Unfortunately, I think it's rude to call another Dem "elite"

[gulliver]

I think it's pretty obviously rude to use the term "elite" about another Dem unless that Dem specifically says they want that word applied to them (and, of course, I doubt any will say that). If permission is not given, then calling someone "elite" is name calling. To me, name calling is a form of rudeness. No one wants to be rude or to be treated rudely, so I think this issue is worth mentioning to raise awareness of the situation.

[HerbChestnut]

1. Well it's a good thing none of our candidates used that term to describe any other of our candidates

Politico did, though. Might be they're trying to stir up emotions before the primary?

[SunSeeker]

10. One campaign called another Dem candidate's Dem supporters "rich and educated."

Not only is that false, that is a pretty standard right wing smear of Democrats in general.

A script first reported by Politico told Sanders’s volunteers to tell voters they called on Sanders’s behalf who had indicated support for her that Warren’s popularity was limited to the rich and educated — effectively denigrating her electability.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/bernie-sanderss-campaign-goes-on-the-attack-as-he-seeks-a-victory-in-the-iowa-caucuses/2020/01/12/7a8addb4-356f-11ea-9541-9107303481a4_story.html

Has Bernie denied what Politico reported?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Synonyms for "elite":

Finest, best, leading, choice, select, supreme, first-class, foremost, greatest, first-rate, pre-eminent, top, cool, gilt-edged, super, topflight, world-class, excellent, prime, excellent, superior, quality, superb, premier.

Unfortunately, the word has been twisted to mean something bad instead of something excellent. "Elites" are now imagined to be chablis-drinking, brie-eating snobs with Ph.Ds who wear ascots and drive Priuses and look down on everybody else. It's really a GOP sort of insult and Democrats shouldn't be throwing it at each other.

[betsuni]

7. "'Elite' the insult" (from The Economist):

"What's the worst thing you can call someone in American politics? If you read the papers or watch cable news on the wrong day, you just might think it's 'elite.' My 1973 OED describes 'elite' ... as 'the choice part or flower (of society or any body of persons).' If redacted today ... a new sense would be added, 'one's out-of-touch political opponents.'

"Elite's meaning has become remarkably plastic ... . How did that happen? First, the counterculture attacked the old elites (the titans of industry, the Washington class, the military brass) as out of touch, making authenticity, not authority, the greatest value one can aspire to. Then the counterculture overreached, Nixon found his 'silent majority,' and railed against his own bugbear elites: the now familiar culprits in academia, Hollywood and the press. Both left and right seek the 'real' and shun the 'elites,' and a word has come to mean its opposite: the worst, most harmful class of society, not the 'choicest part or flower.' A strange trip for a word, but these things happen."

[ritapria]

3. I think it is rude to tell the frontrunning candidate

that he is running for President in the Wrong Party

[crazytown]

5. And that was a Bloomberg lie

the Biden Campaign was happy to run with.

[Cha]

16. How do you know it's a "Lie"? And that the "Biden campaign was happy to run with it"?

Biden's comments toward Elizabeth Warren did not happen in a vacuum. It happened after Warren's swipe that Biden is “running in the wrong presidential primary” and “repeating Republican talking points” with his criticism of her “Medicare for All” plan.

According to the article below, while he did not name her directly, he implied he was referring to her, and didn't directly call her "elitist", but said she employed a “condescending” approach to politics that smacks of “elitism.”

https://apnews.com/b491ca4f60f04b55903cf7f3c1df6371

I agree with Biden here.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1287&pid=419044

[crazytown]

17. "How do you know it's a lie"

Funny you should ask that, I am writing a post about it.

"Warren Derides Biden as Running in ‘Wrong Presidential Primary’" as headlined by Bloomberg, is as much as lie as "Biden lauded Paul Ryan for proposing cuts to Social Security and Medicare" appearing in Bern Notice.

You can read the post when I put it up. The original video is hard to find. I will repost it on YouTube if necessary/

[Bummfuzzle]

22. Biden said this more than once. I was really kind of done with this but I keep reading

what you are saying from other posters. Here it states that he did what you said but then took it further I think the next day in an interview. He states it is an elitist attitude. Is that calling her an elitist? I think so. I guess you can say someone has a racist or sexist attitude and not mean they are sexist or racist. But, I think most would come off thinking you might be accusing them of being racist or sexist.



"“If you don’t agree with Elizabeth Warren, you must somehow be not a Democrat. You must somehow be corrupt. You must somehow not be as smart as she is,” Biden said on SiriusXM’s Urban View. “It’s just something we don’t do in our party. It’s not who we are.”

Story Continued Below

“She has things in her plan that are just not realistic, but if you question it, she says you don’t understand or you’re talking like a Republican,” Biden said on continued. “It’s just an elitist attitude that it’s either my way or the highway.”

Calling Warren “elitist” is an attempt by Biden to paint Warren as too extreme for the Democratic electorate. He's looking to stoke resentment among working class voters by casting Warren as a snooty, liberal Harvard professor and not the person she portends to be on the campaign trail: a scrappy Oklahoman taking on Washington corruption.

It comes as Biden is looking to blunt Warren’s momentum as she overtakes him in early state polling."

https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/06/joe-biden-calls-warren-elitist-066637

[Cha]

24. EW said "Biden was in the wrong pres primary and using repub talking points".

Biden's comments toward Elizabeth Warren did not happen in a vacuum. It happened after Warren's swipe that Biden is “running in the wrong presidential primary” and “repeating Republican talking points” with his criticism of her “Medicare for All” plan.

According to the article below, while he did not name her directly, he implied he was referring to her, and didn't directly call her "elitist", but said she employed a “condescending” approach to politics that smacks of “elitism.”

Biden didn't IMPLY EW was a "republicon".

EW wasn't implying Pete is "elite" was she?

Warren slammed Buttigieg for fundraiser in wine cave with a crystal chandelier. In 2018, she

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287387887

Was EW trying to "blunt" Pete candidacy?

[blm]

30. Warren's comments didn't happen in a vacuum. They were made after 2mths of

Biden’s attacks on her using GOP scare tactics.

You keep posting what still one posted when it was ASSUMED that Warren struck first, and even after it is established that Warren’s swipe back was after Biden’s 2 months of swipes at her.

September and October THEN November on every calendar I’ve owned.

[crazytown]

4. Biden Attacks Warren as a 'My Way or the Highway' Elitist

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/05/us/politics/joe-biden-elizabeth-warren.html

[UniteFightBack]

6. And it's a right wing smear! nt

[SunSeeker]

8. And calling a Dem candidate's Dem SUPPORTERS "elites" is just as false and rude.

It is an utter smear. And that shit has got to stop.

[betsuni]

9. Bernie: "... the Democratic Party cannot continue to be just the party of the liberal elite and

people who have money"; "We need a Democratic Party that is not a liberal elite"; "It is not good enough to have a liberal elite"; "The political, financial and media elite of this country will stop at nothing to defeat us" -- he should stop constantly calling Democrats elites.

[Bummfuzzle]

11. It isn't Sanders first rodeo with Democratic elitist, is it?

[betsuni]

12. Coastal elites, wealthy elites, liberal elites, Democratic elites.

It's one thing to drop an "elite" once in a while, a wine cave here, saying someone's being condescending there, but when it's the foundation of your campaign along with "establishment" and calling Democrats corrupt ... well, that's a different rodeo altogether.

[Bummfuzzle]

13. He rolled it all in one when he said he despises the Democratic Party, or something like.

[betsuni]

14. He has been very clear.

It's a shame that he's fighting a fictional Democratic Party, and his supporters believe him. Then in the general election, how do you turn around and say, never mind, vote for the Democrat I've been telling you is a corrupt establishment elite who cares nothing for the working and middle classes?

[Cha]

20. Exactly, betsuni.. you've gone straight to the crux

of the matter.

We've seen this horror show once too often.

BS called the whole Dem Party "Elite" after the fascists took over the WH.. AFTER THE GENERAL "ELECTION".

Bernie Sanders 'deeply humiliated' Democrats lost white working-class voters

Washington (CNN)Sen. Bernie Sanders expressed his disappointment Monday with Hillary Clinton's failure to secure the support of white working-class voters in last week's presidential election.

Donald Trump "very effectively" tapped into "the anger and angst and pain that many working class people are feeling," the Vermont independent senator who challenged Clinton in the Democratic primary said on "CBS This Morning."

"I think that there needs to be a profound change in the way the Democratic Party does business," Sanders said. "It is not good enough to have a liberal elite. I come from the white working class, and I am deeply humiliated that the Democratic Party cannot talk to where I came from."

https://www.cnn.com/2016/11/14/politics/bernie-sanders-humiliated-democrats-loss-working-class-voters/index.html

The Dangerous Myth That Hillary Clinton Ignored the Working Class

https://www.democraticunderground.com/12512645001

"Myth"? yeah right.

[betsuni]

25. "The Dangerous Myth That Hillary Clinton Ignored the Working Class" is a must-read.

[crazytown]

15. "the Democratic Party is ideologically bankrupt"

"We have to ask ourselves, ‘Why should we work within the Democratic Party if we don’t agree with anything the Democratic Party says?’”

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/08/bernie-sanders-2016-democrats-121181

[Cha]

19. So ridiculous.. holier than the ones who brought us

everything good about America today.

So self-serving.

[Cha]

18. From 2017.. Sanders "I don't consider myself a Democrat"

uh huh..

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10028947540

Straight from his own mouth.

[Skidmore]

21. And yet Sanders is

an elite among Democrats when he runs for president. His populist demagoguery hides a sense of entitlement to office.

[Bummfuzzle]

23. Kinda like going after the "establishment" when he is the very definition. That one always has

me shaking my head at the audacity.

[BooScout]

34. But, but, but...

... "Elites" fits with his 'Revolution' narrative so well.

[whathehell]

26. Me too.. It's a putdown and a Republican meme. n/t

[Recursion]

27. I remember when "elite" was a compliment

Weird how things change

[beachbumbob]

28. being a midwesterner, I can see for myself who are elitist and who are not. I do not need

any candidate to point it out. I find it neither rude nor upsetting. But then, I do have midwestern sensibility on my side.

[Kurt V.]

29. there's is all sorts of elites so context is important. but calling someone elitist is

entirely different.

[Me.]

31. Especially When A Very Privileged Millionaire Is Doing It

[GP6971]

33. Enjoy you stay! nt

[marble falls]

35. However short is was.