MotherJones Blog: The Right's Quest to Marginalize Obama Supporters

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The Right's Quest to Marginalize Obama Supporters

This essay from conservative Michael Barone about how Obama supporters are "academics and public employees" while Clinton/McCain supporters are Jacksonians (aka red-blooded Americans) is popping up around the web. Aside from being an overly simplistic reading of America's culture wars, parts of it are downright loony ("Warriors are competitors for the honor that academics and public employees think rightfully belongs to them," writes Barone. "Jacksonians, in contrast, place a high value on the virtues of the warrior").

Jonathan Chait, who efficiently shreds Barone's argument, calls this what it is, "a conservative anti-intellectual slur." I think a better way to understand what Barone is getting at is something I linked to in my "dating map" blog post yesterday — Obama takes his support from young voters, African-Americans, and what Richard Florida calls "the creative class." The creative class is composed of "inventors, entrepreneurs, engineers, artists, musicians, designers and professionals in idea-driven industries." By Florida's calculations, the creative class makes up about 35 percent of the working population, while the "working class" as traditionally understood makes up just 23 percent. To prove his theory, Florida did some fancy polling with John Zogby that you can check out here. It's pretty persuasive, though we don't know their methodology.

Comments

Thanks for posting this. What a precious piece of crap!
“That's the divide between academics and Jacksonians.” What, smart people vote for Obama and hill-billies voted for Clinton? Probably the only bit of truth to the article.
“Academics and public employees (and of course many, perhaps most, academics in the United States are public employees) love the arts of peace and hate the demands of war”. What a moron. Who invented the atomic bomb? Not red-necks.
“Jacksonians, in contrast, place a high value on the virtues of the warrior and little value on the work of academics and public employees.” Probably because these people are too dumb to recognize what benefits they receive from civil servants and the world of academia. It is easier to bitch about elitist and paying taxes than to understand the complexity of academic research or the nature of how their local and state government works.

It is so easy for the Right to bash public employees like they are lazy and just stealing your money. OK. Tell that to your letter carrier. Tell that to your city administrator. Tell that to the head of your water department. Tell that to the school teachers.

As an aside, “The Jacksonian attitude is, "If you attack my family or my country, I'll kill you."” Gee – does anyone think that may be the attitude of the people of Iraq?

Posted by: kirkbrew on 04/03/08 at 12:49 PM Respond

Clinton/McClain are for the "little people" and Obama is for the elite. Very good Jonny.

Posted by: Shelly on 04/03/08 at 12:55 PM Respond

And just why would they be doing that?

A) They want Hillary to win so McCain can beat her in November 08.

B) They want Hillary to win so she can beat McCain in 08 and they get someone else in 2012.

C.) If Obama wins the nomination they can start trying to paint him withthe same brush as Kerry.

Posted by: cboss on 04/03/08 at 2:17 PM Respond

Rupert Murdoch of Fox news is hosting a fundraiser for Obama. That says it all. Vote for Ralph Nader. Send a message to the belly of the beast.

Posted by: Petersen on 04/03/08 at 4:26 PM Respond

The creative class? What kind of mess is that? Now there is a seperate "class" of people supporting Obama now? Ugh.

Posted by: A.Bizzie on 04/04/08 at 6:40 AM Respond

Petersen - Murdoch was a strong supporter of Tony Blair.

Murdoch supports who he thinks will win. As for his companies, it has nothing about Right/Left, but everything to do with lowest common denominator and sensationalism. No matter if it is The Sun or Fox. Just bad reporting for stupid people.

Posted by: kirkbrew on 04/04/08 at 9:57 AM Respond

kirkbrew, you are right, Fox and Murdock are for stupid people and he endorses Obama. Money controls in politics. As an example,if an anti-Semite would raise money for Senator Clinton, she would run fast away from that person. Obama is like Ron Paul who accepted $500 from a bigot and the MoJo posters made such a big to do about that. Murdock is a billionaire, a lot more than $500.

Posted by: Rachael on 04/04/08 at 11:28 AM Respond

Doesn't anyone know that Murdoch was a prime Clinton supporter early on in this game?

Posted by: dadblasted on 04/04/08 at 12:29 PM Respond

Why are you guys loaping on Jonathan? Hes' just reporting on other people's quackiness.

Posted by: Chubbles on 04/04/08 at 1:47 PM Respond

Why is Obama being a prostitute and accepting Fox's money? Vote for Ralph Nader.

Posted by: Teddy on 04/04/08 at 2:57 PM Respond