Barack Obama is an elitist who looks down on small-town America.Let me be as clear as I can: The controversy surrounding Barack Obama's statement about small-town America is bullshit. But that might not matter. I think this thing might have legs, and it has the potential to do serious damage to his campaign.
I posted in another thread that this situation reminds me of the old quote from Michael Kinsley: "A gaffe is when a politician tells the truth." I think that any fair reader of Senator Obama's quote would understand exactly what he is trying to say, and would not have much basis to disagree with the truthfulness of it:
You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. ... And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
But this is politics, and whether a statement is true is quite often beside the point. It has become apparent that Senator Obama's statement, while arguably true, was clearly a misstep. And he might pay dearly for it.
To those of you here on DU who don't understand why this is controversial, let me try to explain. The big problem comes in the last sentence: "And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
Much of the attention has been focused on the beginning part of the sentence, "it's not surprising then they get bitter." But I think if he had stopped there, he probably would not be taking nearly as much heat as he is taking. It is obvious that some people in small town America are bitter because of difficult economic times. Perhaps he could have said "some people" instead of "they" because then it would be less likely that his quote could be twisted to make it sound like he is talking about everyone in small-town America. But IMHO, the part about people being bitter really isn't that bad.
What makes the quote a gaffe is the latter part, "they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." This is not good. The first problem is the use of the word "cling" which implies a sort-of irrational and desperate latching-on. When you use the word "cling" you are implying that the things to which one is clinging are bad. Which leads us to the second problem in the quote, the things that are being clung: Guns. Religion. Antipathy to people who aren't like them. Anti-immigrant sentiment. Anti-trade sentiment.
Among the items being clung, for the purpose of this deconstruction, there are two broad categories. The first category is
Things that many small-town Americans embrace as part of their values, but which Senator Obama is painting as bad: Guns, Religion, Frustration with illegal immigration, Skepticism toward free-trade. The inclusion of Religion alone on that list is enough to make the quote controversial. Add guns, frustration with illegal immigration, and skepticism toward free trade, and you are expressing a negative view toward many of their cultural and political values.
The second category is
Unflattering stereotypes that elites hold toward people in middle America: Antipathy to people who aren't like them. And, of course, a propensity to cling to guns, religion, anti-immigrant sentiment, and anti-trade sentiment.
If you are still having difficulty understanding why this would be controversial, imagine if he had said something like this, while commenting on frustration among the urban liberal elite:
And it's not surprising that they get selfish and arrogant, they cling to lattes or Priuses or abortion-on-demand or gay marriage or anti-Bush sentiment as a way to explain their unhappiness.
Do you see it now? Calling liberals selfish, arrogant, and unhappy. Saying that you "cling" to things like lattes or Priuses or reproductive choice or equal rights. Hey, not every liberal drinks lattes and drives a Prius or does all those things! Of course, some do,
but even if they do those aren't bad things!So, Senator Obama has a problem on his hands. What should he do now?
His options are to try to backtrack, or to go on the offensive. Personally, I don't think backtracking is a good idea in this case. What he said is already out there, and apologizing or trying to explain or saying he misspoke is not going to make it go away. Instead, I think he has to go on the offensive. He has to send a clear message to Senator Clinton and Senator McCain that if they try to hammer away at this quote, they will pay a cost as well.
That means fighting fire with fire. Spinning their words the way they spun his. Senator Obama needs to avoid reminding voters about the latter part of the quote, where he made it look as if religion, guns, etc. were bad things. Instead, he needs to focus on the part of the quote where he said people were bitter, and paint his opponents as the ones who are out of touch. Make them appear that they are the ones who have gutted America's small towns, while Obama is the guy who is going to fight for the middle class. He should say something like this:
Hillary Clinton and John McCain think you are stupid. They are the ones who are out-of-touch. They support economic policies and trade deals that have sent all the good, high-paying jobs to China and Mexico, and have gutted America's small towns. And then they tell you that you are too stupid to see the tragedy that is going on all around you, and too stupid to get upset when they ship your jobs overseas. You aren't bitter... You're happy! You are happy and positive and resilient people, and even though you lost your $50,000-per-year job working in a factory, you are thrilled that now you're earning $17,000 a year stocking shelves at Wal-Mart. You know, 'Every cloud has a silver lining,' 'When life gives you lemons make lemonade,' all that stuff. Hillary Clinton and John McCain have been handing you lemons for the last thirty years, and you're sick and tired of having to make lemonade. You want a real president who'll finally put a stop to the long, slow bleed that is draining the lifeblood from our communities, and who will make it a priority to bring good jobs back to America's heartland.
