Elitism?
Amanda Carpenter of the Washington Times tweets, "Feel free to celebrate your un-eliteness if you didn't buy the green shoots argument either." The link takes you to a Pew poll showing that poor Americans consider the economy quite a bit grimmer than richer Americans.
Put aside that the poll's results are actually less stark than one might imagine (52 percent of Americans earning more than $75,000 expect the economy to improve in the next year while only 42 percent of Americans earning less than $30,000 think the same, a difference of 10 percentage points). This is, I think, a curious definition of an elite: It's about what you believe rather than what you are, or have. As if you can ideologically opt-in to a different class by sharing their opinions and cultural biases. Anyway, I don't have any grand point to make on this. It just struck me as an interesting rhetorical move.
By
Ezra Klein
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June 23, 2009; 11:05 AM ET
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Posted by: rmn99 | June 23, 2009 12:10 PM | Report abuse
Interesting in the sense that it is vulgar [David] Brooksism?
Posted by: Castorp1 | June 23, 2009 12:14 PM | Report abuse
Isn't that what "limousine liberals" are supposed to be: people who identify with the plight of the poor even if they are not poor themselves? Somehow they are now celebrating their "un-eliteness" instead of being smug elitists.
And I bet any poll like this taken since around 500 BC would show poor people with a dimmer view of the economy than the rich. Major duh.
Posted by: jeirvine | June 23, 2009 1:01 PM | Report abuse
True, the tweet presents elitism oddly, but there's substance to its basic thrust. You yourself (or am I confusing you with another blogger?) have noted that the green-ness of the shoots lately have depended heavily on one's relationship to the stock market. The stock market has been trending up the last few months, making it look like green shoots may be coming up from the market bottom. Those of us who rely more or entirely on wage income have reason to be less sanguine, since the curve workers qua workers face is still trending down.
Anyway, there are so many different ways to define elitism -- as with "efficiency," you have to ask "elitism of what?"
Posted by: JonathanTE | June 23, 2009 3:47 PM | Report abuse
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I think there is a general misunderstanding of what Republicans consider "elitist." I think it's more of an adjective than a noun, and it has nothing to do with class, income, lifestyle. etc. They see anyone an elitist who considers themselves intellectually superior. Obviously Obama, having not been born into privilege by any means, could not be an elitist in the traditional sense, but they consider him one because he speaks as if he knows what's good for them better than they do.
Of course this could describe anyone who tries to speak intelligently about anything. But a good friend of mine, who's a hardcore Republican and a bright and decent person, would listen to Obama speak and ask me, "Listen to him! You're telling me that guy isn't an elitist?!"