A long time ago I heard a comedian named Bill Maher. He was incisive and sarcastic - but damn; he was funny. I think he was Politically Incorrect.
Eventually, however, Maher seemed to believe his own press reviews. He seemed to get too full of himself. His lines began to veer from comedic and cutting to ... well. Something else.
Do you think this is amusing?
New Rule: Republicans need to stop saying Barack Obama is an elitist, or looks down on rural people, and just admit you don't like him because of something he can't help, something that's a result of the way he was born. Admit it, you're not voting for him because he's smarter than you.
Karl Rove described Obama as "the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini, and making snide comments about everyone who passes by." Unlike George Bush, who's the guy at the country club who makes snide comments, and then passes out. Now this characterization, of course, was something Mr. Rove just completely pulled out of his bulbous, gelatinous ass, but remember this is America, a land where people believe anything they hear. One of McCain's ads casts Obama as "the one," implying he thinks he's the Messiah. Good, maybe he can raise McCain from the dead.
Barack Obama can't help it if he's a magna cum laude Harvard grad and you're a Wal-Mart shopper who resurfaces driveways with your brother-in-law. Americans are so narcissistic that our candidates have to be just like us.
My own opinion is that it is not very funny at all. My own opinion is that there are far more people out there who do shop at Wal-Mart instead of attending Harvard. My own opinion is that many more Americans do go to schools like the University of Idaho, or University of Wisconsin or University of Minnesota (the latter two being my alma maters) than go to Harvard and Princeton and Yale. Surely the elite get elite educations at ivy league schools - else, why would one pay the jaw-droppingly high tuition needed to attend these schools? Still, my own opinion is that people can study at state schools or small schools in small states - and, at the end of the day, these people will be well educated, and able to succeed in life.
Amazingly, it is further my opinion that one need not even get a college degree to have a great life! I know people who went into business, either for themselves or with a company. These people committed themselves to hard work, generous service and an eye to excellence. And, whether they were flipping burgers and ended up owning the local McDonalds, or resurfacing driveways at $8,000 a clip - their lives were indeed worthwhile.
One of my dearest friends cleaned houses. Her husband was a salesman; in their mid 40's, he had a stroke. As she had not had the opportunity to graduate magna cum laude from Harvard, but had instead been a homemaker taking care of her three kids, she did what she had to do when her husband was too disabled to work. In her case, it was cleaning the homes of many local rich and famous. As it turns out, my friend is bright, wise, warm - and has more common sense than about 928 Bill Mahers. In addition to cleaning people's homes, she advised more university professors, attorneys and successful businessmen than you can imagine, dishing out her homespun wisdom as she dusted shelving, smoothed sheets and creased hospital corners.
Maybe Democrats are smarter than Republicans. Maybe it is good to mock all the Americans who take care of the children of investment bankers and Hollywood celebrities, the people who shop at Wal-Mart instead of Chanel, the people who fix sinks and toilets, set concrete and resurface driveways. Maybe all these people are just too damn dumb to have any clue what is good for our nation and what candidates deserve their votes.
And then again? Maybe not....
Objective evidence suggests, but does not prove, that Republicans are smarter than Democrats. In Democrats and Republicans - Rhetoric and Reality (Algora Publishing, 2008) the author cites surveys of 4500 Dems and Reps between 1996 and 2004, conducted by the National Election Studies. After each interview, the interviewer was asked to assess the "apparent intelligence" of the subject. Dems were only 75% as likely to be rated as having fairly or very high intelligence. Also, they were only about 85% as likely to correctly answer basic political questions.
The book has hundreds of graphs outlining statistically significant differences between Dems and Republicans, in terms of education, lifestyle, citizenship, happiness, taxes, charitable giving, etc.
Posted by: gabby100 | Monday, September 15, 2008 at 07:05 PM