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![]() Just Above Sunset
March 14, 2004 - Should elitist snobs like me feel guilty?
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Here’s an interesting
contention. The French, and specifically Dominique de Villepin, their Minister
of Foreign Affairs, convinced America to invade Iraq, overthrow its government and occupy its territory – really, honest.
Market populism? Frank explains the basic idea is that the free market is in essence a democracy. Since we all participate in markets - buying stock, choosing between brands of shaving cream, going to movie X instead of movie Y - markets are an expression of the "vox populi" Markets give us what we
want; markets overthrow the old regime; markets empower the little guy. Markets
are good. A nice form of populism. Vox
Populii, Vox Dei? It means the voice of the people is the voice of God. A commercial airs on Iowa television in which the then-front-runner for the Democratic Party’s
presidential nomination, Howard Dean, was blasted for being the choice of the cultural elites: a "tax hiking, government-expanding,
latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Volvo-driving, New York Times-reading, body-piercing, Hollywood-loving, left-wing freak
show" who had no business trying to talk to the plain folk of Iowa. Vox Populii, Vox Dei indeed! At the top of it all sits President George W. Bush, a former Texas oilman, a Yale graduate, the son of a U.S. president and a grandson of a U.S. senator - the beneficiary of every advantage that upper America is capable of showering on its sons - and a man who also declares that he has a populist streak because of all the disdain showered upon him and his Texas cronies by the high-hats of the East. Bush’s populism is for real. His resentment of the East-coast snobs is objectively ridiculous, but it is honestly felt. The man undeniably has the common touch; his ability to speak to average people like one of their own is a matter of public record. And they, in return, seem genuinely to like the man. Bush shows every sign of being able to carry a substantial part of the white working-class vote this November, just as he did four years ago (although 90 percent of black Americans voted Democrat in 2000). Yep, this is a pretty neat
trick. Bush is a man of the people? Guess
so…. … Republicans are still the party of corporate management, but they have also spent years
honing their own populist approach, a melange of anti-intellectualism, promiscuous God-talk and sentimental evocations of
middle America in all its humble averageness. Richard Nixon was the first Republican
president to understand the power of this combination and every victorious Republican since his administration has also cast
himself in a populist light. Bush is merely the latest and one of the most accomplished
in a long line of pro-business politicians expressing themselves in the language of the downtrodden. Yep, and folks lap it up. Martha Stewart becomes one of the oppressed.
Bill O’Reilly pulls down sixty million a year and claims he’s a regular guy (maybe he gets enough fiber
in his diet). People are always picking on the humble, honest ah-shucks college
dropouts who made their hundreds of million by pure hard work, like Ken Lay or Bernie Evers.
Common folk. Well, if people want to think of themselves as just like
these folks, that’s democracy for you. Certain kinds of leftists really do vacation in Europe and drive Volvos and drink lattes. (Hell, almost everyone drinks lattes now.) And
there is a small but very vocal part of the Left that has nothing but contempt for the working class. Should you
ever attend a meeting of a local animal-rights organization, or wander through the campus of an elite university, you will
notice that certain kinds of Left politics are indeed activities reserved for members of the educated upper-middle-class,
for people who regard politics more as a personal therapeutic exercise than an effort to build a movement. For them, the Left is a form of mildly soothing spirituality, a way of getting in touch with the deep authenticity
of the downtrodden and of showing you care. Buttons and stickers desperately
announce the liberal’s goodness to the world, as do his or her choice in consumer products. Leftist magazines treat protesting as a glamour activity, running photos of last month’s demo the
way society magazines print pictures from the charity ball. There is even a brand
of cologne called Activist. Hey? Anyone out there feeling guilty? No? Really? Here he was, a well-dressed and accomplished man, soundly refuting the arguments of the Americans,
speaking several different languages, even receiving open applause from the UN representatives of much of the world as he
berated the U.S. Secretary of State, who stoically endured the abuse of his social
superior, for this obvious error or that. Now that IS an idea! |
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This issue updated and published on...
Paris readers add nine hours....
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