Greenwald: O'Donnell's (and Palin's) redeeming quality--economic background--is anathema to insiders

[BurtWorm]

O'Donnell especially is a struggler, just like most of the electorate. Inside Washington fears her and doesn't comprehend her, but voters will read her story (less the lunatic portions of it) and get her. Her class doesn't by itself qualify her to be a Senator, but according to inside DC (Rove, eg), it disqualifies her.

This essay woke me up a little about my own reaction to O'Donnell's difficulties--although I think Greenwald may be glossing over the apparent tendency of O'Donnell to latch onto ideology at the expense of reality. In my book, that says something--bad--about her priorities and separates her a bit from people who are struggling while trying to keep both feet on the ground.

http://feeds.salon.com/~r/salon/greenwald/~3/2eA9Ud0r_zY/tea_party

...

And this ethos is hardly confined to admission requirements for the Senate, but for the entire Versailles on the Potomac generally. The Washington ruling class is embodied by millionaire TV personality Andrea Mitchell, wife of Alan Greenspan, going on GE-owned MSNBC and announcing that it's time for ordinary Americans to "sacrifice" by giving up Social Security benefits (that she, of course, doesn't need). All sorts of right-wing extremism is tolerated and even revered in Beltway culture provided it comes from the Right People. A Washington political/media culture that rolls out the red carpet for every extremist Bush official is now suddenly offended by these Tea Partiers' extremist views? Please. What's most frowned upon is the inclusion in their circles of those Who Do Not Belong. Hence, the noses turning upward at Christine O'Donnell's lower-middle-class struggles as though they disqualify her for high office. If anything, one could make the case that those struggles are her most appealing -- perhaps her only appealing -- quality.

These socio-economic biases have been evident for many years. Bill Clinton's arrival in Washington caused similar tongue-clucking reactions because, notwithstanding his Yale and Oxford pedigree, he was from a lower-middle-class background, raised by a single working mother, vested with a Southern drawl, and exuding all sorts of cultural signifiers perceived as uncouth. Much of the contempt originally provoked by Sarah Palin was driven by many of the same cultural biases. As I wrote at the time, the one (and only) attribute of Palin which I found appealing, even admirable, when she first arrived on the national scene was that she came from such a modest background and was entirely self-made (Obama's lack of family connections and self-made ascension was also, in my view, one of the very few meaningful differences between him and Hillary Clinton). So much of the derision over Palin had nothing to do with her views or even alleged lack of intelligence -- George Bush, to use just one example, was every bit as radical and probably not as smart -- but it was because she hadn't been groomed to speak and act as a member in good standing of the elite class.

I'm not defending Palin or O'Donnell; they both hold views, most views, which I find repellent. But it's hard not to notice the double standard which treats quite respectfully many politicians with the right lineage who espouse views every bit as radical. This is the kind of condescension that causes Sarah Palin's anti-elitism screeds to resonate and to channel genuine resentments.

...

[monmouth]

1. Good article. Cokie Roberts, George Will and the rest of that

martini movement will tsk tsk and most likely ignore her. That is the repub mindset...

[BurtWorm]

2. Hopefully they won't be given the full opportunity to ignore her after November.

Hopefully she'll slip into obscurity all on her own.

PS: BUT, it's important to pay attention to whatever it is about these baggers that people are responding to beyond the politics. I'm with the baggers in being sick of the class that's been in charge for forever.

[Hannah Bell]

3. huh? there's a big class divide between hilary clinton & obama?

how's that?

[RaleighNCDUer]

4. The Rodhams are strictly upper middle class, and sent their daughter

to Yale. Obama came from a mixed-race broken home, and was in the end raised by middle-class grandparents - and went to Harvard on a scholarship.

They're just alike.

[Hannah Bell]

5. lol. what a crock. yeah, he lived in the ghetto, too, with his bank VP grandma & his

"furniture salesman" grandpa, formerly of mercer island, one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the seattle area...

while mom lived with her oil company government relations consultant husband & worked for usaid, then the ford foundation, developing the very microfinance programs so touted today...

and his birth father, whom his mother met in a russian language class at u of h's east-west center, also an oil company employee & then senior economist in the kenyan ministry of finance....


yes, just a poor boy from a broken, mixed-race home. what obstacles he had to overcome!