and "cling to guns and religion" as a result.

I think it was a good analysis, at least for some people. That dynamic exists. Maybe not for the majority of folks, but it's out there.

I can see that folks worried about rising cost of gasoline, housing, water would likely blame immigrants, for instance.

More people fighting over scarce resources.

It's a politics of scarcity as Obama mentioned in his speech about race when his preacher's statements were stirring up media comment.

Folks often see the gains of one group at the expense of another. This is especially true when there isn't enough to go around for everyone.

Maybe this dynamic is not how all "small town America" thinks, but it's out there. Obama's comments are insightful, though they may only apply to part of the population.

Too bad it's become a political football rather than being put into perspective.

It's true that no one can paint everyone in small town America, or anywhere else with the same brush. No one can put everyone in a box. Maybe Obama's comments are not even true for the majority of small town folks. On the other hand, they do seem to apply for a fairly large number of people. His suggestions can be the beginnings of interesting discussion rather than political football.

Anyone remember the book "What's Wrong With Kansas?" I've heard some interesting reviews of that book. The issues have some connection.

They were doing a show about blogging on Weekday over KUOW today. The "Obama Bitter" topic was tossed around along with some other subjects. Bloggers were invited to blog about it. I was thinking of writing about this anyway, so here's also my belated contribution.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

White people are bitter and frustrated. Better-qualified white students, employees, etc. face intense racial discrimination. Obama and his liberal comrades call it “Affirmative Action”.
Millions of white Americans see “people who aren’t like them” illegals and inner-city parasites sucking up on free benefits.
Millions of tax paying white Americans can no longer use the public school system because “people who aren’t like them” have made the schools awash with violence, drugs, and gangster rap.

Anonymous said...

Obama slipped and let his real feelings shine through what he thinks about working people to a bunch of elite Democrats. He thinks they are a bunch of gun toting jesus freaks. Obama really thinks like his preacher WRIGHT.