RSS Feed MenuDavid Frum is right in Time. The deep recession is keeping the GOP competitive. Add to that Obama’s mien, Pelosi’s arrogance, Reid’s cluelessness, and the GOP looms large.
Still that doesn’t change the fact that the GOP has a problem with college graduates and the 200k+ crowd. Although not identical, the GOP lost both the last time out. The party of Prescott Bush is now the party of Palin. And political reality suggests that either the GOP reach out to Hispanics or pickup more white voters.
In Massachusetts, Scott Brown picked up Reagan Democrats and independents, but was frozen out in Brookline and Newton. So yes the working class is in play. But among high-end voters the GOP has a way to go. A boggy stock market and Obama’s tax hikes scheduled for 2011 though may give high-end voters buyers’ remorse.
Right after the 2008 elections, I joined the NRA and the Ripon Society. The GOP needs both streams. This cycle I’ve contributed to Rob Simmons, Robert Bennett, Mark Kirk, Tom Coburn, Mike Castle, and Pat Toomey. The GOP needs them all.
PracticalGirl // Feb 8, 2010 at 11:40 pm
Brandon:
Do either of you find it odd that “elite”, as you both have described, seems to be only applied to those on the left? If, as Brandon suggests, an elite is anyone who thinks their viewpoint is superiors to others because of the status they have attained, then aren’t these “elites” on boths sides of the street?
brandon // Feb 8, 2010 at 11:46 pm
Mandos: I think conservatives should go after voters wherever they might be found. It might not ever be “cool” to be a conservative, so we might not after win the “hipster” voter. But we should definitely make sure our viewpoint is represented at universities and in intellectual circles.
PracticalGirl: Yes there can be conservative elitists. Some members of certain religious factions might fit that definition, but I thought this particular article and thread were only about the “liberal elites.”
PracticalGirl // Feb 8, 2010 at 11:52 pm
randon:
From the beginning of the post:
“Still that doesn’t change the fact that the GOP has a problem with college graduates and the 200k+ crowd.”
Nowhere does Green mention “liberal elites”. It’s an assumption that was made along the way, and I find that extremely telling for all. Unless the only folks in the country who graduated from college and make over 200K+ are liberals.
Mandos // Feb 8, 2010 at 11:55 pm
P.G.: Oh, I totally agree with the point you are trying to make. The “elite” thing is ultimately a vacuous marketing term. Hence my hedges with “perceived”, etc.
To me, it’s not even clear that the putative lumpenproletariat are all that conservative, on the whole. If you take things issue by issue, left and left-of-center opinions poll surprisingly well. America’s predicament is ultimately in the dysfunctional political class. ie, the elite “elite.”
balconesfault // Feb 9, 2010 at 1:14 am
I would define “elites” as anyone who thinks that their viewpoint is superior to others because of some status they think they have achieved. That status could be because of their education, income level, family background, taste in the arts or in areas like food, or even the fact that they live in some hipster enclave in New York or San Francisco.
Well, first off – anyone who thinks that taste in the arts or food is a reflection of someone’s political acumen is an idiot. But then I don’t particularly care for any backwoods anti-elite fetishism either, like a Chairman Mao creating a cult of plain clothes and wooden beds. I enjoy a good beer as much as anyone – had a couple before I went to the Kansas UT game tonight, and am enjoying one right now – but anyone who picks political candidates on who they’d rather drink a beer with or go watch a basketball game with deserves whatever craptacular comeuppance they get.
But aside from that … I would define “elites” as anyone who thinks that their viewpoint is superior to others because of some status they think they have achieved. That status could be because of their education, income level, family background…
Doesn’t the above define the “qualification” level of about 80% of the neocon movement spokesmen?
What the hell has William Kristol ever done, than beside being Irving Kristol’s son and going to Harvard? The Bush clan is a bunch of rich kid 3rd generation political scions with legacy Ivy League admissions. Robert Kagan, son of Donald Kagan and Yale grad. Norman Podhoretz, Columbia University. Paul Wolfowitz, Cornell undergrad, University of Chicago Political Science PhD. Charles Krauthammer, Balliol College, Oxford, and then Harvard Medical. Daniel Pipes, son of Harvard Professor Richard Pipes, Harvard BA, Harvard PhD.
These are the guys who pretty much crafted American foreign policy in the last Administration. Without much of any credentials except for being elites who ascended to a level where mutual backslapping gave each other greater and greater status (and for many, seeming regular sinecures on Sunday Morning talk shows and Fox News).
But when it’s a black guy from a middle class family who makes it to Columbia and Harvard Law without any family legacy to grease the skids … suddenly we’re talking elitism. Or uppity. I get confused sometimes.
brandon // Feb 9, 2010 at 1:38 am
“anyone who thinks that taste in the arts or food is a reflection of someone’s political acumen is an idiot.”
You might be surprised at how often one can come close to guessing someone’s politics by their taste in movies, music, tv etc.
Obviously nothing is 100%, but in many if not most cases if I know your 3 favorite radio stations I can guess your politics.
balconesfault // Feb 9, 2010 at 1:46 am
Ahh – but I said political acumen. Not politics.
jakester // Feb 9, 2010 at 2:54 am
Brandon,
no one is going to deny that Obama’s speeches, like most politicians’, are full of platitudes and cliches, and that many people were swept away by his act. I guess that is called democracy. But just by watching and listening to Obama vs. Palin/Joe Duh Plummer, I can tell he is a hell of a lot smarter than those two. BTW, Palin’s speeches, like most politicians’, are full of platitudes and cliches and really cheesy common faux homespun images(pitbull with lipstick, my least favorite dog), and that many people were swept away by her act too. But that is part of American democracy too, the country person vs the city slicker routine is a shopworn act. Wouldn’t it be nice if the conservatives could come up with someone intelligent and sophisticated to advance their cause too?
jakester // Feb 9, 2010 at 3:02 am
“I would define “elites” as anyone who thinks that their viewpoint is superior to others because of some status they think they have achieved. That status could be because of their education, income level, family background, taste in the arts or in areas like food, or even the fact that they live in some hipster enclave in New York or San Francisco.”
Sounds like a lot of modern cons; who wear their ignorance, backwardness, bigotry, fundamentalist beliefs and nerdiness as badges of honor, like reverse snobbery, “i have so little class or intelligence which means I am superior to you degenrate sophisticates”. Your “definition” is the kind of crap like that that tells me you lack any sense of irony. ALL you are doing is parroting back the trash that Laura Ingraham or Rush Limbaugh feeds the proles. You’re hilarious, an elitist of the common
brandon // Feb 9, 2010 at 11:31 am
Jake,
Why are you so hung up on Palin, Joe The Plumber, and various talk radio personalities?
The country faces serious problems right now and the current administration is not doing anything substantial to face these issues.
My point is that us “elitist of the common” at least had enough sense not to put the leadership of the free world in the hands of Obama. You and others were either too stupid or too naive to understand what you were voting for back in November.
jakester // Feb 9, 2010 at 12:13 pm
Hey Brandon, guess what, I didn’t vote for Obama. As well as I disagree with just about everything you said. But it seemed that everyone who noticed that Palin was just plain simple minded and subpar was labeled as un-American and/or elitist, including this blog’s namesake. I brought in Palin, Joe The Plumber, and various talk radio personalities because like you they not only turn Obama into some sort of monster/incompetent he is not, but babbel about an amorphous ill defined groups of so called elitists. From where I sit, Coulter, Palin, Rush, Laura, Bachmann look pretty elite to me too while I struggle to keep my two old cars on the road or just pay the rent.
brandon // Feb 9, 2010 at 12:58 pm
Forgive me for jumping to the conclusion that you voted for Obama. Your rants are so typical of the Obama worshippers that it certainly appeared to me that you must have been a supporter.
I have never said I think Obama is a “monster.” I do think he is incompetent and also somewhat of a narcissist. The past year has proven that those of us who thought that in 2008 were correct.
My only point about the “so called elites” was that they often don’t use good judgement, have common sense, or understand human nature as well as the common folks.
Perhaps if you had a better temperament and weren’t so quick to insult and judge other people, you wouldn’t be struggling with old cars and rent.
sinz54 // Feb 9, 2010 at 1:04 pm
brandon: I would define “elites” as anyone who thinks that their viewpoint is superior to others because of some status they think they have achieved.
I agree.
But the engineers and scientists in Silicon Valley or the MA Route 128 ring don’t go around beating their chests about their innate moral superiority over others. They’re too busy building iPhones and iPads and BlueTooth and WiFi and developing cures for various chronic illnesses like cancer.
I specifically omitted talking about social scientists and political scientists–the ones who go to Harvard to get Poli Sci degrees with the expectation of doing social engineering backed up by liberal politicians. Those young people aren’t ever going to be conservatives. They intend to make their living off of Big Government.
The engineers and scientists I was speaking of, didn’t support Obama because of some shared sense of moral superiority. They supported Obama because Obama promised his Administration would be science-based, and would push advanced technology in information processing and alternative energy sources–projects that they are already working on.
Bush turned off the entire MA biotech community with his ban on the development of new embryonic stem-cell lines. Obama promised the biotech community that he would reverse the ban–and that’s one of the few promises he’s kept so far.
Chris Mooney wrote a book, “The Republican War on Science,” in which he illustrated how, for a variety of reasons, Republicans (particularly conservative Republicans) have engaged in attempts to discredit basic science. Ann Coulter’s attacks on Darwin’s Theory of Evolution are viewed by scientists and engineers as some horrible throwback to the Dark Ages.
balconesfault // Feb 9, 2010 at 1:13 pm
They supported Obama because Obama promised his Administration would be science-based, and would push advanced technology in information processing and alternative energy sources–projects that they are already working on.
Which, by the way, he has done.
sinz54 // Feb 9, 2010 at 1:19 pm
jakester: Buckley was definitely elite and didn’t go around dressed in camo in a pickup to be something he wasn’t! He kept his tone and arguments intelligent, educated and reality based
In MA where I live, we were fortunate to have a true intellectual right-winger as a talk-show host (!!!): David Brudnoy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Brudnoy
He was a college professor, he was erudite, he could discuss great works of literature or the fine arts as well as politics. He was also a movie critic for his radio station. He disdained sports and hated hockey (sorry, Boston Bruins).
Despite his right-wing views and his intellectual airs, he was beloved by MA. He passed away in 2004, and we in MA will always miss him.
We conservatives need more like him.
Brudnoy was an existence proof that “conservative” and “intellectual” can be compatible–and that when they’re compatible, they can attract a real following even in a liberal state like MA, even with the liberal students at MA colleges.
anniemargret // Feb 9, 2010 at 2:05 pm
Everyone: Can we all just put the ‘elitism’ canard back on that old dusty shelf? Can we all just agree that we know elitism when we see it?
There are all kinds of elitism, some based on economic wealth, some on snootiness in culture and education. There is no one size fits all pattern for elitism. And one does not have to have a Yale or Harvard degree to witness elitism, given that Ms Wasilla once again cheered her ‘real folks’ at the rally just a few days ago. Real folks. You know exactly who she is alluding to….and against!
Enough. This country need men and women of good will and character, liberal and conservative for checks and balances in good governance. We can disagree on policy but the stupid culture wars have got to go. We need people of high intellect (and that means education whereever and whenever you can get it), but also an ability to be open to hearing all povs and stuck to a status quo. The world is changing rapidly and we’d better be prepared for it.
While I admire and respect Obama, if a Republican ends up winning the WH in 2012, then by golly, I want to be able to at least respect him or her, not be embarrassed by someone still parading around spanking people for their cultural backgrounds and education (or lack of it). The Palinistas with their penchant for Christian superiority, their absurd railing against big cities and ‘universities’ gotta go.
I went to CUNY, the bastion of liberalism in the 70s. (yes, I’m that old). I came from a blue-collar woring Republican socially conservative (but never bigoted) and fiscal family, and 12 years prior of strict Catholic schools. I loved every minute of it. I learned not to be afraid of thought, even if someone is antithetitical to what you are used to thinking. In the end, you make up your own mind about things. I’m grateful for that experience….so many different kinds of people, different religions, different ethnic backgrounds. I’m the better for it. So quite bashing liberalism!
OK…feel better now.
anniemargret // Feb 9, 2010 at 2:08 pm
Lord, my grammar/spelling was atrocious! Editing function…please.
balconesfault // Feb 9, 2010 at 4:46 pm
The Palinistas with their penchant for Christian superiority
Another form of elitism, mind you.
Churl // Feb 9, 2010 at 5:03 pm
So, graduates in which college majors are conservatives going to win back, and how: Teaching? English? Sociology? Political Science? Womens’ Studies? Communications? Journalism? Psychology?
And for the $200k/yr plus folks, which ones? The financial wizards who keep generating banking crises (Latin American Debt, Savings and Loan Crash, Dotcom bubble, Russian debt, the latest lunacy) and keep getting bailed out by the government? Trial lawyers? University presidents? Heads of tax-free foundations? Executives of R&D companies who live off government grants? Defense industry honchos? Union presidents? City administrators?