Newt Gingrich's New Enemies: Subway Riders

[LongTomH]

To make the point that anyone who disagrees with him on housing policy is just an elite liberal snob, instead of engaging them on substantive economic policy grounds, Gingrich has taken to mocking people who don’t own a detached single-family home in the suburbs and drive everywhere.

At the National Association of Home Builders, “Rally for Homeownership” in South Carolina, Gingrich said, “Those who, you know, live in high-rise apartment buildings writing for fancy newspapers in the middle of town after they ride the metro, who don’t understand that for most Americans the ability to buy a home, to have their own property, to have a sense of belonging is one of the greatest achievements of their life, and it makes them feel like they are good solid citizens.” As Matthew Yglesias wrote in Slate, “it’s telling how swiftly any kind of commitment to free market economics melts away in the face of the identity politics concerns of prosperous older white suburbanites.”

On Friday he reiterated his hatred of people who live a more environmentally efficient lifestyle. Speaking in Las Vegas ahead of the Nevada caucus, a contest he is sure to lose, Gingrich attacked “elites” in Manhattan who live in high rises and “ride the subway.”

This is the perfect distillation of Gingrichism on many levels. First it shows the stupidity and ignorance of a man Republicans praise for his intelligence and knowledge. Riding the subway is much cheaper than owning, maintaining and driving a car. The truly rich in New York take cabs, car services or drive more often than the poor. Not everyone in Manhattan, or in a high-rise, is an elite: Gingrich has apparently never ventured north of 96th Street and seen who lives in the high-rise projects in Harlem.

Read the rest of the article at The Nation: http://www.thenation.com/blog/166069/newt-gingrichs-new-enemies-subway-riders

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

1. Spoken like a guy who's never ridden the subway and has no idea who rides them. Pinhead.

[DesertFlower]

2. i spent the first 48 years of my life

living in queens, new york. we couldn't afford to buy a house unless we went way out to the burbs. hubby and i both had jobs that required long hours so we chose to live close to NYC.

not everyone wants the responsibility of owning a home. the neighborhood we lived in had many apartment buildings -- some 7 stories high -- some 20 or more stories high.

we also owned a car even though parking was difficult.