I encourage everyone to take a drive through the country and stop in each downtown and count how many vacant store fronts there are. If you were not aware, you may be surprised. I have done this in Illinois, Ohio, Michigan and Kansas and the result is the same and sad. Small town America is struggling and in many cases the once idelic small town scene (what most Americans see in their heads) has been replaced by boarded up store front windows, roads and sidewalks in disrepair and often a more sinister drug problem. The population sign at the town entrance is often a mis-statement as young people can not find work.
Hillary has been warned that her so called outrage about Obama's statements would come back to bite her and here it is:
From the Huffington Post:
Oh, noes! Would it crush anyone's beautiful velveteen pony to learn that Hillary Clinton hasn't always been a duck-hunting, beer-drankin', Senator-Saint who walked among the commoners and lived as they do? It's true, it's true, and apparently, there are witnesses!
Harvard University political scientist Theda Skocpol - also an elite, I guess! - provided Talking Points Memo with a following statement, which, in part, reads:
I have been in meetings with the Clintons and their advisors where very clinical things were said in a very-detached tone about unwillingness of working class voters to trust government -- and Bill Clinton -- and about their unfortunate (from a Clinton perspective) proclivity to vote on life-style rather than economic issues. To see Hillary going absolutely over the top to smash Obama for making clearly more humanly sympathetic observations in this vein, is just amazing. Even more so to see her pretending to be a gun-toting non-elite. Give us a break!...This has to be one of the few times in U.S. political history when a multi-millionaire has accused a much less wealthy fellow public servant, a person of the same party and views who made much less lucrative career choices, of "elitism"! (I won't say the only time, because U.S. political history is full of absurdities of this sort.) In a way, it is funny -- and it may not be long before the jokes start.
Perhaps, however, it can be said that Pennsylvanians are not "bitter," at least, relative to their candidates.
______________I am not sure that a women who has lived in a bubble most of her adult life and has made $109,000,000 in the past 7 years should be throwing stones. She is not "blue collar" by any stretch of the imagination!
1 comment:
I am an unemployed married mother of 3 in suburbian Pittsburgh, PA that is angry about my city and state's current economical situation. I am a stay at home mom for 2 reasons: because I love my children and we cannot afford child care for 3 children. My husband is a blue collar worker that works some 50-60 hrs/week to try to keep things above water for our family. We are angry at the 1st Clinton Admin for their undeniable role in NAFTA which is a key factor in why our jobs are not returning to our once industrially robust region. There is an economic crisis in PA that has been here for years and Washington has left us to deal with it on our own. And, yes America - SURPRISE - when unresolved anger and offense is coupled with unfair financial strife it results in -- bitterness!!! If this has to be explained to you, apparently Sen. Obama's description doesn't refer to you.
Taken directly from dictionary.com.
CLING
4. to remain attached, as to an idea, hope, memory, etc.
Now go back and reread this definition and replace the word REMAIN with BECOME. This is what the media has done. They want us to believe that Obama said we CREATED our values as a result of joblessness/bitterness. He did not say create a need for, or begin to believe in. Only a desparate, out-of-touch elitist could find a way to twist this into a contraversy. He never said that we people in PA established our faith, hunting sportsmanship, points of view, etc - 25 years ago. He said we lost our jobs and industry 25 years ago. We have had our beliefs and lifestyles for ages. Anyone knows that. He said: "People CLING to ..." Everyone seems to be mixing up words and adding inference that is not present in his statement to the San Fran crowd. He said CLING to. To cling to something, you've already got to have a hold on it in the first place. He then said that since we have been ignored and forgotten about through the Clinton and Bush Admins. we have decided to "cling" to our core beliefs and recreations the way we were unable to cling to our jobs. When you unfairly take away our jobs and thereby ruin our ability to have the things that money can buy, we then "cling" eversomuch more tightly to the things that money cannot buy, WE CLING TO OUR VALUES BECAUSE THATS THE ONE THING YOU CANT TAKE FROM US!
The height of condescension is to arrogantly assume you understand people you know nothing about, apply a broad stroke stereotype to them, and then presume to be offended on their behalf. This is exactly what Billary Clampet and John McBush have done. They are so disconnected and ot of touch with us and don't realize how their competitive greed and blind desparation exposes this fact.
There are millions of us in PA and Small Town, USA that were accurately represented by this statement, and we deserve to be heard and represented by the media also. We are grateful that Sen. Obama has had the Audacity to be Honest and give voice to us... Small Town America's forgotten families.
One more point, no one is paying ANY attention to the fact that the journalist Ms. Fowler said that the people who were present at this closed fund raiser were MIDDLE CLASS/UPPER MIDDLE CLASS people. They were not upper crust. They were not the elite and wealthy. Out of her own mouth on FOX NEWS she said these were middle class people. No one is repeating this fact. Instead it is being cast that it was said to a private clique of wealty, snobbish, west coast millionaires. Why is that?
Post a Comment