Via Cursor, a terrific essay by Tom Frank, editor of the Baffler, on "the Elitism Myth."
Frank does an excellent job of analyzing just how Republicans, "the party of corporate management" manage to paint liberals as "elitists." And, at the same time, he also chides liberals for underestimating the power of this mythology, and even reinforcing it, through disdain for the working class. He then ends by making a point somewhat similar to one I made myself in an earlier post: that the Left shouldn't dismiss the fact that so much of Middle America buys into this myth as mere irrationality; that instead, they should make an effort to understand "the kind of people who think voting for George Bush constitutes a blow against the elite," if they are to have any true hope of dismantling the perception of the Left as the enemy of the common man.
Unfortunately, so far in the current election season, there's little sign of this happening. Certainly, Democrats talk of winning over "Nascar Dads." But they seem capable of suggesting only the most superficial means of winning their support. You'd think, in fact, to listen to many on the Left, that all that's necessary to bring working class Americans back into the fold is to nominate a Southerner as vice-president, or have the Democratic Party sponsor a stock car.
Sadly, however, it's going to take much more than John Edwards on the ticket, or a Donkey sticker on Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s Chevy to win the support of the denizens of the Red States. Instead, what Democrats must do is to recognize the economically downtrodden as minorities in their own right, and take the same stance - that of a mix of sympathy and a desire to uplift - in regard to the working class as they do toward Women, or Gays, or racial minorities. It's time to remember just who the "people" are in "party of the people." Hint: it has nothing to do with the color of their skin, but rather, the color of their collars.
There's actually a decent chance, if the polls are any indication, that the Democrats will be able to get away with not changing their ways, and still win in 2004. However, they would do well to challenge - through words and deeds - the perceived notion of their party as that of the elite. Lest, as Frank predicts, that as has been the case the past three decades "[the backlash] returns promptly every four years, to deliver landslides out of nowhere and rightwingers where there should be leftwingers and grassroots anger where there ought to be contentment."
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