2008 Primaries Thread 3: The Rejecting and Denouncening

Thomas Frank in the WSJ

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120873309012529689.html

..."Elitism" is thus a crime not of society's actual elite, but of its intellectuals. Mr. Obama has "a dash of Harvard disease," proclaims the Weekly Standard. Mr. Obama reminds columnist George Will of Adlai Stevenson, rolled together with the sinister historian Richard Hofstadter and the diabolical economist J.K. Galbraith, contemptuous eggheads all. Mr. Obama strikes Bill Kristol as some kind of "supercilious" Marxist. Mr. Obama reminds Maureen Dowd of an . . . anthropologist.

Ah, but Hillary Clinton: Here's a woman who drinks shots of Crown Royal, a luxury brand that at least one confused pundit believes to be another name for Old Prole Rotgut Rye. And when the former first lady talks about her marksmanship as a youth, who cares about the cool hundred million she and her husband have mysteriously piled up since he left office? Or her years of loyal service to Sam Walton, that crusher of small towns and enemy of workers' organizations? And who really cares about Sam Walton's own sins, when these are our standards? Didn't he have a funky Southern accent of some kind? Surely such a mellifluous drawl cancels any possibility of elitism.

It is by this familiar maneuver that the people who have designed and supported the policies that have brought the class divide back to America – the people who have actually, really transformed our society from an egalitarian into an elitist one – perfume themselves with the essence of honest toil, like a cologne distilled from the sweat of laid-off workers. Likewise do their retainers in the wider world – the conservative politicians and the pundits who lovingly curate all this phony authenticity – become jes' folks, the most populist fellows of them all...

Thomas Frank OTM

Seriously, though, it makes me laugh when these people trot out "Democrats are Ivy-League Elitists!" line, as if there were something wrong with being well-educated, or as if Bill Kristol (son of famous conservative thinker, educated at Harvard) and George Will (wears an effing bow tie, educated at Oxford and Princeton) were anything but eggheads. Nobody can project like conservative pundits.

Jon Stewart to Barack Obama:

"Will you pull a bait and switch and enslave the white race?"

Thomas Frank NOT otm. He draws a distinction between "society's actual elite" and "intellectuals" but then forgets to tell us what that distinction actually is. (Hint to T.F.: intellectuals get to shape public opinion, through their university positions, appearances on panels, and yes, their material rewards aren't too bad either. Live with it.)

And er - I think the last time Crown Royal was a "luxury brand" was like during Prohibition??

i think it's fair enough to distinguish intellectuals from society's actual elite: not as a binary opposition, of course, but to say there isn't a distinction is off-base. we were discussing this elsewhere but the distinction is really part of the definition of intellectual; naturally tenured academics like to make too much of this (myth of 'internal exile') but still, it's not like they're all samantha power, and they don't have too much sway in corporate america.

"the (never-stated) distinction is really part of the definition of intellectual"

is OTM, and a crucial part of the natural alibi of the intellectual. "I'm not elite, I swear.. it's all those.. CEOs and stuff!" Please.

If you're going to throw, say, Chomsky in with all the CEOs etc as part of the elite (along with all the lesser intellectuals toiling away on agrarian reform in renaissance Tuscany or whatever), then that just goes to show what a meaningless hold-all the term 'elite' really is.

the distinction is very much stated, tracer! i think most intellectuals (meaning, here, academics: obviously it hasn't always meant that) would admit to being socially of the elite -- though in a country as diverse as america that's already a problem. they would have more trouble saying they were 'part of' the elite that runs things, either the CEOs or their political running-dogs.

or to flip it around: are CEOs part of the 'intelligentsia'? clue: no.

or rather 'could they be?' especially in science, there are clear links between the universities and the power elite; but at the same time not all academics count as intellectuals in the classic (french) sense (ie what we now call 'public intellectuals'), and i'm just saying, it has been a constitutive part of the definition of the term that they are in some sense social critics, rather than the people running things in society.

continuing on the wrestling theme

omg awesome

hillary's such a quintessential heel

I vote tonight, will report back tomorrow on the mood/scene at the township building.

you guys should've been watching the WWE last night for campaign roffles

seriously, go here:

http://www.wwe.com/

oh nevermind - ed beat me to it

omg the president on deal or no deal

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/21/president-bush-on-deal-or_n_97874.html

unreal

IM HILLARY CLINTON BUT TONIGHT IN HONOR OF THE WWE YOU CAN CALL ME "HILL-ROD"

WTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTF

what.

the fuck.

Would be nice if someone asked the candidates why they felt so comfortable appearing on a TV show that, less than a year ago, held a two hour tribute to the life and career of a man that'd just murdered his wife and son, complete with funny anecdotes about how said wrestler used to beat up trainees for laughs.

partly i'm just shocked that the american version of deal of no deal looks like italian television and is hosted by howie mandel

Obama or at the very least an aide has clearly at least watched the WWE; 'Can you smell what Barack is cooking'. Hillaray not at all and clearly no one in her campaign. (although I'm surprised bill isn't a fan).

Would be nice if someone asked the candidates why they felt so comfortable appearing on a TV show that, less than a year ago, held a two hour tribute to the life and career of a man that'd just murdered his wife and son, complete with funny anecdotes about how said wrestler used to beat up trainees for laughs.

hahaha good luck asking a question like this and not getting called "elitist" for dissing WWE

lol maccain tryina act tough and coming off like a crotchety old man

fucker could still catch you off guard with a steal chair though

steel, even

i bet he couldnt

Maybe if you were already on the canvas and he didn't have to raise it above his head.

haha o poor disfigured old man

not so much of the poor

dont make me get my folding chair

Would be nice if someone asked the candidates why they felt so comfortable appearing on a TV show that, less than a year ago, held a two hour tribute to the life and career of a man that'd just murdered his wife and son

simple answer: they didn't look so comfortable. lol @ real-life onionism of 'can you smell what barack is cooking?' tho.

http://i31.tinypic.com/30mye1c.jpg

o jeez

What McCain's choice of typeface says about him

omg designers putting fonts on the psychiatrists couch plzzzz no

any Screaming Lobster of Hope sightings today?

YOU CAN CALL ME "HILL-ROD"

I saw clip on BBC America this morning, not sure I was in fact not dreaming

(btw I don't get wrestling references any more than "dusting off shoulders")

The dustoff crosses over more than the wrestling does. I think McCain thinks being Prez is one long photo op with sprinkles.

Like a good pair of shoes and a well-cut suit, type makes the man (or woman). Consider typography to be the window into the soul of the candidate’s campaign. The depth, the breadth, the good, the bad and the ugly is all there for us to witness and assess in one clear and telegraphic manner.

Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan.

I'm a font nerd from Hell BUT HEY, have I pointed out that Obama's typeface designed by a certain NYT/NYer music critic's brother?

obama font designed by some dude who worked for gq

according to gq

I don't think you did, Suzy, but I noticed a distinctive surname in that previous article.

looooool McCain such a dweeb.

I may have to start going by Hill-rod

http://www.typography.com/images/blogImages/typography-com_mccain+hillary.jpg

lol

hahahaha

indeed