Elitism on Its Way to the White House

The terms which qualify a person as "elitist" are far and varied. Some people use the term "elitist" as a defense mechanism when they feel a person or concept is too far above their head. Other times, it is a term of endearment. Calling a presidential candidate an elitist may sound harsh, but is it really all that off? Has anyone aside from our current President ever become famous for being and under-achiever?

Sometimes it seems the public loves an epically hapless yet determined spirit to lead the charge into un-chartered, I mean un-charted, waters, whether they have a plan or not. But all of these impressions that a large amount of the public posses are likely success marks of the candidate's crafted message that he or she has used hundred upon millions of dollars in pumping out to the American public. Do we all fall for it? Sure we do. Maybe it's because most of us are not the elite and these presidential candidates are.

Barack Obama's recent vacation to Hawaii has been publicized as a decadent and undeserved getaway for the Democratic nominee. What has he done to deserve it, after all? He's only run one of the most successful and awe-inspiring campaigns in recent history. It's not like he was on safari in Africa shooting elephants or being fed grapes by servants in Bali. Many of a middle-class family has gone away to Hawaii for vacation and it is tough to imagine anybody in the media to think that their luau's and pig roasts were so remarkable.

God-forbid Senator Obama so much as thinks about stepping on a wind-surfer and he'll be doomed to mockery and ridicule for years to come. Look at Mr. and Mrs. Obama. They're a modern day rock-star couple. Who doesn't identify with that? Love, adoration, complete hatred, irrational fear and a myriad of other psychotic reactions are elicited by the mere mention of Obama and his earth re-shaping, physics defying, socio-economic transcending oratory. Considering most of his followers are godless liberals, I can't really compare him to "God" in the conventional sense. So, is Mr. Obama, alongside the closest comparison I can make to him; John Lennon (I can't say Bobby Kennedy, it gets the Old Dems too upset) elite? He just might be elite. But he believes in change. He'll even change your definition of elite if he's elected.

Senator McCain, on the other hand, is a real man's man. I'm sure he enjoys throwing back his presumptive American choice of beers, Budweiser, at his local bar, whooping it up with the boys while Mrs. McCain is at home keeping a tidy household like a real American woman should. No, wait. She's filthy rich. Not to say that she wears the pants in the relationship but it's realistic to think that they must coordinate who will wear pleated khaki's on which day of the week. With all of the "real American man" talk being touted about McCain, comparing him to a clearly Islamic and African loyalist in Obama, it sure appears that Mr. McCain probably has developed somewhat of a complex over the years. It must be interesting when Mr. McCain drives off to his local H&R Block to file his taxes while an international auditing and tax law firm comes to crunch through Mrs. McCain's sizable estate. Every day couple with everyday issues? Nope, they're pretty elite. too.

Is it disheartening to view everything about politics nowadays as just a bunch of elitist banter? Probably not. The American culture of success is elite. "Average Joes" are not leaders in this country, no matter how many politicians ad that ridiculous cliché to their personalized list of adjectives. But the beauty of the American Democratic tradition, in theory, is that these elitists who find their ways into the helm of our hopes and dreams can and should be ripped down as fast as their baffling ascent managed to rocket them up there.