Monday, August 30, 2010

Douthat on Beck

Ross Douthat's take on Beck-a-palooza is about as insightful as I've seen, and it captures a lot of what I've felt but haven't been able to artfully express.  Here's a key graph from his editorial:

"In a sense, Beck’s “Restoring Honor” was like an Obama rally through the looking glass. It was a long festival of affirmation for middle-class white Christians — square, earnest, patriotic and religious. If a speaker had suddenly burst out with an Obama-esque “we are the ones we’ve been waiting for,” the message would have fit right in." 

That's it, really, for me.  This rally and the Tea Party, represents a bunch of State-U or No-U, hard workin', church goin', tax payin', flag wavin'  folks (I was channeling Sarah Palin there) who are a little bit tired of what they are seeing.  And they will not be ignored.

Barack Obama's genius as a political figure is that he tapped into the hip, urban, cosmo, hepcat meme--and he got a pliant, cheering press to go along with him (because he was so much like them!).  That was enough to win an election when the Dems could have run a goat against the Republicans and won--but now that the country has re-awakened, Obama and his Greek chorus at the NYT/WaPost, ABCNBCCBS, are beginning to realize how very, very different they are from a large chunk of America.

1 comment:

"The Hammer" said...

I'm sure some people are uncomfortable with the mac 'n cheese crowd, but there it is.
You want to commit political suicide in America? Just pis off middle class white folks. Obama has done it and doesn't seem to care. He is so full of himself it's really interesting to watch.
He reminds me of Ira Einhorn (hard core leftist, well connected) who was so arrogant he wouldn't listen to his lawyer (Arlen Specter) and ended up in the big house.
Pride goeth before a fall, and I believe that. But I have to say, someone that narcisistic can become disconnected and out of touch, sort of like a Michael Jackson or an Elvis. They can get very weird and for somebody in Obama's position very dangerous.

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