MotherJones Blog: Why the "Bitter" Controversy Is So Stupid

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Why the "Bitter" Controversy Is So Stupid

Let’s be clear: if Barack Obama really believes the things he said in California last week, he’s wrong. People “cling” to gun rights, religion, and anti-trade sentiment because those are things they believe in, not because they’re bitter or angry. I suspect Obama knows as much, although his tortured and politically foolish phrasing and word choice might suggest otherwise. But there is more at stake here than what the mainstream media likes to refer to as a “gaffe.” Because like every other manufactured controversy that’s based on something someone said rather than something someone did (like, say, torture people), there’s a double standard at work here.

The truth is that the right wing pronounces and the media repeats, with regularity, stupid, stereotypical slurs about large parts of American society, and no one blinks an eye. Trial lawyers, academics in their ivory towers, job-stealing illegal immigrants (with leprosy!), effete wine-drinking liberals, suburban soccer moms, granola-crunching environmentalists, and just about anyone within spitting range of "San Francisco values," are totally in-bounds for any sort of mockery the Limbaughs and Hannitys of the world can cook up. But god forbid someone slur "Middle America."

Stereotyping bicoastal city-dwellers is totally fine. That's acceptable discourse. You can be "out of touch" with the 80 percent of the American population that lives in metro areas and their surrounding suburbs (PDF). In fact, it actually qualifies you to run for office. You’re down-to-earth, "real," and an "everyday guy" (or gal). Some casual stereotyping of and contempt for city dwellers and suburbanites is always welcomed. Their values and lifestyle choices and beliefs can and should be attacked. But while it's perfectly okay to hold and repeat outrageously offensive views about city folk and the values they hold dear, a city-born-and-bred man apparently can't reveal that he may hold some silly or stereotypical opinions about why small-town Americans believe what they believe. At least not if he wants to be president.

The truth is that our backgrounds and upbringings create biases. White people make assumptions about black people. Jews make assumptions about Christians. And small-town folks make assumptions about city folks and visa versa. And anyone who tells you they're free of bias is lying. The challenge is to overcome those biases that are hammered into us by the circumstances of our upbringing, and to not let those biases change how we treat others. Barack Obama has previously demonstrated the ability to empathize with people who aren't like him by noting in his speech on race the frustration that many middle-class white people have with affirmative action. He'll have to try to recapture that sense of empathy in the future. But honest people will admit that it's a constant struggle to fight the assumptions we make about people who are different from us — at least Obama has opened a discussion on the topic over the course of the campaign, which is more than any other politician has done recently.

John McCain has pounced on Obama's comments, trying to draw a contrast between himself as a "man of the people" and Obama as some "out-of-touch elite" character. This is a silly but mysteriously effective strategy. Republican presidential candidates always run this kind of campaign. They focus on some ridiculous narrative about class and down-to-earthness, despite the fact that every Democratic and Republican nominee for president is, by definition, a member of the elite, and almost all are fantastically wealthy. Obama certainly played right into McCain's hands with his comments about small-town America. But he has shown his skill as a politician by using his mistake to segue into a discussion about why people are frustrated with the government and the status quo in Washington. And here's the dirty little secret that no one talks about: Americans overwhelmingly agree with Barack Obama on the issues. They don't want the federal government to do nothing about the housing crisis, they do want more transparency in Washington, and they don't want to keep fighting the war in Iraq. They even want universal health care.

This so-called story ("Presidential candidate may in fact hold biases like everyone else") is a story only because it supports the classic narrative of American elections, where the Democrat is the contemptuous elitist and the Republican is the down-to-earth man of the people. That story works because the media is driven by narrative, and manufactured outrage and the politics of grievance make great television. Cable news and the mainstream media is a world where what matters most is what people say, not what they do. It's a profoundly crooked world, where being offended at something someone said (whether it was a Lefty with a intolerant rant about Middle America or a Righty with some "Bible-based" homophobic diatribe) is somehow more legitimate and more interesting than being outraged by something someone did (like, say, torturing people). Yes, words matter, and they can hurt. But I'm going to go ahead and bet that there isn't one word in any language that hurts as much as torture.

In any just world, the lead story of the past four days would be the confirmation of what many already suspected: that George Bush and the principal figures in his administration knew about and authorized the torture of terrorist "detainees". I have a poster on my wall from World War II. It reads, "Torture is the method of the enemy. We fight for a free world." What's John McCain's recent record on torture? Well, today he took the bold stand that we should never torture "any American." And then there's this: "In February, McCain voted against a bill banning the CIA from using torture, specifically including waterboarding. When the bill passed, McCain encouraged Bush to veto it — effectively supporting the CIA's use of "stress positions, hypothermia, threats to the detainee and his family, severe sleep deprivation, and severe sensory deprivation." It would be great if we paid more attention to the fact that many members of a major political party in the United States now believe it's okay to torture people in the name of freedom. But instead the airwaves are plastered from sea to shining see with Barack Obama’s stupid comments about Middle America. That's enough to make anyone bitter.

Comments

This is a Publisher's Weekly review on Amazon.com regarding "Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business." What is ironic is Neil Postman published this in 1985, BEFORE the Internet and its instantaneous effects. Our public discourse has become pop talk show, and our corporate media "yellow journalism."

***********

From Publishers Weekly
From the author of Teaching as a Subversive Activity comes a sustained, withering and thought-provoking attack on television and what it is doing to us. Postman's theme is the decline of the printed word and the ascendancy of the "tube" with its tendency to present everything - murder, mayhem, politics, weather as entertainment. The ultimate effect, as Postman sees it, is the shrivelling of public discourse as TV degrades our conception of what constitutes news, political debate, art, even religious thought. Early chapters trace America's one-time love affair with the printed word, from colonial pamphlets to the publication of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. There's a biting analysis of TV commercials as a form of "instant therapy" based on the assumption that human problems are easily solvable. Postman goes further than other critics in demonstrating that television represents a hostile attack on literate culture. October 30 Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Posted by: Reggie Goodwin on 04/14/08 at 1:18 PM Respond

The silver lining about this latest made up scandal is that Obama showed he gets it about people clinging to what they can control and what seems more secure, and believing Washington won't do anything to help them. I lived in small town part of my life, and my wife grew up in them. We both think Obama is spot on.

Posted by: Eric Ferguson on 04/14/08 at 2:00 PM Respond

I couldn't agree more. And that comment re: Postman - exactly right. You can't get (middle) Americans to care about the torture issue, but God help you if you try to take away their God-given right to "American Idol".

Posted by: Matt on 04/14/08 at 2:07 PM Respond

Today! Now! YOU! Must decide the future of America? There will be absolute no chance to stop an Amnesty of immense proportions, once the new President takes office. None of the new presidential candidates can be trusted, thats why we must this new Federal law. NOW! The globalist open-border, free market ideal agenda is the free movement of cheap foreign labor, throughout the North American Continent.

Neither political parties can be trusted when it comes to the illegal immigration occupation of our country. More states are trying to enact strict laws for enforcement against predator employers. However, THE SAVE ACT has the teeth and packs the punch, to halt this pestilence overwhelming our wilting economy. Very few Senators and Representatives have THE PEOPLE' S best interest in mind. The Democratic hierarchy have specifically been pandering to special interest groups, and very few have offered to co-author THE FEDERAL SAVE ACT.

A Mr. Rubenstein, a former director of research at the Hudson Institute, a nonpartisan policy research organization, said U.S. taxpayers paid more than $9,000 for each immigrant in the country, a third of whom are believed to be in the U.S. illegally.

In addition, more than 37 million immigrants in the United States, both legal and illegal, cost the federal government more than $346 billion last year, twice as much as the nation's fiscal deficit, according to a report released yesterday. The loss estimates, the report said, included $100 billion in federal taxes lost "from the reduction of native incomes caused by immigrant workers." He also stated that even programs that are not usually associated with immigration, he said, have actually added financial burdens to the taxpayers.

More than 10 million immigrants have arrived since year 2000; it is estimated that nearly 6 million are illegal. All told, the group of immigrants now account for 38 million at the moment according to the White House's own census bureau.

America cannot afford to enact another AMNESTY? The ramifications are unthinkable on each states economy? Taxpayers will have to support even more illegal immigrants as the word gets out and millions more will pour into our nation. You must read the suppressed evidence of the consequences of the illegal immigrant occupation. Not found in the national press you can find the truth at these sites. NUMBERSUSA! LIBERTY POST! AMERICAN PATROL!

Keep calling your Democratic Congressmen today to co-author THE SAVE ACT! Toll free numbers include 18778516437 and 18662200044, or call toll 12022243121 AND REGISTER YOUR OUTRAGE at ongoing efforts to keep our country from enforcing its immigration laws!

Please copy and paste or otherwise freely distribute this information.

YOU CAN PETITION TO DEMAND COMPLETE THE BORDER FENCE HERE http://www.grassfire.net

Posted by: Brittanicus on 04/14/08 at 3:14 PM Respond

Brittanicus: (sigh) Let's get some terms straight. EVERY employer of any scale is a "predator employer," in the sense that economics starts to take over their ethics, the larger they get. The term is by no means specific to those who hire illegal immigrants.

Even smaller employers today are subject to the same old dog-eat-dog logic that passes for "conventional" wisdom today. As a matter of course, most employers carve away at wages and benefits, by holding them constant, while the cost of living sky-rockets. Any worker not supported by collective bargaining, which means most of us today, is driven into a progressively deeper hole over time.

Next up, what do you think the inevitable long-term trend is, concerning imported workers? The Corporatists, if our government continues to leave them free to plunder, will continue to exploit cheaper labor, wherever they find it. If we make it harder for them to find it here, they will just go elsewhere for it. The answer to the problem of wage undercutting is not border fences, it's controlling the rapacious instincts of the Corporatist sharks, and setting limits on offshoring our jobs.

But first you have to get past the idea that unrestrained and unregulated markets are automatically good by definition. This is a latter-day idea, pushed by Corporatists, to whom any fetter whatsoever means less profit, equals fewer yatchs and fourth homes on Lake Tahoe. I can't pity these guys, especially when I see how "trickle-down" is just code for "trickle-up," whereby more and more of the effort I put in, doing the actual work of the country, is skimmed for the coffers of the rich, and ever-increasing government handouts to same.

It's just a matter of time, dude. America was never meant to be a "white" country. It's an immigrant country, and immigrants come in all colors and cultures. Get used to it.

The real enemies of freedom are the "free" market Corporatists, who effectively own our government, and make it work for them (read: against us).

Posted by: Dan Mortenson on 04/14/08 at 3:59 PM Respond

MY FELLOW BITTER, STUPID, WORKING CLASS PEOPLE.

YOU MIGHT BE AN IDIOT, TOO :-(

If you think like Barack Obama, that WORKING CLASS PEOPLE are just a bunch of BITTER!, STUPID, PEASANTS, Cash COWS!, and CANNON FODDER. :-(

You Might Be An Idiot, Too!

If you think Barack Obama with little or no experience would be better than Hillary Clinton with 35 years experience.

You Might Be An Idiot, Too!

If you think that Obama with no experience can fix an economy on the verge of collapse better than Hillary Clinton. Whose husband (Bill Clinton) led the greatest economic expansion, and prosperity in American history.

You Might Be An Idiot, Too!

If you think that Obama with no experience fighting for universal health care can get it for you better than Hillary Clinton. Who anticipated this current health care crisis back in 1993, and fought a pitched battle against overwhelming odds to get universal health care for all the American people.

You Might Be An Idiot, Too!

If you think that Obama with no experience can manage, and get us out of two wars better than Hillary Clinton. Whose husband (Bill Clinton) went to war only when he was convinced that he absolutely had to. Then completed the mission in record time against a nuclear power. AND DID NOT LOSE THE LIFE OF A SINGLE AMERICAN SOLDIER. NOT ONE!

You Might Be An Idiot, Too!

If you think that Obama with no experience saving the environment is better than Hillary Clinton. Whose husband (Bill Clinton) left office with the greatest amount of environmental cleanup, and protections in American history.

You Might Be An Idiot, Too!

If you think that Obama with little or no education experience is better than Hillary Clinton. Whose husband (Bill Clinton) made higher education affordable for every American. And created higher job demand and starting salary’s than they had ever been before or since.

You Might Be An Idiot, Too!

If you think that Obama with no experience will be better than Hillary Clinton who spent 8 years at the right hand of President Bill Clinton. Who is already on record as one of the greatest Presidents in American history.

You Might Be An Idiot, Too!

If you think that you can change the way Washington works with pretty speeches from Obama, rather than with the experience, and political expertise of two master politicians ON YOUR SIDE like Hillary and Bill Clinton..

You Might Be An Idiot, Too!

If you think all those Republicans voting for Obama in the Democratic primaries, and caucuses are doing so because they think he is a stronger Democratic candidate than Hillary Clinton. :-)

Best regards

jacksmith...

p.s.

If you don't know that the huge amounts of money funding the Obama campaign to try and defeat Hillary Clinton is coming in from the insurance, and medical industry, that has been ripping you off, and killing you and your children. And denying you, and your loved ones the life saving medical care you needed. All just so they can make more huge immoral profits for them-selves off of your suffering...

You Might Be An Idiot, Too!

You see, back in 1993 Hillary Clinton had the audacity, and nerve to try and get quality, affordable universal health care for everyone to prevent the suffering and needless deaths of hundreds of thousands of you each year. :-)

Approx. 100,000 of you die each year from medical accidents from a rush to profit by the insurance, and medical industry. Another 120,000 of you die each year from treatable illness that people in other developed countries don’t die from. And I could go on, and on...

Posted by: jacksmith on 04/14/08 at 4:08 PM Respond

DON'T BE DUPED !!!

Large numbers of Republicans have been voting for Barack Obama in the DEMOCRATIC primaries, and caucuses from early on. Because they feel he would be a weaker opponent against John McCain. With Hillary Clinton you are almost 100% certain to get quality, affordable universal health care very soon.

But first, all of you have to make certain that Hillary Clinton takes the democratic nomination and then the Whitehouse. NOW! is the time. THIS! is the moment you have all been working, and waiting for. You can do this America. “Carpe diem” (harvest the day).

I think Hillary Clinton see’s a beautiful world of plenty for all. She’s a woman, and a mother. And it’s time America. Do this for your-selves, and your children’s future. You will have to work together on this and be aggressive, relentless, and creative. Americans face an even worse catastrophe ahead than the one you are living through now.

You see, the medical and insurance industry mostly support the republicans with the money they ripped off from you. And they don’t want you to have quality, affordable universal health care. They want to be able to continue to rip you off, and kill you and your children by continuing to deny you life saving medical care that you have already paid for. So they can continue to make more immoral profits for them-selves.

Hillary Clinton has actually won by much larger margins than the vote totals showed. And lost by much smaller vote margins than the vote totals showed. Her delegate count is actually much higher than it shows. And higher than Obama’s. She also leads in the electoral college numbers that you must win to become President in the November national election. HILLARY CLINTON IS ALREADY THE TRUE DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE!

As much as 30% of Obama's primary, and caucus votes are Republicans trying to choose the weakest democratic candidate for McCain to run against. These Republicans have been gaming the caucuses where it is easier to vote cheat. This is why Obama has not been able to win the BIG! states primaries. Even with Republican vote cheating help.

Hillary Clinton has been OUT MANNED! OUT GUNNED! and OUT SPENT! 4 and 5 to 1. Yet Obama has only been able to manage a very tenuous, and questionable tie with Hillary Clinton.

If Obama is the democratic nominee for the national election in November he will be slaughtered. Because the Republican vote cheating help will suddenly evaporate. All of this vote fraud and republican manipulation has made Obama falsely look like a much stronger candidate than he really is. YOUNG PEOPLE. DON’T BE DUPED! Think about it. You have the most to lose.

The democratic party needs to fix this outrage. Everyone needs to throw all your support to Hillary Clinton NOW! So you can end this outrage against YOU the voter, and against democracy.
The democratic party, and the super-delegates have a decision to make. Are the democrats, and the democratic party going to choose the DEMOCRATIC party nominee to fight for the American people. Or are the republicans going to choose the DEMOCRATIC party nominee through vote fraud, and gaming the DEMOCRATIC party primaries, and caucuses.

Fortunately the Clinton’s have been able to hold on against this fraudulent outrage with those repeated dramatic comebacks of Hillary Clinton’s. Only the Clinton’s are that resourceful, and strong. Hillary Clinton is your NOMINEE. They are the best I have ever seen.

“This is not a game” (Hillary Clinton)

Sincerely

jacksmith...

Posted by: jacksmith on 04/14/08 at 4:09 PM Respond

Wow. Lotsa words here on a very simple issue. Obama was asked why he/democrats don't do better in rural areas. He answered that in economically depressed areas voters have tended to gravitate towards (or "cling") hot-button wedge issues like religion and guns and immigration, because there aren't any political leaders addressing the more important economic issues.

Which isn't exactly controversial. Thomas Frank wrote a whole book about it.

People should stop trying to make sweeping conclusions about what kind of a president a person would make based on a snippet or two of words a candidate says. Keep in mind that Obama was president of Harvard law review, and thereby had his choice of the elitest of the elite law firms to go to, with all the attendant respect and outsized salary that would command. But instead, he went to go work in community organization. Does that sound like a man who looks down on the poor?

Posted by: Zack on 04/14/08 at 4:19 PM Respond

I'm bitter.

In fact I'm so DAMN bitter that I'm going to send Obama another $25 of my hard earned money as soon as I finished typing this.

Posted by: Egalitare on 04/14/08 at 5:03 PM Respond

If BHO is such a loser, why is he winning?

If HRC is so capable why is she losing?

Hmmmm

(rhetorical)

Posted by: capt - Hussein on 04/14/08 at 8:47 PM Respond

Is it just me, or does anyone else find it odd that illegal immigration wasn't an issue until the majority of good American jobs had been exported overseas? Is it possible that all this sudden hullabaloo over illegal immigrants is just a smokescreen to distract us from the *real* problems facing us?

Posted by: DaveD on 04/15/08 at 5:07 AM Respond

Hey capt, haven't you been paying attention the the idiot jacksmith? Obama is winning because Coulter, Limbaugh and the other idiots have been telling their listeners to vote for Hillary!

Hillary is the only one qualified. She failed to get universal health coverage in '93, so she's got the experience to get it now. Obama doesn't have that valuable experience of failure, so how can he be expected to accomplish anything?

Posted by: DaveD on 04/15/08 at 5:11 AM Respond

"illegal immigration "

When I hear the term I am reminded of Mayor Quimby on the Simpsons. The city was broke (or something like that) the citizens were storming the Mayors office - his answer? Blame the immigrants!

Cracks me up!

Posted by: capt - Hussein on 04/15/08 at 5:58 AM Respond

If you think Hillary is 10% sincere instead of maybe "desperate" and will do or say anything she has to in order to win.You are without a doubt stupid.Equivalent to voting for McVain(Bush continium)

Posted by: Roy Fernandezr on 04/15/08 at 8:23 AM Respond

"Jews make assumptions about Christians". This is an unfavorable stereotype about a whole group of the most oppressed people on the face of the earth who have suffered more than any other group in the Holocaust. This is an anti-Semitic statement. If you can't refrain from Jew hate, then don't write, or go write for Jewwatch.

Posted by: Ira C. on 04/15/08 at 8:29 AM Respond

I always ask this on these posts: Jacksmith, why don't you back up all your statements with some actual references? Otherwise, it is just more echo chamber BS that you read somewhere.

Posted by: Robert on 04/15/08 at 12:02 PM Respond

They were the words of a rookie. And -- unfortunately for Obama -- they were overheard. Fortunately, for the voters, they were overheard because it must be harder and harder to see through Obama's Glitzkrieg as he pummels the Pennsylvania voting space with ever greater amounts of electoral promises.

I watch from my side of the Atlantic, here in France where the man with the chic suits got elected, the man with the crowd connection, the man with the catchy slogans and --especially-- the man who bought up the space in the press and the media.

That man has proven to be quite an elitist cry from his populist posing. But it's too late for France.

It's not, however, too late for America. Resist the Glitz. Prove that Democracy is not for sale this time around.

Posted by: Kathy Giannini on 04/20/08 at 12:40 PM Respond