Obama Says Small-Town America is Bitter, Hillary Cries Elitist!
The latest Obama/Clinton battle began at a fundraiser Obama was attending. Obama has not always fared well with the working class small-town vote and gave his opinion about why that is. He mentioned the continuing problems with joblessness and small-town America's diminished faith in the ability or willingness of the government to solve problems working class citizens face. Obama said, "So it's not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
Naturally, someone audiotaped these remarks and sent them to the press.
Whoops! Obama, you missed that ball, gave Hillary a point, and now it is her turn.
Obama could have (and probably should have) used a different word, such as jaded or frustrated , but he used the word bitter, which apparently has very negative connotations for some people, especially when the implication is that this bitterness is why working class people are supposedly drawn to certain issues.
Obama later tried to explain that he only meant that these people don't have faith in the government. A Time article (see link below) "Will Obama Pay for 'Bitter' Flap," by Jay Newton-Small, mentions an Obama quote from a North Carolina Newspaper:
"People end up- they don't vote on economic issues because they don't expect anybody's going to help them. So people end up, you know, voting on issues like guns, and are they going to have the right to bear arms. They vote on issues like gay marriage. And they take refuge in their faith and their community and their families and things they can count on. But they don't believe they can count on Washington."
Hillary, however, had already hit the ball back to Obama's side of the table. Obama, she asserted, is being condescending towards small-town America.
She said, "You know, some people now continue to teach their children and their grandchildren. It's part of culture. It's part of a way of life. People enjoy hunting and shooting because it's an important part of who they are. Not because they are bitter." (from CNN "Obama on Clinton: 'Shame on her')
But is this what Obama really meant by his early comment at the fundraiser? Or is Hillary just running with this, setting up a straw man she can easily knock down so that she will look more wholesome, down to earth and get that white working-class vote so she can win this round?
If Obama really meant that working class Americans simply don't feel they have much of a voice in government, would that be offensive?
Well, no. Sen. Obama would have been so much better off had he refrained from bringing up gun issues, religion etc in the same sentence as cling to and bitter. I can understand why some would be offended by Obama's comments. However, I don't believe he meant it the way it came across.
There is little doubt that Obama is right about one thing in this. Many people don't believe they can count on Washington. However, I don't think this feeling is specially reserved for the working class, small town voters, gun owners, or anti-immigration advocates. I believe jaded distrust towards Washington is fairly widespread throughout American cities, large and small.
Small-town voters bitter? The better question is: are American voters, in general, bitter? If bitter can be defined as jaded, frustrated, fed-up, and/or tired, then the answer is a resounding yes.
Sources:
Published by Chris M. Carmichael
Chris M. Carmichael writes on a wide range of topics and has a broad range of interests (and experience), including Screenwriting, Acting, Forensic Science, Pets, Martial Arts and Abnormal Psychology. Chris... View profile
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19 Comments
Post a CommentObama should have known better then to say this.
I think Obama represents the closest we have had to a real caring person. Hilary's attitude strikes me as one of a person who WILL NOT BE DENIED her shot at the Presidency. Her real world experience is about equal to Barack's, but her attitude, to me, is far more elitist and smug than Obama.
The country is in the toilet. Republicans AND Democrats are to blame. It's time they got the message.
Charlie K put it better than I ever could! My wife and I are two of the lower middle class getting repeatedly sodomized by a government who ostensibly exists to defend the Constitution and the rights it outlines. I don't believe any of the candidates and they can ALL go to hell!
Wonderful piece.... Love the pic!
Thank you all for the comments and feedback.
Small town America has a right to be bitter because that is where many of the lower middle class and poor live and those are the individuals that every single politician in office today consistently votes to screw over. If they "cling" to religion it is because that is what sustains them in a country that could care less whether they live or die. If they own guns, it is because no one else will defend their rights; only the rights of those individuals that the powers that be in government deems "worthy" of the trouble. I don't blame them for feeling forgotten because they are. Show me one politician that isn't the least bit elitist and I'll show you another long extinct creature like a T-Rex. Such politicians simply do not exist. I will now get off of my soapbox and shut up. VOTE MR. GRANT FOR PRESIDENT! He probably IS the best person for the job.
I lived in rural and small town PA and people have lost jobs. They are angry at the government for other reasons. I will not repeat the things they say about immigrants~even if their parents or grandparents were immigrants. When the question was posed to Obama he would have done well to shrug his shoulders and say "I guess it might be because what Governor Rendell said: some white people in PA will not vote for me." Plain unvarnished truth. Clintons did not like being lumped with Bush's for job loss, recessions, long waits in gas station lines, ever rising taxes and it is just one more fabricated non-issue being used to discredit Obama. People need to look up the word "elite" and think about Bush/Clinton dynasty. That fits the definition. If citizens were more astute, they would know whatever the Clintons accuse Obama of is their own "crimes" or "sins". They have been doing it for a year now.
"Here's how it is: in a lot of these communities in big industrial states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, people have been beaten down so long. They feel so betrayed by government that when they hear a pitch that is premised on not being cynical about government, then a part of them just doesn't buy it." "But the truth is, is that, our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there's not evidence of that in their daily lives. You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter..."
Mr. Grant is taking it all in with true cat style!
Mr. Grant is taking it all in with true cat style!