Posted on 06/01/2006 7:22:29 AM PDT by 2banana
Liberals must come down off our high horses By Chuck Williams
It took me nearly one-third of my life to come to a simple conclusion: Liberals are elitists.
Now, maybe that's not such a big deal to some, but to me it has become quite bothersome. It's pretty clear to me now that average hard-working Americans, be they red-staters or blue-staters, can smell the stench of elitist, intellectual posturing by so-called liberals and progressives.
One of the reasons why this bothers me is because I fear that it will cause us to continue to lose presidential elections.
The second thing that bothers me is that I may be one of those elitists. After all, I couldn't wait to tell the world that I had earned a Ph.D. I smile a bit on the inside every time my students and/or coworkers refer to me as "Dr. Williams."
I'm not so sure when it became important for people to know that I knew more than they did. What I do know is that it does not serve me well with average folk; this is at the core of the problem for liberals, and, given that we make up the base of the Democratic Party, it's also at the core of why we keep losing presidential elections.
To me, politics is about one thing: winning elections. Sure, policy and activism are wrapped up in there, too, but at the end of the day, you want to win - period!
My opinions about all this have been influenced by working for the Democratic National Committee, regionally, and volunteering for various local elections. What I've realized is that you have two camps within the Democratic Party.
You have folks who think too much, and folks who work very hard to ensure that our candidates are elected. Don't look now, but the nerds are attempting to take over the frat house. The problem with that is, they can't help us win elections. They simply stand around sipping green tea and talking about how great it would be if everyone read Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City. It's no wonder folks have begun to call us effete. We sit around, legs crossed, sporting Birkenstocks, and looking down on people who don't read as much as we do.
And, when you really get down to the nitty-gritty, you realize that somehow we feel that all that carrying on makes us better human beings than everyone else. That our values and morals are better than others. This is what really annoys folks about us.
What I've also realized is that this is a character flaw, and, that this does more to divide America than any of Patrick Buchanan's hate-filled rhetoric. Folks who don't read six national newspapers a day hold as much value and worth to our society as those who do. These folks raise families, work very hard for a living, and spend time thinking about ways to better their quality of life. They know what will serve their best interests, and they know what will not.
If the liberal elite would stop writing and chatting so much about how this country should be, they would learn more about how it is. We need to come out of the library from time to time and actually put our ears to the ground. We will find that the blue-staters are looking for leaders who will represent them, even if they don't have college degrees or sip imported beers.
At one point, that was the Democratic Party; today it is not. People were right to leave us. We gave them nothing to hold on to. We are no longer the party of inclusion; it only looks that way on billboards and campaign advertisements.
If we do not address this issue soon, we will need more than a Florida recount to make this party relevant again.
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Chuck Williams (drchuckwilliams@aim.com) lives in Philadelphia.
Of course not, son...you may have more education, but that doesn't mean you know more, are smarter, or wiser...in fact, the reverse seems to be true.
My tagline says it all...
No, i believe he is trying to find answers which newspapers are not going to give him. He is from the RELIGOUS left, it would be blasphemy for him to read something on FR for example.
Yes, it really is annoying, although it isn't just among liberals. It seems to be a disease of many elites of both parties. I think America would benefit from an administration totally fee of Crimsons and Yalies. No CFR influence, no secret handshakes, no RINO sellouts.
While he had his share of Ivys, ignoring them and standing by his beliefs is what endeared Reagan to America, even many Democrats. Call me "anti-intellectual", but I do think Main Street can run this country better than the Ivory Towers.
Great article, and yes, it's hard to believe a liberal would actually come out and say these things - in print, no less.
The president of Commodore International was a concentration camp survivor as a teen. He took a typewriter shop in Toronato to a $1.6 billion conporation in 15 years. This with virtually no formal education.
During an interview for a feature article in Barrons, the interviewer asked about his education. Jack replied "I have a PhD".
The somewhat nonplussed interviewer aske what the PhD was in.
Money!
Reading MSM 6 newspapers a day is a good way to brainwash yourself into being... an elitist liberal.
I meant "totally free".
For want of one little letter, the reader lacketh understanding.
Gag, chuckle, snicker.
Liberals should lay off the false whiney victimhood crap also.
Wrong Chuck. The reason you keep losing elections is that you and your ilk only THINK your smarter than everyone else. However, the facts don't support your arrogant rant. Statistics show that better educated people tend to vote Republican. In other words, among intellectuas, only the supercilious snobs vote Democratic.
If the author can break out of this mental lock himself and drag his audience with him he'll have made some progress. He hasn't yet.
If you want to see why the Dims will lose again, you need only peruse the topics page of DU. They fight like a bunch of relatives trying to divide up grandma's estate. They're offensive to the mainstream of America.
In the end, the far left will once again control the Dim party, and will once again flood the races with women who wish they were men, and men who wish they were women.
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